Vol. 11 No. 1 (January 2001) pp. 3-5.

LETTERS FROM LAW SCHOOL: THE LIFE OF A SECOND-YEAR LAW STUDENT by Lawrence Dieker Jr. Lincoln, NE: Writers Club Press, 2000. 259 pp. Paper $13.95. ISBN 0-595-00975-1.

Reviewed by Bruce E. Altschuler, Department of Political Science, State University of New York at Oswego.

When advising undergraduate students about law school I have always found it particularly difficult to convey just how different that experience will be from college. One common approach is to suggest reading a book such as Scott Turow's ONE L (1977) or the novel, THE PAPER CHASE (Osborn 1971). However, because much has changed during the more than twenty years since these books were published, it was with considerable interest that I turned to LETTERS FROM LAW SCHOOL. Like Turow, Dieker employs a journal format. However, although Turow described his own experiences, despite combining and modifying other characters, Dieker further blurs the line between fact and fiction. He creates a lead character named Kenneth Westphal who, judging from the brief blurb description of the author as having "graduated with honors," appears to be a somewhat less successful version of the author. Although the setting is Tulane Law School, from which the author graduated, "the characters and law firms described herein are either composites or products of my imagination" (p. v). He suggests that, although the overall picture of law school may be accurate, it will be difficult to evaluate many of the specifics. For a reader seeking the flavor of law school this is probably not a serious flaw. Nor is the distracting production quality of the book with several pasted in corrections and fonts of varying sizes. As a novel, the book fails to really develop any of the characters except Westphal. Even his wife, who is a law student at Loyola, is shown only helping with such tasks as substituting for him in class on days he has job interviews and running errands. The couple never seems to compare experiences or talk about her day. Adding detail to the characterizations of the other law students, by showing a variety of possible experiences, would make the book more helpful to its intended audience. Nevertheless, students will find the book readable and reasonably entertaining, two qualities that should not be underestimated. It gives a good sense of what classes are like and how much work is involved in them as well as in out of class commitments.

Dieker differentiates his book from Turow's by writing about the second rather than the first year of law school. Although the first year seems primarily to be a struggle for survival, second year students can begin seriously contemplating their legal careers. Rather than facing a first year curriculum of required courses, Westphal is able to choose from among electives. He selects evidence, business enterprises, remedies, pollution control and federal practice, later dropping the last of these due to the pressures and stresses of law school life. As do most other law schools, Tulane offers Certificates of Specialization in areas such as environmental, international and maritime law. Westphal seems to be drifting

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toward environmental law, less out of passion than because of happenstance. Because his grades are not high enough to qualify for Law Review, he enters the writing competition for the few remaining places. Although his case note fails to qualify, he is able to submit it successfully for the ENVIRONMENTAL LAW JOURNAL instead. He finds far less pressure to perform well in class than during the first year with more advance notice of who will be called upon (often with students designated as class experts on particular subjects) and less fear of being caught unprepared. Still, the Tulane students presented in the book seem to have little contact with faculty, even their designated advisers, outside of class. I expected that at least a few of the professors would act more as mentors when students increasingly demonstrated their abilities and interests.

However, most of the book focuses on Westphal's search for a job. Despite the title, the only letters are those to and from law firms about possible positions. It is hard to see what purpose is served by giving the full text of dozens of mostly form rejection letters. Making the point that law students will have a difficult time finding a good job is useful information but whether dwelling on it at such length will tell them much more than that seems questionable. Going into so much detail about job interviews that seem not that dissimilar from those in other fields (they reminded me in many ways of academic job searches) takes the reader too far away from law school itself. Furthermore, most prospective law students will want to know more about the first year than the second that does not seem interesting enough to justify an entire book.

Nevertheless, LETTERS FROM LAW SCHOOL provides some useful information for those contemplating a legal career. Particularly interesting is the section on the economics of a law degree (pp. 66-70). Dieker calculates the cost of the degree at Tulane, which is a relatively expensive law school, at $108,000 then adds in another $105,000 in "lost opportunity costs." The price is more than eight times what Turow paid at Harvard in the mid-seventies. Most students can expect to incur a large, long-term debt obligation from the loans required to pay these costs. More positively, the apparent survival test of the first year, at least at Tulane, forces few to drop out. Most Tulane graduates will prosper but few will get rich.

Another significant change in recent years is the decline of the Socratic method. "Law school today is, with little doubt, a kinder gentler place than the experience simultaneously criticized and glorified by Scott Turow" (p. 134). To obtain the positive student evaluations necessary for tenure and salary increases, faculty have turned more to such techniques as group projects and role-playing exercises. Although there may be fewer Professor Kingsfields, law school remains a stressful place. The workload required for each class remains daunting. There is little formal evaluation other than final exams, creating a tension filled environment during exam period that Dieker depicts well. The competition for coveted spots on Law Review and secondary journals is fierce. Finally, the pressure to find a good job is relentless, often causing students to skip classes for interviews.

Dieker fails to discuss how the students themselves have changed during the past twenty-five years. The names he gives to other law students reflect increasing diversity but the topic is never pursued. Does increasing diversity have an effect on classes or the approaches taken by students?

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Have changing attitudes about affirmative action made a difference? Like Turow, Westphal left an early career teaching college English to pursue a law degree. As the average age of law students has increased such career changes appear to be more common. Are such students helped by having more experience and maturity or hampered by lost time?

LETTERS FROM LAW SCHOOL will not supplant ONE L or even the movie version of THE PAPER CHASE. Despite its flaws, however, it will help undergraduates decide whether law school is a place they want to go. Given the paucity of such books, this makes it a modestly useful piece of work.

REFERENCES:

Osborn, John Jay. 1971. THE PAPER CHASE. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Turow, Scott. 1977. ONE L. New York: Putnam.