One L: The Turbulent True Story Of A First Year At Harvard Law School (1997) - Plot & Excerpts
After making many trips to the local Barnes and Nobles (and reluctantly refusing to buy new books ever since I bought a Nook), I was finally able to finish reading One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year At Harvard Law School. The book is told in a narrative style and follows the author, Scott Turow during his first year at Harvard Law School (thus the title!)It may seem almost impossible to consolidate the experience of a 1L at HLS into a bound, two hundred page book, Turow does what he needed to well. Although I enjoyed the narrative that Turow set up in the novel, the fundamental flaw–that I couldn’t find Turow at fault for–was its outdatedness. No matter how eloquently Turow wrote, there were several facts and experiences that he revealed that made the fact that the book was written in the 1970s stick out like a sore thumb. Turow goes to explain things, such as the six thousand dollar tuition (which would be a bargain by today’s means), omits the use of modern technology in the classroom (Turow describes himself writing examinations with a typewriter! When was the last time one of us saw one of those?) and explains outdated customs and traditions that would not be a part of the collegiate experience at law school in the modern day. I guess this is less of a critique of the novel that Turow had carefully crafted, but more of a warning to those looking for a how-to-guide for their first year at law school.Aside from that, I found the book to be a great, revealing insight of what law school is like. Ignoring the fact that this book was written nearly four decades ago, it does a great job portraying the life beyond the prestige of the “Harvard Law” label. Turow’s novel helps the audience stray away from their conception of HLS students as supreme, beyond-intelligent beings. His narrative allows its’ readers to see that even the (seemingly) brilliant minds of HLS could be bogged down by the socratic method, endless memorization and unfamiliar examinations on the way to that JD.The most memorable (and agreeable) and stimulating aspect of the book was the reflections that Turow wrote near the end about the necessity of reform in American law schools. His argument for a radical reform of the socratic method used in law schools posed a great question of whether or not it is the best method for future lawyers whose careers extend far beyond skills that can be developed via the Socratic method. However, an unfortunate truth exists: it has been four decades, and the Socratic method is still alive and very well being used in American law schools. My favorite quote taken directly from the text that effectively expresses Turow’s sentiments is: “A more humane and humanistic education in the law strikes me as far more fitting than a schooling characterized by terror and the suppression of feeling for those persons who, in time, will become this society’s chief custodians of justice.” Well said, Turow. Well said.For anyone that is contemplating the idea of attending law school, this is pretty worth reading.
Dear Dad,Thanks for giving me One L to read! You rarely impress upon me the need to read any one book in particular, so when you put this book in my hands I actually put down the book I had recently started and instantly began devouring Turow’s memoir about his first year of law school. I don’t do that often. It stresses me out to put a book aside unfinished in favor of another book (which is also ironic considering the content of One L — it’s all about stress!). One L was also a little unusual for me because it’s an older book — first published in 1977. I typically don’t read books written between 1955 and 2000, not as a matter of strategy but rather an accident of practice.I had a lot of thoughts about this book! I read this book slowly because I was really paying a lot of attention, stopping to think about it, stopping to discuss it, before starting a new page. I think Turow fully realizes all of his goals in this memoir — he thoroughly conveys the rigors, terrors, and hysteria of his first year at Harvard Law School. Beyond simply relating his experience, Turow immerses his reader in the experience of law school. He doesn’t candy-coat it; he tells it all — good, bad, and neurotic.Aside from pondering Turow’s experience of law school, I also found myself thinking about why you put this book in my hands. Probably so I would understand what you, too, experienced when you were in law school. I’ve always been proud to say my dad is an attorney. In my little kid (and big kid) brain, this meant you were smart. And that meant that I could be smart, too. But I have a whole new respect for those smarts after reading Turow’s account of the demands — both intellectual and emotional — of law school.You probably also gave me this book to read because you know that I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer — that I still think about being a lawyer from time to time. This book gave me a lot to think about. I’ve always figured that I have the rational mind to think through legal problems, and I love speaking and writing (and noble causes). So I’d be a great lawyer, right? After One L, I don’t know. It’s possible if not probable that, indeed, I shouldn’t have been a lawyer after all! There are a lot of still-appealing factors. I think the mental exercises are fascinating. I think reasoning out the law based on precedents that often contradict one another is a stimulating way to spend time. I love researching. I love writing. However, throughout One L, Turow emphasizes “learning to love the law”. .. and I don’t know that I ever would. Not in that way. Actually, I love education! Thinking through educational issues excites me and stimulates my mind. I am interested to talk law, but I adore talking school. For maybe the first time in my life, reading One L gave me a real sense that I didn’t somehow miss my legal calling … however alluring I might find it. Thanks for a great read, Dad. It made me see your legal education in an entirely different light.Love,Rebekah
What do You think about One L: The Turbulent True Story Of A First Year At Harvard Law School (1997)?
The single most read book by people contemplating law school. There are clear pros and cons to this. On the pro side, Turow is a good writer who structures even this supposed transcript of his memoir with a fair amount of novelistic suspense. Our hero must confront good and evil personified by his various professors (seriously, there are times when you'd think you were reading Harry Potter). Ultimately, as in a good modern novel, he must face the true nemesis that lies within (his capacity to cross over to the dark side and become an evil lawyer). Beyond entertainment, it does gently introduce the reader to the basic scene of law school with many of its organizing concepts (the curriculum, the socratic method, moot court, exam structure, etc.) and regalia (hornbooks, briefs, outlines). However, I've already heard (and believe me, I haven't been looking all that hard) much reaction to this book as painting a fairly extreme picture of Law School that just doesn't accurately describe most of the contemporary reality. Like "The Paper Chase" (the film most recommended to would-be law students), it is set in the sacred halls of Harvard Law School, where a very particular prestige-borne madness prevails. More fundamentally, it was written 30 years ago, and at a time Turow himself acknowledges as one of tense generational conflict. He suggests that it was in the wake of Watergate that lawyers suddenly took a massive plunge in the estimation of their fellow Americans, such that even beginning law students were anxious not to replicate the degraded culture of their predecessors. Inevitably, this generated a lot of conflict with the professoriate, which appears in Turow's book as deeply divided between conservative old guard who considered humiliation a basic teaching tool and younger faculty who fashioned themselves progressives. The kind of politicization of the classroom that added considerably to Turow's anxiety and self-doubt was a product of the times. I'm sure there are new campus politics now, but not the ones depicted in "One L."Above all, the general consensus I've seen is that Law School is just not so traumatic anymore. Which is not to say that the madness over prestige, getting top grades, making law review and all the rest have gone away. After all, those things have an economic basis in the corporate law firms themselves. Maybe this recession will change the field somehow...
—Evan
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—Suede
Since I have often read legal thrillers, I was interested in how the lawyers are trained. Scott Turow's book about his firt year at Harvard Law School I found very, very interesting.Some of the technical data may have changed--prices for lawyers; people use laptops now not typewriters and so on. But human nature changes slowly if at all. The pressure, stress and competitiveness that Turow describes no doubt still fairly accurate even after all these years.I recommended it for any interested in law or lawyers; I give it a solid 3 stars; not fantastic but well worth reading if the subject matter is of interest to yoou.
—Mary JL
