One L

Florida State University Law Review Volume 6 | Issue 4 Article 10 Fall 1978 One L Jay F. Alexander Follow this and additional works at: http://ir.law.fsu.edu/lr Part of the Legal Biography Commons, and the Legal Education Commons Recommended Citation Jay F. Alexander, One L, 6 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 1457 () . http://ir.law.fsu.edu/lr/vol6/iss4/10 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Florida State University Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact . ONE L. By Scott Turow.1 New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1977. Pp. 300. $8.95. Reviewed by Jay F. Alexander2 One L is an account of Scott Turow's experiences as a first-year law student at Harvard Law School, a position abbreviated in a Cambridge colloquialism as "One L." The book is based upon a journal Turow kept in 1975-1976. However, although he maintains a journal-like format, the author has used hindsight to reshape first impressions which later proved inaccurate. Only when the feelings and thoughts expressed in the original journal appeared "especially clear and important" 3 has Turow extracted material directly from the journal. In addition, he has combined or altered the personalities of classmates and professors to more effectively portray his total experience, to maintain privacy, and to preserve confidentialities. Harvard is generally considered preeminent among American law schools,' but Turow stipulates that his attendance at a school of such lofty stature "does not in the end differentiate my experience much from that of the nearly 40,000 Americans who begin their legal education every fall." 5 My own experience as a first-year student at Detroit College of Law, an institution falling an incalculable distance below Harvard in the ranking of law schools, was quite similar to Turow's. If students at such disparate schools as Harvard and Detroit College of Law undergo such similar introductions to legal study and as a group react in such a similar manner, the first-year experience must vary more according to the temperament of the individual than to the characteristics of the institution. Turow is aware of this distinction and makes no claim that his reactions can be accepted as universal. "This book," he says, "is one person's perspective on an experience that is viewed in widely varying ways."' It should be noted that Turow is not the first, but only the most recent, student at Harvard Law School to write an expose of the first-year experience. During his matriculation there in the late six1. 2. Scott Turow is a 1978 graduate of the Harvard Law School. B.A. 1972, Michigan State University; J.D. 1978, Detroit College of Law. 3. S. TUROW, ONE L 11 (1977). See, e.g., Blau & Margulies, The Reputations of American Professional Schools, Dec.-Jan. 1974-75, at 42. Of the 104 law school deans responding to the questionnaire, 101 considered Harvard among the five best American law schools. No other school received such almost unanimous support. Id. at 43-44. 5. S. Tuiow, supra note 3, at 10. 6. Id. at 11. 4. CHANGE, 1458 FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 6:1457 ties, John Jay Osborn wrote The PaperChase,' a well-known novel which, despite a heavily fictionalized plot, was recognized as carrying a serious indictment of law school life. In fact, one reviewer predicted that although "the hard nosed academician may quickly dismiss anything so frivolous as a law graduate's novel about the law school experience, it may be that we will acquire a sensitive understanding of the human dimensions of legal education only from such sources. ' 8 Osborn did indeed provide the material from which to gain a "sensitive understanding," but Turow has demonstrated that there is no need to embellish the day-to-day law school ordeal to convey effectively a rich and interesting study of the law school drama. Since its release, One L has received considerable attention., This generally favorable exposure almost guarantees that the book will be widely read but provides no similar assurance that it will be subjected to the serious analysis and reflection it deserves. Unfortunately, Turow himself consistently failed to evaluate adequately, or perhaps even recognize, the significance of many of his observations. "On many problems confronting law students," said a reviewer in Student Lawyer, "One L falls short of the thoughtful analysis that the issues deserve."' 0 Another like-minded reviewer concluded that "One L is an easy read, but not a deep think."" The importance of the ramifications of the first-year experience explains why student reactions must be given careful evaluation and why it is regretable that Turow did not scrutinize his own reactions fully. However, this does not mean that he did not appreciate the total importance of his law school experience. As explained by Turow, "lawyers-as well as the law they make and practice-are significantly affected by the way they were first received into the profession."" Nearly everyone recognizes the difficulty of the first year of legal study, a difficulty resulting not only from the tremendous volume of work, but also from the introduction to the Socratic method of instruction. "Veteran lawyers who have tried miiltimillion-dollar cases or undergone a grilling by Justices of the Supreme Court," 7. J. OsBoRN, THE PAPR CHASE (1971). 8. Hermann, Book Review (THE PAPER CHASE), 1972 Wis. L. Rzv. 634, 637. 9. See, e.g., Footlick, Tears and Terror, NEwswm, Oct. 17, 1977, at 76; Arzt, Book Review (ONE L), STuDENT LAw., Nov. 1977, at 53, Green, Book Review (ONE L), Washington Post, Oct. 2, 1977, § E (Book World), at 6; Love, Book Review (ONE L), 64 A.B.A.J. 250 (1978); Stem, Book Review (ONE L), N.Y. Times, Sept. 25, 1977, § 7 (Book Review), at 13. 10. Arzt, supra note 9, at 54. 11. Green, supra note 9, at 6. 12. S. TuRow, supra note 3, at 11. 1978] BOOK REVIEWS 1459 says one source, "often say that no challenge they have ever faced in practice compares to the first year of law school.' 3 Of course the challenge facing each student is not merely intellectual but also "a measure of his emotional and even physical courage."" A few years ago at a prelaw conference, a Harvard law student confided that prior to law school he had never "physically trembled at the thought of being grilled while unprepared."' 5 Turow succumbed to the same anxieties and relates that by the end of the school week his nerves would "be so brittle from sleeplessness and pressure and intellectual ' fatigue that I will not be certain I can make it through the day."' Of course this all makes good reading, which accounts for One L's success. "Fascinating. But what kind of human beings, what kind of lawyers," asks a reviewer, "does all this produce? Is the Socratic method, with all-powerful professors publicly humiliating students, likely to add to the humaneness with whi (...truncated)