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The Law School Trip (the insider's guide to law school)

by Andrew J. McClurg

196 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #01-0048; ISBN 1-55212-646-3; US$23.50, C$29.95, EUR19.50, £13.50

The Law School Trip (the insider's guide to law school) is a hilarious step-by-step guide to applying for, enrolling in and succeeding at law school.

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About the book      About the author      Table of Contents      Reviews     

About the Book Prepare yourself for a long strange trip from which there is no return - The Law School Trip - a twisted insider's guide to the surreal world of legal education. Written by an award-winning law professor and humorist, The Law School Trip is the step-by-step guide that unlocks all the secrets of law school (to unlock the actual school, purchase The Lock-Picking Trip separately). In this one book, you'll learn about: * The LSAT® and other registered trademarks * Rankings: Feeling good about not getting into Harvard * Surviving the Socratic method with treatable injuries * Lucky charms and other tips for exam success * The Horribly Evil Bluebook * Fun, Fun, Fun and the Rule Against Perpetuities * Learning to love Mrs. Palsgraf * Strange Creatures from Outer Space and other law faculty * Law's Greatest Hits: Best First-Year Cases * Writing a resume your therapist would be proud of * And much, much more! The perfect gift for law students, lawyers, and anyone who has wondered what law school is like. PRODUCT WARNING THIS BOOK IS HAZARDOUSLY FUNNY. DO NOT READ IT IN SITUATIONS WHERE LAUGHING IS INAPPROPRIATE OR DANGEROUS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, SERMONS, FUNERALS, POLICE INTERROGATIONS, SEEING SOMEONE NAKED FOR THE FIRST TIME, STARING CONTESTS, ROOT CANALS, RELATIONSHIP BREAKUPS AND ESPECIALLY LAW SCHOOL CLASSES.

About the Author Andrew J. McClurg is the author/editor of two legal humor books, webmaster of lawhaha.com (a humor site for legal professionals), and the former monthly humor columnist for the American Bar Association Journal, the world's most widely circulated legal publication. In addition to being a noted humorist, Andrew J. McClurg is an internationally recognized legal scholar. Professor McClurg holds the Herbert Herff Chair of Excellence in Law at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. From 2002-06, he was a member of the founding faculty at the Florida International University College of Law. Previously, he was the Nadine H. Baum Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and also has taught at Wake Forest University, the University of Colorado, and Golden Gate University. A distinguished teacher, McClurg is the recipient of five teaching awards, including four Teacher of the Year awards. His books and numerous scholarly articles have been quoted and cited by more than 300 scholars in 185 different journals. McClurg has received two university excellence awards for his legal scholarship. His most recent book, Practical Global Tort Litigation: United States, Germany, and Argentina (with Adem Koyuncu and Luis Sprovieri), is the first entry in an innovative series of comparative law books called The Contextual Approach Series, for which McClurg serves as Series Editor. He is a frequently invited national lecturer and presenter. McClurg has been interviewed and quoted as a legal expert by National Public Radio, Time, U.S. News and World Report, the New York Times, and dozens of other media sources. As a legal commentator, he's published op-ed columns in newspapers such as the Washington Post and Miami Herald. Prior to joining academia, McClurg served as a law clerk to a U.S. district court judge and worked four years as a trial lawyer. He graduated Order of the Coif from the University of Florida College of Law and was a member of the Florida Law Review.

Reviews of The Law School Trip

The Law Teacher, Fall 2001.

What a 'Trip'! Hilariously poking fun at law students, professors, judges, and the law itself, Andrew McClurg's The Law School Trip is truly a classic of legal humor.

Professor David G. Owen, leading products liability expert and author

Perhaps once a decade, an author happens along who sums up in print a journey that has been shared and suffered through by many. John Steinbeck did it for the Great Depression, James Jones did it for World War II, William Faulkner did it for the Southern experience, and Alfred E. Neumann did it for the Mad®¨generation. Until now, however, no one has written the quintessential book on the three years of torment and tribulation known as law school.
Until now, I say, because now, rising up from our great nation's heartland, Professor Andrew J. McClurg, of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock law school, has penned his immortal tome, The Law School Trip.
People, you have got to read this book! First and foremost, because it is howlingly, gut-wrenchingly, turn purple and blow food out your nose funny!
Good satire is always very, very close to the truth. As you read this book, you will realize that McClurg is not just funny, but that his humor actually exposes the truth about law school more than a straightforward, non-questioning how-to book. McClurg knows law school, having spent most of his adult life there, attending and teaching, and he could have written a serious, pedantic, and boring book about the experience that would have sold six copies. Instead, apparently inspired by the muse of mushrooms and peyote buttons, he has authored a book that actually and truly describes lawyers' boot camp, but with a twisted viewpoint that leaves the reader doubled over laughing.
When I was in law school, someone had written on the wall of the men's bathroom: "The best way to keep all of this **** in perspective is to have sex on a regular basis." It sounded like good advice, and I wish I could have taken it. The next best thing would have been McClurg's book. It should be required reading for every law student and lawyer, particularly those who take themselves too seriously.

Bimonthly Review of Law Books, vol. 12, no. 4, July-Aug. 2001

There are a lot of smart books about the law, but most of them are as dull as a rainy day in Cleveland. And there are a lot of funny books about the law, but most of them are pretty dumb. If your smart bone is connected to your funny bone, there's only one book for you: Andrew McClurg's The Law School Trip. It left me holding my sides while thinking: wait! I never thought about that before! This is serious! This book gave me more pure pleasure than anything I've read in months.

Marianne Wesson, law professor/bestselling author of Render Up the Body and A Suggestion of Death

Hard to find words to describe it. Spectabulous? Fanacular? McClurg brings legal humor to new heights. It's about time someone told the world the truth about law school: it's just a barrel of laughs. Very, very funny!

Myron Moskovitz, law professor/author of eight textbooks and treatises

The Law School Trip is a wonderful, twisted tour through legal education that had me laughing all the way. I recognized my students, my faculty colleagues, and myself (groan) in McClurg's hilarious images. The Law School Trip is the perfect antidote for legal education, which likes to take itself too seriously. The Law School Trip is a must read for law students, professors, and lawyers.

Gerry Hess, law professor/Director of the Institute for Law School Teaching

This is the book Dave Barry would have written if he had gone to law school! Professor McClurg takes the reader on an irreverent, twisted and sidesplittingly hilarious trip through law school, from application process to job hunt, with stops along the way for The Professor Formerly Known as Ed, the Strange Creature from Outer Space, and Jim Bob's Cheat Sheet. This book is especially for anyone who has been to law school, is thinking about going, or (poor soul) is there now, but will be a laugh out loud read even for those with more sense. Warning: Don't read this book while you're eating, because you'll laugh so hard you'll either choke or blow food out your nostrils. I'm thinking about suing McClurg.

Charles R. Crawford, Memphis lawyer

Have you ever thought about attending law school? Do you live within 500 miles of a law school? Did you know that the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court graduated from law school? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then fly, drive, walk, or crawl to buy The Law School Trip, a superb and highly entertaining parody of legal education. You'll grin from ear to ear at Professor Andrew McClurg's portrayal of the typical law school faculty. You'll howl with delight at his description of the "horribly evil" Bluebook and chortle with uncontrollable glee at his explanation of legal research and writing. Your funny bone will ache after reading his commentary on landmark cases, and you'll roll with laughter at his strategy for landing the perfect job. The Law School Trip is definitely a "must read"! What other book have you read lately that mentions Tina Turner, Shania Twain, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and William Rehnquist in the same paragraph?

Timothy R. Zinnecker, law professor

What makes McClurg's book a delicious read from beginning to end is his sublime sense of the ridiculousness of the process by which American society creates many of its elite (a process which, by the way, McClurg obviously has great love for).

McClurg's work of humor fits perfectly the present mood of a country which graduated from one of its most prestigious law schools a man who could, under the most absurd and awkward of circumstances, parse the meaning of "is" with a straight face, all the while presiding over life and death matters as President of the United States. For what McClurg accomplishes on nearly every page is to make the reader share with him his amused and amusing outlook on the legal profession and the way it begets and perpetuates itself, whether he is writing about the goofy logic of the Palsgraf case or the job interview.

McClurg's sympathy is with the students, and it is because we have all been victims of the educational system, whether lawyers or not, that we respond with such delighted recognition. Since somehow we can't manage to produce lawyers any other way, we might as well enjoy it.

Grif Stockley, bestselling author of Probable Cause and Religious Conviction

What can you say about The Law School Trip? You can say, unequivocally, including, but not limited to, according to the most current information available at this time, but with the express understanding that such information may be supplemented, deleted, amended, subrogated or abridged: ha-ha-hee-hee-ho-ho-ho-ho-oooo-aaahhh-ha-ha-hee-hee-ho-he-ha-he-ho-ha-ha-ha.

Law schools should distribute this book as part of every student's orientation package. As a writer, McClurg is brilliant. This book will be read and enjoyed by law students for years to come. McClurg's slightly off-center look at the absurdities of law school and the law will keep readers going back and forth between laughter and knowing nods of agreement. This book is a gem.

Jacquie Brennan, Houston lawyer/formerly named one of the "Top 25 Most Fascinating Law Students in America" by National Jurist magazine

Look what lawyers and law students say about McClurg's hit humor column

"I was laughing so hard people near my office thought I was crying." -- Sherry Cooper

"I have to tell you that in 38 years of perusing the ABA Journal I never have laughed as much as I did when I read your item on Canned Sincerity. I was laughing so hard that tears came to my eyes." -- Joe Frank

"Beyond superb, beyond funny ... absolutely, positively, stupendously magnificent!" -- Sheldon Finkelstein

"Laughed myself silly." -- Denise Sangster

"I nearly choked on my lunch I laughed so hard." -- Charles R. Crawford

"Your Hep Catalogs piece in the ABA Journal is the funniest thing I have come across in ages. I laughed until I cried. Thanks for brightening my day!" -- Kent Schneider

"It has been a long time since I read anything as funny. Thanks for the laughter." -- Cooka Hillebrand

"It's a rainy cold Sunday.... No one else is in the office and it's a good thing because I am howling with laughter. This column is your best ever!" -- Dianne Dailey

"I loved your piece on A Civil Action. I read much of it aloud to my Civil Procedure class. They howled." -- Gerry Hess

"When I receive the ABA Journal the first thing I always flip to is Harmless Error. I am a third-year law student and I have been religiously reading Harmless Error since I began law school. Keep up the humor! In the law we definitely need to see the lighter side." -- Erin Eckert

"The Rule Against Perpetuities moved me to tears on more than one occasion while a law student, but your column actually moved me to tears of hysterical laughter. Thanks for the welcome break from the insanity." -- Michelle Katz

"Very, very funny. Thanks for making me laugh out loud." -- John M. Van Lieshout

"Just read your article in the ABA Journal!!! I laughed so hard-the best laugh I've had all summer!! " -- Deborah K. Comini

"I am an attorney who has been practicing for almost 20 years. Your article was hilarious. What a great way to start my day. Thanks!!" -- Barbara Burnett

"Your article regarding the mailbox rule was hysterical." -- J.L. Kessler

"You've really got a gift for writing in a way that slides right through the brain and goes straight to the funny bone. Thanks for all the giggles." -- Jacquie Brennan

Table of Contents

1. Embarking on the Law School Trip

2. Assuming the Risk: Product Warnings and Release

3. Getting Started

~Why Do You Want to be a Lawyer?
~Who Goes to Law School?
~Skin Thickening
~Choosing a Law School

4. Getting Admitted

~The LSAT ®
~Undergraduate Transcript
~Personal Statement
~Reference Letters
~Market Forces

5. The First Days

~Dis-Orientation
~First Day of Class
~The Socratic Method
~Making Friends
~Talking the Talk
~Briefing Cases
~How to Avoid Becoming the Object of Slanderous Rumors

6. Law Faculty

~The Performer
~The Legend
~The Radical Feminist
~The Strange Creature from Outer Space

7. Making the Grade

~Study Tips
~Test Taking
~Law Review

8. The Horribly Evil Bluebook

9. Law's Greatest Hits: Best First-Year Cases

~Torts: Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad
~Contracts: Hadley v. Baxendale
~Civil Procedure: Pennoyer v. Neff
~Property: Jee v. Audley
~Criminal Law: Regina v. Dudley

10. Legal Research and Writing

~Leegle Righting
~Whereases, Wherefores and Other Wegal Whubbish
~Wherefore Art Thou, Adjectives?
~Getting Anal About the Oral Argument

11. Hot Legal Issues You Need to Know

~Products Liability
~The Supreme Court
~Children's Rights
~Gun Control

12. Getting a Job

~The Resume
~The Recommendation Letter
~The Interview

13. Post-Mortem: The Bar Exam and Other Things to Worry About