Law School Without Fear: Strategies for Success.

Helene Shapo and Marshall Shapo
The Foundation Press
615 Merrick Ave.
Westbury, NY 11590
224 pp., $14.95

Reviewed by Robin E. Brewer

This is the book we should have had when we were beginning law school, or even just considering whether to give ourselves the benefit of the wonderful experience of law school.

Northwestern University law professors Helene and Marshall Shapo impart their collective wisdom from a generation of studying and teaching law in this informative manual originally written for their son, who decided to go to law school.

Simply put, this is an advice manual about the law school experience. What distinguishes this book from others on the subject is that it is written from the viewpoint of law professors, and, even better, law professors who want to give real-life, practical advice to their son.

Remember how, in law school, we always wanted the professor to just give us the answers to those tough questions? In Law School Without Fear, the authors have done just that. They do, of course, use hypotheticals to get their points across.

The Shapos have put together helpful information that law students would normally have to acquire over the course of their law school career. Topics include approaching the study of law, briefing the case, interpreting the language of law, expanding on procedure, and studying law with the help of some psychological tips.

I was pleasantly surprised by the light-hearted, informative tone of the authors and the practicality of the advice. In the final chapter, the authors give the following tip:

Besides imposing a heavy workload, law school

is stressful, and the combination of a lot of work

and stress is fatiguing. This point requires

emphasis for people whose prior lives have tended

to ignore the need for relaxation as well as for

sleep. No matter how important it may seem to

do the extra half hour's work, consider listening

to a favorite tape without a book in front of your

even watching a lawyer show on television.

Perhaps now we are getting a look at where we went wrong. We were supposed to relax in law school? Get this, the authors even suggest that their son not lose contact with family and friends in the "outside" world during his three years of law school. Can these people be serious? The answer is yes, and it's good advice to follow throughout life, especially once we begin to actually practice law.

Another part of the book, and a part that I'm sure many of us could relate to, is titled "The Awesome Other Student." This could have been written only from the other side of the podium:

If your anxiety level rises, you may get to thinking

that every other student in the class is the

Awesome Other Student--everyone but you is

capable of distilling in his or her mind the

greatest wisdom possessed by the best prepared

and most aggressive group of students in the

class on any one occasion. This perception is

false.... Just play your game and think through

things as well as you can; that is all that you can

ask yourself in any event.

Again, good practical advice not just for law school, but for life. Find your niche and stick with it.

Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of Law School Without Fear is that as useful as this information seems from hindsight, most law students will not believe it. They will simply have to learn the same way we did--by living through the experience of going to law school. It is, however, a useful book, and I highly recommend it for anyone who is either contemplating or working toward a law degree.

Robin E. Brewer is a sole practitioner in Sacramento, California.