One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School

“For the next five days I will assume that I am somewhat less intelligent than anyone around me. At most moments I’ll suspect that the privilege I enjoy was conferred as some kind of peculiar hoax. I will be certain that no matter what I do, I will not do it well enough; and when I fail, I know that I will burn with shame.”

Turow opens One L with a short journal entry from the middle of his first term at Harvard Law School. Scott expresses feelings of incompetence, comparisons to his peers, and his anxieties about failure. These three emotions bombard Scott throughout the text as he navigates his legal education. By opening the book with such a passage, Turow highlights The Psychological and Physical Stress of Rigorous Academic Programs.

“I know you’ll have your hands full. But it’s so important, so important to get away from the law now and then. Just so that you can maintain some perspective. Don’t get so caught up in all of this that you forget to leave it once in a while. Your work will always be there when you get back.”

Scott’s Legal Methods professor, Chris Henley, gives his students advice on their first week of class. Henley urges students not to become consumed by their studies and the law because it can warp their perspectives and actions. This advice foreshadows Scott’s struggles with The Link Between Competitive Ambition and Identity, as Scott and his classmates find themselves completely insulated in the legal environment with few opportunities to interact with the outside world. Gradually, their identities and personalities are subsumed by their studies.

“Is a brief supposed to sound casual or formal? Does it make a difference how a brief sounds? Should I include a reasoning of the judge who dissented, as well? Is this why students hate the case-study method?

Twenty minutes ago, I threw up my hands and quit.”

Scott expresses his feelings of exasperation with his first attempt at legal writing. He’s frustrated by how much he doesn’t know, not just about legal concepts, but about basic legal practices like brief writing. The string of questions followed by Scott’s ultimate declaration of defeat demonstrates the immediate fear and stress he experiences in law school, which connects to the theme