Review: 1L of a Ride

I just finished reading Andrew J. McClurg's book, 1L of a Ride. McClurg writes from this premise: You think you know how hard law school will be. You're wrong. And now you think you know. You're still wrong.

Then the book goes on to explain how to thrive in (or at least survive) the environment of law school. (Don't drink too much. Get enough rest. Brief your cases. Sit in the front row; use 3" binders for each class; buy a sturdy 3-hole-punch and use it religiously; use a medium-point pen if you write essays longhand.) Clearly the tips range from the general to specific.

The book finishes with actual comments from actual law students just finished with their first year of school but written before the final exams. One piece of student advice: "Don't work ALL of the time, only most of it." Another: Don't let yourself fall behind. "There is never enough time to get things done in law school, so what you think is free time, really isn't or shouldn't be." A third commentor felt full of "EXHAUSTION. I have reached a new level of mental exhaustion I did not know existed." Another commented that "I know I am exhausted, but can't feel it because I am under so much pressure and stress while preparing for exams."

The theme here? You think you know how hard law school will be. You're wrong. And now you think you know. You're still wrong.

Oddly,though, the book is reassuring. I'm now pretty sure that if I can just keep myself consistently, rigorously, efficiently, and diligently organized I will glide through my first year. Professor McClurg's credo is, in fact, CREDO. His characteristics of successful law students are these: Consistency; Rigor; Efficiency; Diligence; Organization. I am most of those things, so this might just work out for me.

And yet: You think you know how hard law school will be. You're wrong. And now you think you know. You're still wrong.

Ok, so 1l of a Ride doesn't offer to make the first year easy. It simply suggests ways to make it a tiny bit less difficult. And by describing various aspects of law school's first year, McClurg dissolves a bit of its mystique.

Also, it includes this great piece of student advice: "Drop the Ho-Ho's and back away from them. True, they whisper nice, sweet things in your ear, and call out to you in the middle of the night, but when you have to get all gussied up for your oral argument, you're going to look like a fat man in a little suit."

Good to know.