Law Humor

The Slacker's Guide to Law School

By NBlack

For those of you in law school or thinking about law school, The Slacker's Guide to Law School-Success Without Stress, written by Juan Doria is a must-read. 

I wish it had been around when I was in law school.  It would have saved me a lot of time and greatly reduced my ridiculously high stress levels. 

As it was, I had to figure it out all on my own. 

You young 'uns have it made!  Back when I was in school, no one told us about commercial outlines until it was too damn late!  By the time I was clued in, I'd already wasted hours of precious time reading hundreds of pages of case law when I could have used that time to drink beer--and lots of it!

But, I digress.

As explained at Amazon.com, The Slacker's Guide to Law School helps students:

(1) set their own goals and not get caught up in the hype of what everyone else is pursuing; (2) establish methods of study, fine-tuning one that works best; and (3) maintain a healthy life balance. For the careful 'slacker,' it is possible to make time for hobbies, socializing, dating or even starting a family. This reduces stress, makes law school more enjoyable, and as shown in this book can boost performance in class.

Unlike most law school casebooks, it's an easy read and chock full of useful information.  It offers straight talk in conjunction with something you rarely encounter in law school--humor.

For example, Juan Doria's description of his first year living in law student housing is classic:

My first year of law school I lived in an apartment complex that housed only first-year law students. Living there was exhausting; it was like Melrose Place...but with ugly people, really boring plot lines, and far too little sex. 

His advice on dating in law school:

It is especially  important to interact with non-law students when it comes to dating. If you date a fellow law student, there will be no escape from law school's death grip. Not even during sex--the one time in life when no man or woman should think about the law--will you be safe. At the point of orgasm, you might unwillingly yell out an obscure legal term in Latin like, "malum prohbitum," in turn responded with, "malum in se." Don't know about you, but I can think of anything less sexy.

And, that, my friends, is why I'm married to a nurse.

But enough about me.

Go buy the book--even if you're a lawyer and the last thing you want to do is re-live the hell that was law school. This book will make you laugh and might even help cure those embarrassing facial ticks that started during moot court finals and inconveniently kick in whenever you hear the words: "May it please the court..."

Full post as published by Legal Antics on October 08, 2008 (boomark / email).