THE FOLLOWING BOOKS PROVIDE AN ACCURATE SENSE OF THE AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM:
 

• Full Disclosure: Do You Really Want to be a Lawyer? (American Bar Association -- Susan J. Bell, ed.).
• Legal Education and Professional Development - An Educational Continuum - Student Edition (American Bar Association).
• American Lawyers (Richard L. Abel)
• Law v. Life (Walt Bachman)
• John Marshall, A Life in Law (Leonard Baker)
• Yankee From Olympus (Catherine Drinker Bowen)
• Attorney for the Damned (Clarence Darrow)
• Going to Law School? Readings on a Legal Career (Thomas Ehrlich)
• Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm (Marc Galanter and Thomas Palay)
• A Nation Under Lawyers (Mary Ann Glendon)
• A Civil Action (Jonathan Harr)
• The Washington Lawyer (Charles Horsky)
• The Growth of American Law (J.W. Hurst)
• An Introduction to Legal Reasoning (Edward H. Levi)
• The Bramble Bush (Karl N. Llewellyn)
• At the Bar (David Margolick)
• The Lawyers (Martin Mayer)
• Turning Right: The Making of the Rehnquist Court (David Savage)
• The Brethren (Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong)
• What Can You Do With A Law Degree (Deborah Arron)

THE FOLLOWING BOOKS PROVIDE A PORTRAYAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION:

• Thinking About Law School: A Minority Guide (published by the Law School Admissions Council)
• How to Succeed in Law School (Barron's)
• "How Not to Succeed in Law School" (James D. Gordon) 100 Yale Law  Journal 1679
• Looking at Law School (Stephen Gillers, ed.)
• Anarchy and Elegance: Confessions of a Journalist at Yale Law School (Chris Goodrich)
• The Paper Chase (John J. Osborn)
• One-L (Scott Turow)
• Law School Without Fear, Strategies for Success (Helene Shapo and Marshall Shapo)
• Starting Off Right in Law School (Carolyn J. Nygren)