Vibeke Norgaard Martin

This is an odd little book. Ostensibly, there are 101 items that the author allegedly learned in law school. About 75% or so are generally important factoids, like the "party that alleges bears the burden of proof" (#61) and "stop talking when you've made your point" (#51). A few of them were probably the "punch line" to make a law school professor's class more memorable (#54: "A lawyer may not practice law with a non-lawyer, unless the non-lawyer is in jail"; #70: "If you're going to spray graffiti, don't do it on the Post Office"). But it's the last little quarter or so of the book that is really unusual. There are a handful of quotations (like #27, which is from Justice William Douglas' dissent -- the losing side -- in Sierra Club v Morton). There are about five major cases discussed, like Roe v Wade and Miranda v Arizona -- mostly ones people have heard of without going to law school. Then there are just plain odd bits, like #97's "There never was a Twinkie defense," which doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the more helpful points.

Each of the "101 things" gets its own two-page spread, with the factoid on the right-hand page, and an illustration on the left-hand side. The illustrations sometimes really do illustrate the information given (like #53, which shows one of the two Peerless ships from the famous contract case). Most, though, actually provide more information about things that one should learn in law school. For example, while #39's tip is a vague concept ("Writing isn't recording your thoughts; it's thinking on the page"), the illustration very succinctly outlines the famous law school method of writing called IRAC. Sometimes the illustrations are just plain silly (opposite one of Justice Robert Jackson's quotations is a photo of Justice Clarence Thomas wondering why Jackson was quoted twice in the book, with Justice Sotomayor over his shoulder pointing out Thomas usually never asks questions). The strangest of all, though, is by #85 ("The integrity of the system is more important to the court than the truth of one case"), which asserts that sometimes guilty people go free to ensure legal processes are followed. The picture by that fundamental statement is a likeness of Johnnie Cochran, most famous for defending the seemingly-guilty OJ Simpson.

Without a doubt, this is a gift book, either for someone about to attend law school -- they will think it is too childlike -- or for someone who just graduated from law school -- they will read it and then instantly forget it as they prepare to take the bar exam. It's not that this is a poor book; it's just that the audience for this type of book is extremely limited.

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LT Haiku:

If law school does not
teach laws*, then this book could have
been a lot shorter.

* #1: "Law school does not teach laws."… (altro)