If you ever want to personally experience "reader schizophrenia", then take a cruise through the "law school preparation" book section of Amazon.com.  In particular, find a law school prep book (it doesn't really matter which one) and read the reviews.

You will find that for most books (especially those books with legitimate reviews), some people absolutely worship the book; however, some folks despised it.  Most books will have the complete range of ratings, from five stars all the way down to one star (I offer no commentary on books with nothing but five star ratings, other than to say that I recently read a review of the seminal book on law school, "The Bramble Bush" by Karl Lewellyn that totally trashed this indisputable masterpiece.  It is therefore hard to imagine more contemporary works that universally delight all readers).

Pay special attention to reviews written by people with prefatory comments like "I'm now in my second semester of law school" or something similar.  Those reviews are the ones where I believe you will likely find meaningful comments.  Law student reviews are also where you are most likely to find negative criticism about a particular book.

Some of the best-selling law school books are also those with some of the most vitrolic reviews.  I believe this is because many law students mistakenly believe throughout their law school careers that there is a "holy grail" book out there somewhere.  If they can just find it, they will make endless A's and A+'s, effortlessly. 

These misguided students engage in this fantasy thinking because after a semester or so of law school they are faced with the harsh reality of their own intellectual limitations.  These students are used to landing at the top of their classes, based upon their ability to memorize and regurgitate information; the classic undergraduate study model.  When they make their first "Cs" in law school, especially if they have read a book that purports to give then an "insider view" of law school, they naturally blame the book for giving them bad information.

As I explain in "Law School Labyrinth" (Kaplan Publishing, 2009), there are no holy grails in law school.  In law school, you learn to "think like a lawyer" largely by engaging in self-teaching.  If you follow your undergraduate study model, you will likely survive law school, but chances are, you will not graduate anywhere near where you think you should be, in terms of class rank.  Instead, the purpose of the Labyrinth is to teach you how to figure things out for yourself.  If you cannot step back and see the forest for the trees in law school, and understand the process, you will likely earn mediocre grades.

As I stress in "Law School Labyrinth", law school is all about the process.  Law school outlines teach you how to organize and digest information; the content is certainly important, but the outlining process is infinitely more important than the output.  Similarly, law school exams are about showcasing your ability to think like a lawyer, amid a sea of facts, red herrings and extraneous information.  No book or commercial outline can teach you this-  you must learn it on your own.

So, if you are looking for a book that will tell you which are the best commercial outlines, you will be disappointed.  Every law student is different and responds differently to the various materials.  There is no "holy grail"  outline for a particular subject.  If you think you have one and make a "C" on your exam, it's not the outline's fault.  Your "C" means that either you haven't mastered the subject or you simply cannot effectively communicate in writing your ability to think like a lawyer.

Obviously I have a strong bias for "Law School Labyrinth."  I wrote the book to level the playing field a bit and share insights I have gained after entering law school as a non-traditional student, passing two bar exams and working for a number of years in law firms and as in-house counsel.  My aim of the book is to help you develop your own strategy of attack for law school.  You need to have a strategy well before you ever set foot in law school.  Because first-year grades are so important, you cannot waste a minute getting your bearings.

But do not be fooled into thinking that my book (or any book) will give you a secret shortcut to success.  Learning legal analysis is a step-by-step proposition, sort of like learning to ride a bicycle.  You will struggle, wobble, and probably fall of the bike a few times.  But if you understand the basic goal and what it takes to get there, eventually you will succeed.

Best wishes in your legal career.
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Most writers tackling this subject write about specific offerings, such as the "Nutshell" series (Thomson-West) or the "Examples and Explanations" series (Aspen).  Some, like fine wine connoisuers even make subtle distinctions among the various materials, claiming that one publisher is has a better offering for Contracts, while another product is optimal for your Securities Law course.  Worse, some even appear to suggest that commercial outlines are a substitute for self-created outlines.

I am going to tackle the subject from a slightly different angle.  As I explain repeatedly in my book, "Law School Labyrinth- A Guide to Making the Most of Your Legal Education" (Kaplan Publishing, 2009), in law school the process is infinitely more important than the output, at least as far as outlining is concerned.  This means that outlining is nothing more than a means to an end-  the end being comprehensive memorization of the "black letter" law.  The term "black letter" refers to the actual law of a subject, especially the common law; something law professors will generally not declare.  As with most things law school, you figure it out for yourself.

Certainly, outlining serves other purposes, such as helping students begin to organize their thinking about a particular subject in a lawyerly manner.  However, I would like to limit this blog post to the memorization aspect because it is simply so important when things really count in law school-  at exam time.

So, which commercial outlines are best suited to help law students memorize the law?  The answer is (again, as with most things law school) "it depends."  It depends on where you are in terms of the breadth of your knowledge on a particular subject.  If you have been following the Socratic dialogue, keeping up with the reading (and following the casebook's table of contents carefully- another suggestion from my book), regularly digesting the material and recording your digestion in the form of an outline, you may not need much, if anything, in the way of a commercial outline.

On the other hand, if you simply aren't following, a good commercial outline may be exactly the roadmap you need, in order to begin to own the material.  A commercial outline can also fill in the gaps that the casebook or the professor inadvertently (or intentionally) create.  Finally, a commercial outline can serve the useful purpose of helping you to check your thinking and progress.  So, in some cases, a very simply and high-level outline may do the trick.  In other cases, a detailed outline, complete with annotations may be in order.  Or, a series that is a bit more "interactive"  that includes questions and practice exams may be that extra edge that enables you to "own" the material.

In any event, despite law school lore, there are no "holy grail" commercial outlines.  More importantly, in law school no amount of  money invested in outlines can replace the basic grinding required, in order for the student to learn and be able to work with the material in such an effective way that they write those critical "A" exams.  And by the way, that's often what we lawyers do- we conduct research, we read and reread, we grind until we have sufficiently mastered a subject in order to render effective legal advice.

In "Law School Labyrinth" I describe the Pyramid Outline Method, which is a study method for law students that enables them to work effectively throughout the semester, avoid classic law student time-wasting dead ends and increase their chances of success.  I truly began to understand this method only after I had successfully completed two bar exams.

So, a simple answer to a complicated question.  The use and choice of commercial outlines is a very personal decision to law students, that depends upon a variety of factors.  But again, a commercial outline alone will not earn you an "A".  You are going to have to work extremely hard and smart, in order to master the material.  A commercial outline can help.  But a commercial outline can never replace good, old-fashion hard work.
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As I discuss in "Law School Labyrinth", the irony of study aids in law school is that almost everyone uses them, although no one actually admits it that first year.  I guess this is because no one wants to appear to be struggling or not "getting it", even though pretty much everyone around them is going through the same struggle.

The truth is that without some sort of roadmap to the course, it's pretty difficult to figure out the end destination.  Some casebooks are well-organized, with beautifully-constructed tables of contents.  Others are poorly-edited and rambling, a monument to some law school professor's zeal to publish, regardless of quality or content.

That said, I would also advise against going to extremes in this regard.  If you overwhelm yourself with extra reading, on top of the hundreds of pages you may be assigned each night, you will merely overload an already overloaded hard drive.  You can also find yourself needing additional student loans to find that perfect outline.  If you look carefully, there are numerous free materials on the Internet and yes, even in your law school library.

Use study aids as aids, and not as a substitute for wresting with the material.  Study aids can be a sort of "user's manual" to the course, but you actually have to roll up your sleeves, learn the law and legal principles, and develop your legal reasoning skills the old fashioned way-  through hard work.

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