Introduction

• Author: Ramsey All/Daniel Batista/Koker Christensen/Ian Cooper
• Pages: 1-15

wo

types

of

people read introductions: those flipping

through

a

book

in

order

to

gauge

its

usefulness before

buying

it,

and

those

who

have already bought

the

book

and

want

to

get a

sense

of its

overall direction before delving into

the

substantive

material

in the

numbered chapters. This introduction

will

address

the

concerns

of

both types

of

reader.

If

you are of the

first

type,

one

simple question

is of

primary

concern

to

you: "Why

this

book?"

That

question seems

all the

more

pertinent given that there

is a

wealth

of

material

out

there

on the

subject

of

law

school.

What

separates this book

from

all

those others?

The

answer

to

that question

lies,

most obviously,

in

this book's

focus.

Unlike

previous books

on the

subject,

which

deal

with

a

wide

array

of

topics

ranging

from

how to get

into

law

school

to

which extra-

curricular activities

to

pursue, this book

focuses

on a

very narrow

topic,

but one

which

is of

paramount importance

to

most

law

stu-

dents:

how to

achieve academic

success

in law

school without giving

over one's entire

life

to the

study

of

law.

Notice

the

qualifier

we

added

in the

last

part

of the

foregoing

sentence.

We

take

it for

granted that anyone

who has

read even this

far

probably

has a

keen interest

in

getting

good

grades.

But we

also

understand that there

is

something else most

law

students

are

keenly

interested

in:

having

a

life!

Any

advice

we

give

in

this

book

is

respectful

of

that

fact.

For, even accepting that there

may be

many

ways

to

skin

the

proverbial cat,

we

believe that (other things being

i

Introduction

T