Rating: 
Summary: Turow is a WIMP. Try Law School at night while working F/T.
Review: Turow is a WIMP. Try Law School at night while working 50+ hours a week. By the way, his fellow students are out there somewhere...maybe teaching at a law school near you (or me)
Rating: 
Summary: well written but not true
Review: As a security guard at the Harvard law school I was amazed at some of the stories told in the book one L. Most of the students I asked about this book either said it was untrue or didn't happen now. So I decided to write my own book about what the Harvard law school is really like called "1L-Yeah Right!". I couldn't get my book published so I gave it away on disk. I thought about getting my book published through amazon, but blew that off too. If you are interested in my work e-mail me
Rating:
Summary: its not like reading a book, it's like having an experience.
Review: This book is a must for law students or
anyone who ever even thought about
going to law school! Page by page you are
taken through the author's day to day life of
tests, stress, friendships, and betrayals. It
reads much like a diary--one so personal
you feel as if you are living it
Rating: 
Summary: Another "Paper Chase"
Review: This autobiographical recount of year one at Harvard Law School is overly dramatic. Either the author was naive upon entering HLS or he was so in awed of this trade school that he allowed it to dominate his life and ruined his marriage. This book makes me want to go through Yale all over again
Rating:
Summary: Good but lacking and dated
Review: I read Scott Turow's `One L' because I just got accepted to law school and I wanted something to give me a good, solid idea of what I was in for. In ways it did just that but in a lot of ways it left me lacking.
Make no mistake about it: Scott Turow is a great writer and he knows what he's talking about. On the other hand the book suddenly got very intrinsic sometimes and went off on a personal journey of discovery. Where it lacked was in the greater details of the law school environment, what it took to get in, and maybe the evolution of law school.
Another critical point is that it was written in the late 70s. By all accounts law school has changed A LOT since then. Another critique, and this is of no fault for Mr. Turow, but he's older and married in his first year of law school. The new entering classes are much younger and don't have the experience or maturity that Mr. Turow had. If you're on your way to law school and you're serious about it, you might skip it until AFTER your first year. On the other hand if you know absolutely nothing about or you like legal novels go for it.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for both students and spouses.
Review: One L is a classic story that has stood the test of time. I am currently a 1L and have found that this book is fairly accurate. The personalities he portrays are still very alive today. I would encourage anyone who themselves is heading to law school to read this book. In addition I would recommend it to the significant others of future law school students.
Rating:
Summary: May not be true today
Review: Responding to the post that stated that this was no longer true, I can only say that was true in 1980's in law schools across the country. I am happy to hear that situation and teaching methods have changed.
Rating:
Summary: The book probably does not represent the typical HLS Student
Review: I'm not sure what to make of Turow's book. Here is a guy who goes to Harvard Law School, an institution which has existed in its present form for well over 200 years. As a first year law student, he has the nerve to have all these criticisms of the institution -- that it's hostile, that the law is not warm and fuzzy, that there are clear boundaries in the law, which seem to indicate that he has choosen the wrong field. He seemed to be quite selfish in that he wanted the school to change many of its most cheerished methods of teaching to satisfy one alienated, empty-headed student. All readers assume that one's first year at Harvard Law School is challenging. Ironically, it does seem as though Harvard may have listened to Mr. Turow's complaints since I have not heard of the difficulty of the institution from other students/graduates. It is possible that they have dumbed-down the curriculum to satisfy those who would prefer to complain than learn. At the same time, this book certainly opens our perspective in how the law school class is set up, including the Socratic method, to which I was already quite familiar with. I would urge readers not to think that Mr. Turow's experience is at all shared by most at Harvard -- or any other institution. Remember that Mr. Turow just happened to want to write about his experience, but many others who choose not to write probably had drastically different experiences. Maybe they choose to learn and excel rather than to criticize an institution ten times their age. Mr. Turow's analysis of the other students also appears rather superficial and shallow. The students are essentially grouped into the achievers, the complainers (who think of themselves as "intellectuals," but who, in reality, are no more intellectual than a kindergardener with a crayon), and the professors who "harass" the students. What about the exact types of questions one faces in law school. How are the questions different from undergraduate life? Is law school merely a tarriff to prevent competition in the legal professsion? Also, as with most people who advocate change, Mr. Turow is remarkably short on specifics on how he would change the law school experience. The lack of specifics is common for those who gripe about the present but are unable to explain an alternative system to which they aspire. This is certainly an interesting book, but I would hesitate to think that it is the Bible of the Law School experience. It is merely one story about one institution in a particular year.
Rating:
Summary: Great drama - albeit outdated for current law school.
Review: I found the book to be interesting, if not a bit melodramatic, highlighting what "old school" was like at Harvard some 20+ years ago. The teaching methods vary between schools, and competition and teaching theories have definitely changed over the years. This book provides great shock value, but should not be used to scare a person away from attending law school.
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