What is the one book all students should read before they start law school?
let us know your answer in the comments below.
Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States: The biography of Learned Hand, and other biographies of judges. There are especially good biographies of Justices Douglas and Blackmun.
Sandra Day O'Connor, Former Supreme Court Justice: The Elements of Style, Strunk & White
Michael Mukasey, 81st United States Attorney General: Apart from the usual advice on what to read before one goes to law school, which is as much and as broadly as time and taste will allow, my one "must read" would be any collection of essays by George Orwell that included "Politics and the English Language," which I used to have my law clerks read their first day on the job.
Adam Liptak, The New York Times Supreme Court reporter: Anthony Lewis' Gideon's Trumpet.
Ted Sorensen, Counsel to President John F. Kennedy: A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt
Robert M. Morgenthau, Former Manhattan District Attorney: Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a terrific little book called The Common Law. It gives readers a very good idea about common law and how it worked before we added complicated statutes and all the rest.
Richard Revesz, Dean, New York University School of Law: Here is my nomination: Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle of Equality, by Richard Kluger. It's a great introduction to the power of law.
Richard T. Ford, George E. Osborne Professor of Law, Stanford Law School: Karl Llewellyn's The Bramble Bush tells the potential law student what she needs to know to get started thinking like a lawyer. And it will make her happy to be joining the profession. Duncan Kennedy's Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy got me through tough times at law school. This book will let students who find law school baffling and disorienting know they aren't crazy or stupid.
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