"The turbulent true story of a first year at Harvard Law School," as my copy's cover blurb has it. Having spent time teaching creative writing, the author finds himself entering law school in 1975, a little later than most of his age cohort. The book was written immediately after his first year and published in 1977 (and has remained in print ever since, I believe), so, as he says, it's a look at the first-year law school experience that is raw and unmellowed by time. At Harvard, he finds a high standard of excellence, arrogant professors, "a kind of divine faith in the place and its inhabitants," grade-obsessed students, a high degree of competitiveness, and constant anxiety. Studying law, forming study groups, and talking about classes take up literally all his waking hours.

I'd say that this is one of the best memoirs of its kind. It shows how a neophyte to the law begins to approach the abstruse and practically foreign language of the legal code, and only through assiduous toil does he come to gradually understand it. But beyond the nuts and bolts of a legal education, Turow discusses how Harvard Law School succeeds and fails. He wants answers to bigger questions about ethics, the paradoxes of the law, about money and values, and feels his education comes up short. He worries he and his fellow students are being taught to be test-takers and memorizers rather than attorneys who work to represent people. He also describes in brutal honesty the toll it took on his health, mind, and marriage. He was told that Harvard Law School was where he would "meet his enemy," and it turns out he does, and his enemy is the grade-grubbing, advantage-taking person he would rather not be. At the end his call for a change in how law is taught is eloquent and even moving; but not being in that world, I have no idea if any of the changes came to be. One amusing thing to note is the prices, which Turow notes with some alarm; they're positively charming now. At one point he notes that he spent nearly one hundred dollars on extra books!

Four stars for making me think more deeply about a subject that has interested me. As many others also do, I like reading legal thrillers, watching television shows about lawyers, and have a general interest in the courts and the impact of lawmaking on our everyday lives. The author attended law school in a time period I could relate to so reading of his experience was interesting from that (sometimes quite dated) perspective. I could picture the writing of this book benefitting from his journaling with regular jotting down of details and recall of a memorable experience.
I found myself comparing the law and dynamics of the classroom Turow portrays from the mid-1970's to probable changes since and was surprised to learn that being a lawyer was not the real focus of law school which focuses on making legal scholars. This did explain something I often wondered about; the number of people that never practice law after graduating law school appears to be high.
Other legal fiction, and television show the first years in law practice after law school as more of the same frenetic pace and cut-throat dynamic portrayed here; again, interesting to contemplate.

This is at least the second time I've read this book, with the first probably before I went to law school. I wonder if 21st-century law students read it and, if so, what they think of it.

This was a fascinating look at what law school is really like. Sure, I've seen the movies "Legally Blonde", "The Paper Chase" and even "Soul Man," but this wasn't a goofy Hollywood movie -- Scott Turow actually lived it.

Turow started at Harvard Law School in September 1975. He took good notes and kept a journal of his experiences as a law student, which he later turned into this insightful memoir. I really enjoyed the stories of his professors, his classes, his fellow students, and how much reading and studying was involved. I can understand why this book is still so widely read by law students several decades later -- it's well-written and straightforward about the challenges and pressures facing law students.

While I don't plan on going to law school, I do enjoy books about academia, and I'm glad I read this. I highly recommend "One L" to anyone interested in the law school experience.

Very good characters and, what I would believe to be, a good account of the existential joys and sorrows of law school. Perhaps in three years I will be able to say more.

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Please. This was tiresome. This guy seemed to think going to Harvard Law School was going to be like playing musical chairs, where everyone got a chair. I mean, not only is it law school, but it's Harvard. And he's shocked that everyone is overly competitive and a little bit whacked out because of it. Even though the class load was rough, he was still able to manage to get 6 hours of sleep most nights, and only pulled one all nighter (I know, Amy. I died a little inside when I read that too.)

Very interesting account of one person's (now a lawyer and author)n account of first year law school. I found it very insightful regarding different teaching techniques and his Afterward comments on practicing law and how Law Schools might better prepare people beyond just the academics.

I have enjoyed some of Scott Turow's legal novels and wanted to read this for several years. I'm glad I did. So glad I never had to go through this in my chosen profession :-)

I think I'm glad I read this but also I'm scared

A genuinely engrossing memoir. Not sure how accurate it is to a modern day law school experience, being written in 1976, but fascinating all the same.

Before I started law school, I was repeatedly told to buy best selling author Turow’s version of his first year at Harvard “if for no other reason than everyone else there will have read it”.

Well, I’m one week into law school, and no one has mentioned it, thanks. Still, it wasn’t a totally waste of time. Reading how horrific Turow’s professors were to him steeled me for my first day of class. I was totally ready for someone to cry. No one did. I was almost disappointed at how nice all my professors are, then I came to my senses and was just fucking relieved.

Turow’s writing is punchy and enjoyable, and shit, the thing took no time at all to read. Though when I had drinks with a group of “older students” (by which the law school means anyone over 28) the book didn't come up.

For lawyers, it's a fond look back to a wonderful, occasionally harrowing time. For prospective law school students this book is a wake-up call as to what the study of law will demand of you. If you're entering law school at a time when you're married, have a family, or even a set of very close friends - reading this book will help them understand why you've suddenly disappeared and, on the rare times you do see them, are unable to discuss current events or popular culture.

It submerges you into the all encompassing, alternate reality that exists in law school. Especially that first year.

I absolutely adore this book because it brings me back to that first year of law school in a single paragraph. It reminds me of the wondrous time that law school was for me and also makes me incredibly thankful that I went through school with a genuinely nice group of folks who were no where near as academically overwrought as those described in the book.

I find I miss the Socratic teaching method and the level of work it demands from students. I enjoyed that style of teaching tremendously.
This book brought me right back to those classrooms. The moments of being in thrall of the law and those moments of being completely, hopelessly lost. Again, thankfully, I had my study group mates to ensure I found my way through some of the material and didn't remain lost.

I read this book the summer before I started law school. Gave me a glimpse at some of the concepts and experiences I would encounter.