Law school is a strange game, and when you're starting out it seems like no one knows the rules. It's crucial to hit the ground running, but how? Trust the folks who've been there to distill what matters and toss the rest. Michael Seringhaus and Brian Savage have been through law school - Savage at Michigan and Seringhaus at Yale - and after a couple years sharing advice with friends, created Law School Done Right, a trim and potent little guide to what matters and what works in law school. What do you wish you'd known when you started law school? That's the simple question the authors posed. Seringhaus and Savage compiled their own best tips, and then polled dozens of colleagues and former classmates. This group included recent grads of law schools both inside and outside the U.S. News Top 50-grads who scored jobs at top national law firms, who landed prestigious judicial clerkships (including U.S. Supreme, Federal Appellate, Federal District, and State Supreme Courts), and some who are now young law professors themselves. When it comes to law school, these folks killed it. And you can too. Law School Done Right distills this invaluable expertise into bite-sized advice. There's no filler, just proven tips covering all aspects of law school life. Read them, and do it right. This revised and updated print edition contains updated content including an all-new section on choosing a law school.
The 2018 printing of Starting Off Right in Law School, Second Edition, contains a new chapter, "Organizing Your Reading." To access the bonus chapter online, click here. Law school is different. Incoming students, confronted with an entirely new vocabulary and unfamiliar with the discipline's unique and demanding educational methods, are often disoriented. This book is designed to give these students a head start, both by introducing them to the fundamentals of the legal process and by helping them acquire the study skills necessary for success. Starting Off Right in Law School introduces new law students to the practice and study of law by following a lawsuit from its inception through the appeals process, illustrating what lawyers actually do, how they prepare, how they interact with clients and in courtrooms, how a lawsuit proceeds, and how students can effectively read and analyze cases, outline, and apply what they have learned on the exams. Widely used in law schools, the first edition of Starting Off Right in Law School prepared new law students to excel in doctrinal courses. The second edition has been updated to prepare students both for the broader demands of doctrinal courses and for the more distinct reading and writing demands of legal writing courses. This book is the perfect tool for pre-law students to read on their own or for law school orientation required reading.
“An essential title for anyone thinking of law school or concerned with America's dysfunctional legal system.” —Library Journal On the surface, law schools today are thriving. Enrollments are on the rise and law professors are among the highest paid. Yet behind the flourishing facade, law schools are failing abjectly. Recent front-page stories have detailed widespread dubious practices, including false reporting of LSAT and GPA scores, misleading placement reports, and the fundamental failure to prepare graduates to enter the profession. Addressing all these problems and more is renowned legal scholar Brian Z. Tamanaha. Piece by piece, Tamanaha lays out the how and why of the crisis and the likely consequences if the current trend continues. The out-of-pocket cost of obtaining a law degree at many schools now approaches $200,000. The average law school graduate’s debt is around $100,000—the highest it has ever been—while the legal job market is the worst in decades. Growing concern with the crisis in legal education has led to high-profile coverage in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and many observers expect it soon will be the focus of congressional scrutiny. Bringing to the table his years of experience from within the legal academy, Tamanaha provides the perfect resource for assessing what’s wrong with law schools and figuring out how to fix them. “Failing Law Schools presents a comprehensive case for the negative side of the legal education debate and I am sure that many legal academics and every law school dean will be talking about it.” —Stanley Fish, Florida International University College of Law
If you’re a law school student, or if you’re planning to apply to law school, you’ll find the practical guidance you’ll need for success—plus tips on pitfalls to avoid—when you open this important new book. Written by a recent Harvard Law School graduate who is currently associated with major Wall Street law firm, this brand-new blueprint for legal accomplishment gets down to specifics with: The law school application process and tips on taking the important Law School Admission Test (LSAT) Selecting a law school, applying for scholarships, and deciding between top-ranked and lower-ranked schools Making the grade during that vital first year at law school The best courses to take in second and third years The advantages of publishing papers while in law school Seeking out summer positions at law firms Taking and passing state bar exams Finding employment at a law firm after graduation Other post-law school options, including judicial clerkships Valuable appendices give you still more advice, and include a completed model law school application form, effective résumés, a model brief of a case for class, and much more. Written by a successful attorney and based on his own law school experiences, Law School Lowdown zeroes-in on both the rigors and satisfactions that comprise the law school experience, offering the advice and counsel that will pave your way to a successful career in law.
Going to law school has become a very expensive and increasingly risky gamble. When is it still worth it? Law professor Paul Campos answers that question in this book, which gives prospective law students, their families, and current law students the tools they need to make a smart decision about applying to, enrolling in, and remaining in law school. Campos explains how the law school game is won and lost, from the perspective of an insider who has become the most prominent and widely cited critic of the deceptive tactics law schools use to convince the large majority of law students to pay far more for their law degrees than those degrees are worth.DON'T GO TO LAW SCHOOL (UNLESS) reveals which law schools are still worth attending, at what price, and what sorts of legal careers it makes sense to pursue today. It outlines the various economic and psychological traps law students and new lawyers fall into, and how to avoid them. This book is a must-read if you or someone you care about is considering law school, or wondering whether to stay enrolled in one now.
To get straight to the point, Law School: Getting In, Getting Good, Getting the Gold ("GGG") is, without a doubt, one of the most important law school and legal career books currently available. There are, of course, other guides that have made a huge impact in the market for such materials; "Planet Law School" (which is now PLS II) and "Law School Confidential" are two that immediately spring to mind, and which the prospective law student has most likely heard of. But whereas PLS and LSC are rather practical in nature, which is not in itself a bad thing because being led through the practicalities of applying to law school, preparing, studying, finding jobs and so forth are obviously important, GGG offers all this and so much more. Not more of the same, however, although GGG does cover standard material such as rankings and taking exams, and thankfully chooses to omit the tedious and common-sense generic topics such as how to apply for financial aid and how to pick upper level courses during 2L/3L, while emphasizing the important subjects such as the LSAT. There is little room in the market for a mere copycat comprehensive law school guide, and GGG recognizes this. What sets GGG apart from - and above - PLS and LSC is that the author, Thane Messinger, has taken considerable care to help the reader think about the traditional basic (but solid) law school advice, rather than just absorb it, and explains to the reader why the advice is given and why it is important. Furthermore, GGG even encourages a healthy skepticism in its readers, challenging them to explore their own reasons for attending law school, whether they would truly enjoy a legal career, and where they want to end up when all is said and done. In other words, GGG treats its readers like intelligent grown-ups who are looking for more than platitudes and third-hand advice, instead of mere young adults who are too inexperienced to know what they want. This alone is refreshing in a sea of "do this and you''ll succeed" books, none of which actually work in real life. GGG is a lengthy book, coming in at close to four hundred pages. Even for a comprehensive guide, this is a generously-proportioned piece of work. While it can be read in its entirety, as I have spent the past week doing, the author encourages the reader to use the book in a more efficient manner, focusing in on those sections which are most important to the reader at any particular time. Some comprehensive guide books tend to build upon earlier sections in a linear progression, making it all but impossible to dip in and out at will. Readers of GGG will be pleasantly surprised at the structure of the book - discrete sections for each facet of the legal education process, each readable as a stand-alone module or as part of the whole. Modern readers weaned on a diet of hypertext and easy-access to information will appreciate the care that has been taken to make it simple for the book to be used as a brief reference from which information can be quickly gleaned, or for a more in-depth exploration of the topic in question. An example of the author''s attention to efficiency is the summary of each of the three main sections of the book. These elegant summaries barely cover two pages each, but - and I''m not exaggerating here - the summaries are worth their weight in gold, hitting the high points of each section, spelling out what the reader really must know. A law school applicant should, after buying the book, photocopy the summary to the "Getting In" section and tape it to the front of his or her LSAT prep book so it is seen every single day. The same goes for law students, who should tape a copy of the "Getting Good" summary to the wall by their assigned library seat in law school so the advice can be followed each and every time a case book or outline is opened. GGG also stands out from PLS and LSC by virtue of the fact that GGG is a good five years more recent than the others. While much of the advice in PLS and LSC is still relevant, GGG was published recently enough to bear some of the scars of the economic collapse that demolished the legal industry, and from which the legal industry is still slowly recovering from. Not much has changed in legal education over the past decade, but when it comes to legal hiring and how to find work - the goal of every law student - reading up-to-date information is vitally important. Techniques that may have worked in 2000 certainly aren''t as effective today. Think of GGG as a 2.0 version of the standard law school guide. Notwithstanding the foregoing, there''s one particularly compelling reason to buy this book that isn''t mentioned within its pages: The author. Let me explain. Thane Messinger has been heavily involved in the legal education world for many, many, many years. He knows what he''s talking about. He has written books on the subject, edited books on the subject, and seen more great, good, mediocre, bad, and dangerous advice than just about anyone else on this planet. He stands behind his name and stands behind his wisdom. As he states in the introduction to GGG, "it''s difficult to know whether the advice is actually good or not - until it''s taken (or rejected) - by which time it''s usually too late to do anything differently." Thane is your insurance policy against bad advice from an inexperienced author. Law school is an extraordinarily expensive and time-consuming endeavor to screw up. There is so much information available on legal education, both in print and online, and very often, the reputation of the author is ignored in favor of the latest secret tips, techniques and gimmicks for success. There is a difference between taking advice from a recent grad and from a seasoned expert. There''s also a difference between taking advice from an interested party (such as a law school admissions adviser or pre-law counselor) and taking advice from an independent, non-establishment, experienced and impartial expert. GGG is a distillation of Messinger''s expert and independent knowledge, his understanding of what works and what doesn''t work, and his expertise derived from about two decades of carefully watching countless law students succeed and countless law students fail. In short, he knows what he''s talking about, and his advice can be trusted (as can the advice in other books he publishes and edits). And in a modern world where it''s becoming so difficult to figure out who is on your side and who is out to take advantage of you, it''s increasingly rare to find authors such as Messinger who can be relied upon to look after your best interests. If you''re thinking about attending law school, you''re about to make a $100,000 purchase that will affect the rest of your career. Spend the money on this book and give yourself the most up-to-date, independent, insightful and reliable advice available. To do otherwise is madness.
A practical guide to philanthropy at all levels of giving that seeks to educate and inspire A majority of American households give to charity in some form or another--from local donations to food banks, religious organizations, or schools, to contributions to prevent disease or protect basic freedoms. Whether you're in a position to give $1 or $1 million, every giver needs to answer the same question: How do I channel my giving effectively to make the greatest difference? In Giving Done Right, Phil Buchanan, the president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, arms donors with what it takes to do more good more quickly and to avoid predictable errors that lead too many astray. This crucial book will reveal the secrets and lessons learned from some of the biggest givers, from the work of software entrepreneur Tim Gill and his foundation to expand rights for LGBTQ people to the efforts of a midwestern entrepreneur whose faith told him he must do something about childhood slavery in Ghana. It busts commonly held myths and challenging the idea that "business thinking" holds the answer to effective philanthropy. And it offers the intellectual frameworks, data-driven insights, tools, and practical examples to allow readers to understand exactly what it takes to make a difference.
From small towns like Metamora, Aledo, and Carthage to East St. Louis and Chicago's South Side, Illinois's high school football fields have been the proving ground for such future stars as Dick Butkus, Red Grange, and Otto Graham. In Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right, longtime fan and sportswriter Taylor Bell shares the stories of the greatest players, toughest coaches, most memorable games, and fiercest rivalries in Illinois history. Drawing on dozens of personal interviews, Bell profiles memorable figures such as Tuscola's record-setting quarterback Dusty Burk, Pittsfield's brutally demanding yet devoted Coach Donald "Deek" Pollard, and Evanston's Murney "Mr. Do-Right" Lazier, who coached sternly but without prejudice in the racially charged 1960s and '70s. The book also discusses winning programs at schools such as East St. Louis, Mount Carmel, and Joliet Catholic, as well as longstanding rivalries and memorable games in the state playoff and Prep Bowl. The ultimate book for high school football fans in Illinois, Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right is infused with Bell's own love for the game and illustrated with sixty photographs of the players and coaches who made lifetime memories under the Friday night lights.
