Brush with the law.

Having recently graduated from law school, memories of reviewing admission packages and law school web-sites are still relatively fresh in my mind. Each school has its own pitch in order to attract students, and all basically claim the same things: quality of students, quality of on-campus life, and quality of education. Strict admission policies and tough competition serve to make law school an intimidating place for all prospective law students. Once accepted, however, most law students find that the most difficult part of law school was actually getting in. Several books and films, such as Scott Turow's One L and the film the Paper Chase, have used law school as their canvas, and all present law school as a sweat shop in which over-achieving law students are ridiculed and humbled by arrogant professors. Most law school graduates enjoy this pressure-cooker reputation that law schools have inherited and do our best to ensure that it persists. Brush With The Law by Robert Byrnes and Jaime Marquart, however, refreshingly attempts to destroy our elitist image and expose law school for what it really is.

At Brush With The Law's core is the notion that stupid people are admitted to and graduate from the most prestigious law schools in the United States. The purportedly autobiographical tale tells the stories of a graduate of Harvard Law School (Marquart) and a graduate of Stanford Law School (Byrnes). The book follows the chronological portions of the academic school year and the chapters alternate between the two authors' law school experiences. The authors describe some of their actual law school experience, such as their classmates and writing exams, but tend to focus on group sex, high stakes poker, and smoking crack. Yes, Byrnes and Marquart describe law school experiences that are so scandalous that they almost lose credibility.

Marquart, the younger of the two authors, comes from humble beginnings having grown up in Eagle Lake, Texas before heading to Harvard. He begins the book by describing his cliche small town innocence, being overwhelmed by the architecture and history that go hand-in-hand with Harvard. Soon after starting classes, however, he begins to reassess his pre-conceived notions of both his school and his classmates. His diary gets so detailed that at one point he even describes his system whereby he is able to skip the majority of his classes and still receive above average marks -- good reading for any prospective law...