One L
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''One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School'' is a 1977 autobiographical book by
Scott Turow Scott Frederick Turow (born April 12, 1949) is an American author and lawyer. Turow has written 13 fiction and three nonfiction books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Turow’s novel ...
.


Summary

''One L'' tells author Scott Turow's experience as a first-year
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...
student. The book takes place in the heart of Boston, where
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
is located. First years, or One-L's as they are often called, all face similar issues their initial year of law school. Harvard, known for its reputation as one of the best law schools in the country, takes only about 12% of applicants. Turow recounts his time there, the professors and classes that helped mold him into the lawyer and writer that he became. Each professor has their own very distinct teaching style and demeanor that Turow thoroughly outlines. Professor William Zechman with his disorienting hypotheticals, Nicky Morris, the young and progressive civil procedure professor who is well liked among students, and Rudolph Perini, a notorious, brilliant bully in the court and classroom. All of the characters, including the professors, were real people. While he changed the names of all the characters, people have been able to figure out who Turow was referring to.


Characters


Scott Turow

The narrator of the novel, a previously successful, young English teacher at
Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
with a deep affinity for law. After deciding to take the LSAT on a whim, his astonishingly high score gives him the opportunity to select among the elite Law Schools. Turow notes that he decided to choose Harvard Law based on their reputation as one of the most elite, despite the fact that many of his colleagues who had attended did not speak very highly of the school. Turow and his wife move to
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
and he begins classes in the fall of 1975. It is at Harvard that he "meets his enemy."


Nicky Morris

One of the notable professors at Harvard. Morris is known for his tranquil demeanor and unorthodox teaching style. Morris taught first year civil procedure at the university and was well liked among the students. Prior to teaching at Harvard, Morris had graduated at the age of 23 and developed a very impressive resume, including clerking for a Chief Justice. Morris was one of the easier professors who would call students based on the seating chart and offering them the option to pass on a question if they did not know the answer. Morris held a degree of contempt for the school and its teaching methods, noting that it did not please him that he was an educator at a place that had been the root cause of anguish and anxiety for many alumni.


William Zechman

A torts professor who recently returned from a long absence and proves to be a bit of a mystery to his students. His class, while engaging, is a long series of elaborate hypotheticals that appear to be designed to confuse students, or at least that is how it felt to Turow. While a kind and patient man, his classes often left his students befuddled trying to decrypt their incoherent notes.


Rudolph Perini

One of Harvard's most notorious professors. One L's are warned immediately of his class and are encouraged to stay away. Whether it was the workload or his overbearing demeanor, students were not a fan of Perini or his class. A proud Texan and graduate from UT Law, he made himself a large presence in any room that he was in. He had no issue with calling people out in class regardless of whether they wanted to participate or not. He encouraged students to remain at least three cases ahead of what the syllabus said, but it was implied that this was not merely a suggestion. He would verbally accost students who could not answer the questions; however, he had an amazing gift of making students think critically. Perini challenged students to explain and justify beliefs and values that were so central to their identities that they were nearly inarticulable. He often relied on the Socratic method of teaching, which a law review had referred to as "public degradation, humiliation, ridicule, and dehumanization." They go on to say that "Professor Perini of One-L has helped foster an image of the archetypal law school professor who challenges, probes and even humiliates students in repeated exchanges of questions and attempted answers."


Mike Wald

An old college friend of Turow's who he reconnected with once at Harvard Law. He was a second-year student who has come to law school after he realized that his dream of working in higher education was not financially stable enough. He was a member of the Board of Student Advisors which guided One-Ls thought their first year. BSA was also in charge of organizing and facilitating the Moot Court competition.


Chris Henley

A former OEO lawyer based out of Washington who was working on his graduate law degree while also teaching law. He ran the Legal Methods Program which was essentially a law lab.


Terry Nazarrio

A fellow One L Turow meets during his first year. From
Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a city and the county seat of Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New J ...
, he had been less than forthright during his application process. Upon their initial introduction, Terry tells Scott that the only reason he had gotten into the school is that the school had mistakenly believed that he was Puerto Rican. Nazarrio seems to wear this as a badge of honor.


Annette Turow

Scott Turow's wife who moves to Cambridge to be with Turow during law school.


Reception

The book has become a perennial best-seller, read by many students as they prepare for their first year in law school. According to a 2007 story in
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
, ''One L'' continues to sell 30,000 copies per year, many to first-year law students and law school applicants. It challenged the Socratic method and made people think critically about how the law was being taught in the classroom. Harvard no longer uses the Socratic method to teach law because they realized that students were not learning to their full potential under that structure. The American Bar Association also was highly impressed of Turow's work; however, they pushed back against his anti-Socratic sentiments throughout the book. A novel with a similar theme was published in 1971, six years before ''One-L'', called
The Paper Chase The Paper Chase (stylized as "the pAper chAse") was an American alternative rock band formed in 1998 by producer/engineer John Congleton in Dallas, Texas, who were signed to Kill Rock Stars and Southern Records. Their albums ''God Bless Your Blac ...
.


References


External links


The ''Wall Street Journal'' and Scott Turow on ''One L''
{{Turow, Fight of the Century: Writer Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases (2020)=, The Last Trial (2020)= American memoirs Works by Scott Turow Harvard Law School 1977 non-fiction books G. P. Putnam's Sons books