The Trials Of Law School - a movie review

I came across a documentary called “Trials of Law School”, and decided that today was the perfect day to pop it in the DVD player and sit back with my dinner and watch it. Let me start by saying that, overall, I enjoyed the documentary, and I would highly recommend it to anyone considering law school. It gives a fairly good representation of the good and bad of law school, and I think anyone debating about whether law school is for them should take a look at this documentary.

The documentary, by Porter Heath Morgan, follows 8 students as they embark on their first year at The University of Oklahoma Law School. My first criticism is that not every law school is The University of Oklahoma, and every law school gives a slightly different experience; due to the faculty, the culture or the geography. For instance, it was said that classes consist of 40-45 students. This is starkly different from most law school, where a first year class typically consists of 150 students. Having said that, Mr. Morgan fills this gap by including interviews with faculty and administration from various law schools around the country. In addition, despite the fact that not every law school will not be identical to The University of Oklahoma, the film does a good job of capturing the typical experience that every first year shares.

First off, the good: The mix of students Mr. Morgan chose was excellent. They are of different age ranges and different backgrounds, all having different responsibilities and concerns outside of law school.

As stated above, Mr. Morgan included interviews with faculty and administration from all over. To be honest, this was my favorite part of the documentary, and I felt it was the most helpful for potential students. I was also impressed with the individuals that Mr. Morgan chose to include, since many of them, like Rich Freer and Eric Posner, are renowned in the legal field. I also found myself nodding in agreement with many of the interviews, since they were highlighting points that, as a professor myself, I am consistently stressing to my students. Many first year students currently going through the process, as well as incoming students, can benefit greatly from a lot of the advice doled out.

I found that the movie really captured the “essence” of law school, and the stress involved. I also loved the parts about finals, since again, it really captured what it is like to go through the stress of law school finals, which are nothing like anyone has ever been through before law school. I also loved a comment about law school being like high school, which, for good and bad, is completely on point!

It was also great how Mr. Morgan wrapped things up at the end, with the ability to show people that there IS life after your first year, and those first exams are NOT life or death. You can move on, you really really can!

I also found the bonus feature “Think Like A Lawyer”, is an incredibly bonus for current first years!

Now, for the not so good: I often found the narrative a bit choppy. It was really difficult to get invested in the lives of these students. I was also disappointed that Mr. Morgan did not dive as deep as I would have hoped into certain areas. For instance, some of the students were parents, and some were dating others in their group, and these would have been very interesting areas to dig just a bit deeper into, however, the viewer was only given a taste. So many of my students are “non traditional”, in that they have to balance families and, sometimes, full time jobs. I was so happy that Mr. Morgan included students that face those same challenges, however, so disappointed that we did not see more of how they balanced those responsibilities.

There were also some parts that I found did not make sense, or were just not relevant, like a student getting ready in the morning. I felt that time could have been better used to flesh out some of the other things that were only touched upon.

My only major issue, especially from the standpoint of a professor, is that there was a scene where one of the students contradicted the professor, and the movie never took the focus back to why she MIGHT be wrong, and the professor might be right. She was using real life experiences, and it would have been a PERFECT opportunity for Mr Morgan to discuss with professors about how students that come in with too much work experiences are often at a disadvantage, since they think they know things they do not. Many of my students work while in law school, or have had previous work experience. Even if that work experience is in the field of law, it does not always mean what they learned on the job was correct.

Again, overall I really enjoyed it, and felt it captured the essence of what it means to struggle through your first year of law school. I think this is a must see for anyone contemplating applying for law school, or, for that matter, any current first years!