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Title: Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School by Richard D. Kahlenberg, Robert Coles ISBN: 0-571-19807-4 Publisher: Faber & Faber Pub. Date: April, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.92 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great food of thought!
Comment: I'm a law student in Taiwan. I read this book in its Chinese version and this book reveals to me the mental transformation of a law student in the American's top law school.The function of Harvard law school,the holyland a law student might dream of, through its 3 years' top educational resources and first class faculty, is to make a liberal-mind student to be a cold-blood wealth searching lawyer.How terrible it has been and what's wrong with the legal education?And Harvard just represents all of this.Don't doubt that I am an anti-Harvardist, I also dream that one day I could be accepted in this school which is situated on the top of hierarchy....
The author wrote this book in a sence of irony and humor.But the truth is so horrible. I think that all who is dedicated himself or herself in this field could think twice about what you are doing now.
Rating: 5
Summary: Inspiring and thought-provoking!
Comment: Broken Contract is the chronicle of Richard Kahlenberg's struggle to justify his classical liberal ideals with the harsh reality of law school: most entering law students have a desire to use the privilege of an education in the law to help the poor and downtrodden of society, "but upon graduating, the vast majority [scramble] to fill the ranks of the nation's top corporate law firms" (from the front flap). Through the framework of his struggle with these powerful opposing forces, Kahlenberg presents us with a fascinating look at Harvard Law School, its culture and the nature of the law education of the late 1980s. He paints a portrait of everyday life as a law student, scrambling for Law Review positions, summer internships, judicial clerkships and ultimately, for a job after graduation.
As Kahlenberg searches for a job and dogmatically asks each interviewer about the firm's pro bono work (he is interested in little more), he occasionally comes across as an elitist; his sense of noblesse oblige is mildly nauseating. Throughout the book, Kahlenberg operates on the assumption that class-action lawsuits are morally right, that cases brought by poor people are just, that all big corporations are evil, that people have to sell-out to earn big salaries and that "conservatives" are willing to do anything to guarantee the rights of the rich.
However, don't let these relatively small negative aspects of the book deter you from reading it, even if you identify yourself as a conservative. His larger point is this: "since each of us struggles daily with good and bad impulses, we might want to restructure our social institutions in order to make it a little easier to do good" (235). This book does not target a certain ideology, except perhaps greed. Kahlenberg does not pull any punches and the targets of his criticisms span the ideological spectrum (although he does let a few more land on the right side of the spectrum).
Broken Contract rates a full four and a half stars. Broken Contract challenged me to think critically about my motivations for attending law school and broadened my perspective on life in general and on the legal community in particular.
Rating: 1
Summary: Whiny limousine liberal
Comment: If you want to read the story of a guy who thinks it would really be nifty to do important public service work while still pulling down six figures, this is the book for you. Kahlenberg makes law students like myself who are legitimately dedicated to public interest law look like idiots. From tacky comments about distinguished lawyers he labels "sell-outs" for their choice to move to private work to the hilarious account of his (very sincere, I'm *sure*) questioning an interviewer at Arnold and Porter about whether a liberal would feel comfortable at the firm (like they're going to tell you no) the book is pretty useless. Kahlenberg wants you to think he's really upset that he just tried and tried and couldn't get a public interest job, but let's face it -- he went to Harvard Law. If he was the least bit honest at any time, the book would be worth reading. There's no way Coles read this book before agreeing to write the foreword.
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Title: The Buffalo Creek Disaster : How the survivors of one of the worst disasters in coal-mining history broughtsuit against the coal company--and won by Gerald M. Stern ISBN: 0394723430 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 12 February, 1977 List Price(USD): $10.20 |
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Title: American Legal Systems: A Resource and Reference Guide by Toni M. Fine ISBN: 0870842668 Publisher: Anderson Pub Co Pub. Date: May, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Acing Your First Year of Law School: The Ten Steps to Success You Won't Learn in Class by Shana Connell Noyes, Henry S. Noyes ISBN: 0837709121 Publisher: William s Hein & Co Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: One L : The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School by Scott Turow ISBN: 0446673781 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Law of Torts: Examples and Explanations by Joseph W. Glannon ISBN: 0735511918 Publisher: Panel Publishing Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $35.95 |
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