One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School

Turow opens the Preface with broad statements about the first year of law school. Although Harvard Law School is exclusive, first-year law curriculum is similar across the country in its basic course options and delivery through case studies and the Socratic method. Students learn the language of law, the building blocks of the lawyer’s role, and a new perspective that sticks with them after graduation.

Turow’s intention for writing the book is to reflect the atmosphere of competition and personal change that most first-year students experience. He uses his own journal entries and immediate retrospective reflections to describe the events of his first year at Harvard Law School. He tried to preserve the anonymity of his peers and professors by changing their names and backgrounds, or by combining traits from multiple people into single, composite characters. Turow’s criticisms of Harvard Law School come from a place of pride and desire to see this influential institution operate as effectively as possible.

Scott traveled from Arlington to join the 550 first-year students—nicknamed 1Ls—at Harvard Law School for their three-day orientation. He entered a classroom with the 140 students in his section, Section 2, to fill out administrative forms and officially sign the Law School ledger. Scott pondered Harvard’s prestige and wondered whether he would fit into its “tradition of excellence” (4). Scott had been a creative writing lecturer at Stanford before changing career paths because he didn’t want his interest in law to go unexplored. He impulsively took the LSAT and scored high, giving him many options for law school. He ultimately chose Harvard because of its reputation.

Scott signed up to the married students’ group before getting lunch with his friend Mike Wald, a second-year student. Mike warned Scott about his Contracts professor, Perini, who was tough. Scott attended his first Legal Methods class, an ungraded course taught by Chris Henley. He sat with the socially outgoing student Terry Nazzario. Throughout the term, students would work on a mock case of wrongful termination and would go through the processes of a real attorney in the lead-up to a trial. Turow explains that most law schools rely on the case-study method to teach students how to examine the outcomes of real cases. Before dismissing class, Henley advised the first years to take time away from their studies throughout the year. Scott and his classmates received their assignments for the first day of lectures.

The students then listened to the dean’s address and mingled with one another. Scott was impressed not only with his section-mates’ professional achievements, but with the sheer force of their personalities. He knew he was amongst the brightest in the country, since law school admissions had grown deeply competitive. Turow points to several key events, like Watergate and the admission of women and people of color, as factors leading to increasing numbers of law school applicants. Admissions officers rely on college grades and LSAT scores to make their choices, though this method is often biased toward Ivy League schools.

At midnight that night, Scott felt frustrated with the Legal Methods reading assignment. The mock case took him an hour and a half to read, and he gave up on writing a brief of the case’s facts. The next day, Henley provided an example brief and explained the case and the three levels of courts, easing some of Scott’s frustrations. The small class met with their student advisor, Peter Geocaris, who gave them advice for the year. The students listened to the head librarian’s speech, and Scott made a vow to never again feel the frustration from the night before. He threw himself into his assignment reading, writing briefs and rehearsing his responses so he’d be prepared for the first day of class.

Scott started his first day of classes and anticipated the dreaded Socratic method. He remembered when his friend David showed him around campus and cursed the inventor of the teaching style. Turow explains the general concept of the Socratic method, which sees a professor question a student with narrower and narrower questions. Professors defend the Socratic method as a means of preparing students to think like a lawyer, despite criticisms of the psychological stress the method inflicts on students.

Scott anxiously took his assigned seat in Criminal Law, but Professor Bertram Mann didn’t call on anyone. Mann made introductory remarks, and Scott found the man hard to follow and uninspiring. After class, Scott accompanied Terry to the campus bookstore. Law students in this era used three types of books: casebooks, which compile all cases used for case-studies; hornbooks, which analyze and summarize cases; and outlines/study aids. Terry bought the Contracts hornbook, which professors told first-years not to use.

Scott and Terry arrived at the Contracts classroom, where the students tensely gossiped about Perini’s frightening reputation. Perini entered and introduced the course. He demanded that students read the material thoroughly, and he refused to allow anyone to claim unpreparedness unless they brought in a note before class. Perini dove into the day’s material and called on Wally Karlin. He shouted at Karlin and picked holes in his responses, calling on other students to answer what Karlin could not. Scott was shocked at how quickly the students turned on Karlin, joining in on his humiliation and leaping to correct him. At the end of class, however, the students congratulated Karlin. Scott learned that Karlin had read Perini’s hornbook, so Scott bought his own copy.

Scott felt deeply uncertain about his ability to make sense of the complicated material. He bought more hornbooks and study aids, and he wrote color-coded notes to keep order. Scott needed to learn an entirely new legal language, which included French and Latin, and which rigidly restricted word definitions to prevent ambiguity. Scott spent every waking moment trying to keep up with the reading assignments, but despite the hardships, he felt immediate satisfaction investigating obscure legal questions.

Scott met his next professor, William Zechman, in his Torts class. Zechman’s teaching style, which relied on increasingly bizarre hypotheticals without clear answers, left students confused and frustrated. Scott’s other professor, Nicky Morris, however, offered relief to Section 2. Morris was young and understanding, and he opened Civil Procedures by answering questions about any class’s course material. Scott noticed a growing camaraderie among his classmates in their shared struggles and excitement. The students now spoke only of the law, using the new jargon they’d learned.

To alleviate his isolation, Scott joined Aubrey Drake’s study group with Terry. The large group met before Contracts, but a smaller group of Scott, Aubrey, Terry, Kyle Schick, Sandy Stern, and Stephen Litowitz broke off. Scott felt invigorated by their discussions and became fast friends with the men.

As the weeks went on, Scott’s dislike for Mann and Zechman’s teaching styles grew. The workload was still overwhelming, and he felt guilty for talking law at home. Scott relied on his upperclassmen friends to navigate his stress. He asked Peter Geocaris about the mysterious and revered Harvard Law Review. Peter explained that only a small group of students in each section were selected to work on the Review, doing fact checking, citation writing, and publishing for the professors’ legal scholarship. Peter lamented that his own grades weren’t strong enough to land him a spot, since being on the Review gave students a leg up in their professional careers.

After the third week, the material for each course became more focused, and each class began to compare cases to get at the core of issues and court decisions. Scott found the process difficult, especially in Zechman’s class, where the professor refused to provide solid answers. Perini’s class remained tense, but the students laughed more in that class to relieve the tension. Morris advised his students not to let their intense education warp their personal values, and a classmate confided in Scott that she felt like she was being indoctrinated. Scott noticed that students were being taught to deny their emotions and beliefs and to rely on logic and rationality for their arguments, which made many students uncomfortable. He hoped that thinking like a lawyer wouldn’t alter his own ethics, but his wife pointed out that his communication style was already changing.

At the same time, the 2Ls and 3Ls began interviewing with potential employers. The sight of these sharply dressed students gave Scott a pang of anxiety, as he would soon have to decide where to practice law. Scott spoke to Mike Wald, who had already gone through the interview process. Mike explained that the best employers looked for students with the best grades, and there was pressure on students not to waste their Harvard credentials on smaller firms. Turow describes the different kinds of law firms—corporate law firms, political offices, and public-interest firms—and the various positives and negatives for each. Interview conversations always circle back to money, and many students find themselves taking corporate law jobs for the salary alone. Scott felt certain, with his activist background, that he would never take a corporate job.

Scott gained confidence in his ability to parse information from complex case reports. He maintained his enthusiasm for the law, although he noticed that a contingent of his classmates were outwardly depressed. Scott recalled a trip on Columbus Day weekend when he, his wife Annette, David, and David’s wife went to a cabin. Scott felt bad about not seeing Annette enough and about leaving her to navigate their new town on her own. In the serene landscape, Scott relaxed and realized just how demanding his first month of law school had been.