Customer Reviews

Planet Law School II: What You Need to Know (Before You Go), But Didn't Know to Ask... and No One Else Will Tell You, Second Edition

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I read Planet Law School in the summer of 1998 when the book was brand new, in the months before I began my legal studies. It was invaluable. I went to a "Top 10" law school (not literally, but rather as the term is defined in the book) and found the cynical advice to be on point. Law school is a business. Administrations are more interested in attracting and keeping top professors (and in soliciting donations from wealthy/influential alumni) than they are in ensuring their graduates will find fulfilling careers that also enable them to repay their crushing student loans. Planet Law School also accurately describes the socio-academic atmosphere at law schools - the contagious stress and anxiety, bordering on hysteria; the social stratification that occurs based upon class rank after first year grades are issued; the extreme difficulty those with mediocre or low grades have in obtaining respectable and well-paying employment through on-campus interviews. The book is less helpful (but still very enlightening) when it comes to its discussion on how to prepare for and do well in law school. I disagree with the author's theory that virtually any law student who follows his system and works hard will be able to excell in law school. I believe this is because, mistakenly, the author makes Black Letter Law and Thinking Like a Lawyer seem paramount. At least where I went to law school, these items were only half the battle. I had good friends who were in the top of my class and we often were enrolled in the same courses with the same professors. They consistently received top marks; mine were almost always mediocre. However, when comparing our final exam responses after the fact, it often turned out our responses were substantively identical (same points of law, same reasoning, same conclusions). The differences were our writing styles and the fact that my friends consistently delved into collateral issues that, while not responding to the "call of the question," were apparently topics of interest for the professor. Sometimes, my friends' responses virtually ignored the call of the question and they still Am-Jur'ed the course. (By the time I realized this, First Year was over; my grades rose dramatically by the end of Second Year, but in fall of Third Year most employers were not looking to hire 3L's.) While the author of Planet Law School does allude to the importance knowing each professor's "agenda," this crucial component of law school preparation should be more heavily emphasized in his book - even more so than "Black Letter Law" and "Thinking Like a Lawyer." After all, at any reputable law school virtually every student will walk into final exams knowing Black Letter Law backwards and forwards. To distinguish yourself (and earn top grades) you have to also appeal to and work in (no matter how tangentially) the professor's pet topics of interest or areas of research. As a post-script, the author and the law schools share a similar failing: They both fail to warn students about "insurance defense" law firms, which require billable hours comparable to the "Big Firms" but offer half the pay, a fraction of the chance to specialize in a practice area, and none of the respect. (The "clients" of such firms, insurance companies, also tend to treat their counsel as the enemy and will begrudge every tenth of an hour billed for.) To the uninitiated 2L or 3L, these firms often appear almost indistinguishable from the "Big Firms." Law students should be subtly warned to avoid insurance defense practice to the fullest extent they can, and instead seek government or boutique practice work in a speciality they enjoy so that they can eventually become well-respected practitioners in a field of specialty.

I have been a law professor for a long time. In addition to thinking about what makes students successful, I have read various studies on the subject. I have read both PLS and the new edition of PLS. Apart from inviting students to take a self defeating attitude towards law school (e.g., his open hostility and demeaning comments about law professors will surely discourage readers from using an invaluable resources), much of his advice will reduce a student's likelihood of success. I was initially amused and then distressed to think how a student following his advice would do on one of my exams: I certainly hope that my 1Ls are not reading this stuff.

I am a recent (successful) graduate from a top tier law school who had a choice of the best firms to work for.

I read Planet Law School (I) before I started Law School, thinking that it was my ticket.

That was not the case; for me at least, the advice was all wrong. I learned to succeed in law school by letting go of Planet Law School and by letting go of my obsession with learning all of the details of every principle I encountered.

Instead I made sure I had a thorough familiarity with all of the major principles. I stayed away from learning details because there is no time to discuss them in a law school essay or on the bar.

If you simply read the Examples and Explanations (by Aspen) book for each class, make an outline from the book along with your professor's comments, run through the problems in the book, and do alot of practice essays, you will do very well in law school.

Atticus Falcon, on the other hand tells you to focus on the details as much as possible; that, essentially, you should study for law school before going, study for the bar before graduating from law school, etc. Read the hornbooks? You have to be kidding me...

Atticus thinks he could have done better in law school if he had only studied harder. He's wrong. Dead wrong. It's the kind of advice that makes law school so miserable for so many students: they study till their eyes bleed and then find their brains can't function on exam day because they are too bogged down with details to see the forest for the trees. If you are familiar with the concept of bounded rationality, then you know what I mean.

Study smart -- learn only what you need -- only what you could possibly discuss in the course of an essay that demands you to briefly discuss 10-20 issues within the course of an hour or two -- and you will do very well. STAY AWAY FROM THE DETAILS, and whatever you do STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK.

TRUST ME :) (and good luck, it's not as bad as Atticus might have you think....)

Do not waste your time or money buying and reading this book. Instead, purchase a copy of Law School Confidential and keep that close. The only major advantage that this book has is its explanation of terms like "hornbook" and its detailed discussion of study aids. With those exceptions (which are just one chapter) the rest of the book is a rambling diatribe from a disillusioned former law student. The author feels that professors are the enemeny in law school and he repeats his feelings over and over and over and over and over again in every section of the book. You have to sift through too much whining to find something meaningful and useful in this book. Don't waste your time.

This is the worst book I have ever read. The book is not structured in any meaningful order and even though it is the second edition it has numerous editing mistakes. The author apparently understands how awful this book is because he devoted two chapters in the middle of the book to quoting and then responding to the book's critics from book reviews and message boards. In his defense he finally resorts to name-calling. I bought the book because some reviewers said it was worth it for the secondary source recommendations. Save yourself 17 bucks. He says to buy and study delaney and EandE primers before law school. In fact, he guarantees that if you do this you will ace your first year of law school beating out your fellow students who did not follow his brilliant plan. He's full of crap and in no position to be writing a book on how to succeed in law school. By his own admission, he performed poorly in law school. We dont know where he went to law school since he is too embarrassed to put his actual name on the book but his stated lsat scores would have kept him out of the top law schools. Dont pay for advice on how to succeed in law school from someone who made bad grades at a substandard school.

Well, I didn't make it to the top of my class and I am at a Fourth Tier school. But, I just wanted my law degree and am not all hung up on the 1st tier, 2nd tier crap. The only thing I don't recommend is taking the LEEWS course--that was a rip off to me. Also, I am somewhat of a slacker...so if you are a slacker and just need to get by, this is what worked for me. After all, I came in realizing that the attrition rate for 1L is about 30%. I wasn't about to be flunked out...so I did whatever I needed to do to get by. (p.s. my entire peer group flunked out the first year and they read, brief cases and so on...I never did that).

I hate to say it, but Atticus was right with a lot of negativity. Some of my fellow law students are the most atrocious backstabbing mofos I have ever encountered. My advice is to stick to yourself and develop a tight knit group of friends. Just watch your back.

1. Use Emanuels, Gilberts, Sum & Substance or whatever commercial outline you feel comfortable with. I have read very few casebooks and have made comparable grades.

2. Buy a laptop and take it to class. Attend class and type notes.

3. Make your own outline(s). This was crucial to me. Yes, I used Emanuels, but I also made my outlines and spent a lot of time using concepts in class and even some cases to illustrate the main points.

4. I have approximately a B- average. I really did not do much other than what I did above.

5. Take legal skills courses such as legal clinic, trial practice, pretrial practice, arbitration, and mediation. It is important to get real world type experience because law school just teaches you how to be a law student...but not a lawyer. That is pretty scary. After all, medical students are trained for their profession and then they have a residency. Law school is about learning subjects. Hopefully you will pass the bar. But--you will not learn how to be a lawyer unless you get real world experience. Start that in your 2L year.

6. Don't be a jerk to other students. It will bite you in the A** eventually. I have seen many backstabbing, evil students in my time here. But--you don't have to be that way. Law isn't about being evil to others. It's about being an advocate for your clients by doing research and making good faith arguments. This profession needs more ethical people.

Just a quick note to correct the person who misread my review below. I said the author suggests that students not BUY THE CASE BOOKS -- not sure how the person below got out of that that I said the author suggested students not read CASES (it would be pretty hard to pass your first year of law school w/o reading the cases, since law school is either case or statute driven exclusively). Hope the reviewer correcting my review doesn't read statutes like s/he reads reviews or his/her clients are in big trouble.

Good book. I don't aree with the Leews thing. The program is harder to figure out than a casebook. The study aid rec's are right on, and the ABA analysis is all true. The Delaney references are worth gold.

I listened to, and followed, many suggestions made in this book and now, in my 3rd year of law school, I feel that the authored steered me BADLY wrong in a couple of important areas. For example:

The author recommends that students NOT sign up for a bar review course until the very end of law school to keep their options open. I found this to be a VERY BIG mistake. The review materials from all the major bar review companies were a BIG help to many of my classmates -- and an edge that I didn't have.

Second, the author recommends that students NOT buy the casebooks, but to simply photocopy the cases from a book at the library or from a friend. However, most if not ALL my professors took their exam materials from the notes BETWEEN the cases. So, by the time you copy all the cases AND all the notes, you've MORE than paid for the casebook in money AND most importantly TIME.

This being said, I did think the summary of different study aid sources was a help -- so I've given the book one star.

In something as important as law school, where you HAVE to get things right the first time, believe me you don't need bad advice to overcome as well as the fierce competition & the grueling hours.

Definitely give this one a miss & hire a 3rd year tutor for $20/hr your first year to show you the ropes. Good thing I did.

As a correction to the reader whose review is below, I'd like to note that p. 468 of my copy has a warning for students who have not prepared: "Don't use your time to read the casebook." Also, Falcon frequently says that classes are just time-fillers until the exam. But he encourages students to listen for their professors linguistic and political biases.
Falcon doesn't seem to realize that he is writing primarily for students of top law schools. If you're like most students, you're attending a school with a lesser reputation that has to actually teach students in order to survive. The flaws in instruction he identifies are much less common in stories from students at, for example, the University of New Mexico. But even if you are going to one of your "safety" schools due to cost or location factors, I'd recommend this book to get you fired up before fall.