Nancy Levit and Douglas O. Linder, authors of The Happy Lawyer, which I blogged about last year, have some advice for incoming first years in the National Jurist. They provide some very solid advice on how to get situated and mentally prepared. And their final line is: "do re-read To Kill a Mockingbird. Reading this classic before law school is analogous to playing “We Will Rock You” before a sporting event."
Read the complete essay here.
I went to a CLE presentation a few years back on trying cases to a hostile jury and the presenter first played a clip from the jury speech in "To Kill a Mockingbird." Nearly everyone in the audience was in tears by the end. This was why we all went to law school. He then played the defense cross examination from "My Cousin Vinnie." His conclusion: Atticus Finch gave a great speech about social justice, but he was a lousy lawyer. He told the jury that they had to reject everything they had ever believed about black people and race relations in order to acquit his client. It was no wonder his client was convicted. Danny DeVito, on the other hand, did not tell the jury that they had to give up their prejudices about Yankees; he just impeached the key prosecution witnesses and his clients were acquited.