Starting Off Right in Law School

Rating:
Summary: A great place to start when considering law school!
Review: This book offers a wonderful base of knowledge for someone who is considering lawschool who has little to no pre-law experience (e.g. someone with an English or History degree). It gives the reader a good sense of understanding of the legal system with easy to understand definitions and examples. Through the use of one particular legal issue, and the help of several different case examples, the author enables the reader to see the legal process as it goes forward and backwards through the court system.You finish this book with a much clearer understanding of what to expect from law school, from casebooks to exams, and what you may be able to expect in professional lawyer/client setting. It even recommends and illustrates helpful ways to study and make it through that difficult first year. For such a tiny book it covers and enormous distance from start to finish. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent primer on the study of law
Review: This is a book, along with _Bramble Bush_, by Karl Llewellyn, and _Introduction to Legal Reasoning_, by Edward Levi, that all prospective law students ought to read. Ms Nygren's method is to introduce the prospective law student to the concept and strategy of legal thinking and legal study.

In her introduction, she cites two reasons for having written the book: (1) to provide information about the legal system, and (2) to provide information about the study skills necessary for success.

These two themes are repeatedly addressed in this book. It is very tightly focused and dry, but if you push yourself through the book you will learn a lot. Ms Nygren starts the book with a hypothetical situation--in which you, the reader, are a lawyer, and a client comes in with a complaint about a restaurant's food--and then she takes you through the process of identifying the legal issues in the case, how to advocate for your client, et cetera. Though she addresses only very small portion of "the law"--the liability faced by a restaurant--the detailed and close manner in which she takes the reader through this portion of the law is of obvious relevance to the rest of the law.

Ms Nygren provides a very comprehensive introduction to the structure of legal reasoning, and the kind of thinking needed by law students who wish to excel in their studies.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent primer on the study of law
Review: This is a book, along with _Bramble Bush_, by Karl Llewellyn, and _Introduction to Legal Reasoning_, by Edward Levi, that all prospective law students ought to read. Ms Nygren's method is to introduce the prospective law student to the concept and strategy of legal thinking and legal study.

In her introduction, she cites two reasons for having written the book: (1) to provide information about the legal system, and (2) to provide information about the study skills necessary for success.

These two themes are repeatedly addressed in this book. It is very tightly focused and dry, but if you push yourself through the book you will learn a lot. Ms Nygren starts the book with a hypothetical situation--in which you, the reader, are a lawyer, and a client comes in with a complaint about a restaurant's food--and then she takes you through the process of identifying the legal issues in the case, how to advocate for your client, et cetera. Though she addresses only very small portion of "the law"--the liability faced by a restaurant--the detailed and close manner in which she takes the reader through this portion of the law is of obvious relevance to the rest of the law.

Ms Nygren provides a very comprehensive introduction to the structure of legal reasoning, and the kind of thinking needed by law students who wish to excel in their studies.

Rating:
Summary: Necessary and sufficient
Review: This short book is clear, helpful and on target. I read it most of it before starting law school last year. The book accurately describes the legal learning process, the process of the law, and the experience of law school. This book is a must read for anyone heading to law school.