Fourth Edition of 1L of a Ride

Assigned as required or recommended reading at law schools throughout the country, 1L of a Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor’s Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Year of Law School provides a candid, comprehensive roadmap to both academic and emotional success in law school’s crucial first year.

Legal education continues to evolve and so does this classic work, now in its fourth edition.

Told in an accessible first-person voice, covered topics include: pre-planning, top student fears, the first-year curriculum, the Socratic and case methods of teaching, effective class participation, the top habits of successful students, essential study techniques, legal research and writing, exam strategies, maintaining well-being, and much more.

Combines comments from hundreds of law students, empirical research, and authentic samples of signature documents from the 1L experience, including exam questions, Socratic dialogue, and student case-briefs, class notes, and course outlines.

McClurg taught at six different law schools and received numerous awards for both teaching and research.

Praise for McClurg’s Newest Novel

McClurg’s fifth novel, Funeral Daze, under his pen name Dorian Box, is out  and getting terrific reviews. Check it out on Amazon.

Praise For McClurg’s (aka Dorian Box) Latest Novel

“FUNERAL DAZE by Dorian Box manages to be laugh-out-loud funny, heartwarmingly tender, and full of lively action and suspense, all at once—a thoroughly entertaining and engaging read.” — IndieReader (5 Stars; IR Seal of Approval)

Funeral Daze is a novel that takes both light and dark elements to present a fantastically engaging, emotionally resonant story in a deeply humorous and satirical fashion. Unmissable reading.” — 2023 Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal for Humor Fiction)

“A hilarious page-turner that effortlessly blends crime, humor and South Florida beach culture. … Award-winning author Dorian Box (Psycho Tropics, The Hiding Girl) has always employed brilliant doses of well-timed levity in crime fiction, but he pulls out all the stops for this laugh-out-loud caper.” — BestThrillers

“The story unfolds at a crisp and steady pace, with plenty of thought-provoking moments once 12-year-old Jessica enters the scene, offering Danny surprisingly mature reflections on tragedy and a knockout mystery to occupy his time. … Funeral Daze delivers an appealing spin on the mystery genre through rich characterization and an abundance of insight throughout.” — Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize Seminfinalist

“A perfect beach read, this zany mystery has the thrills, quirky characters, juicy plot twists, and gripping conclusion you’re looking for!” — Reedsy Discovery

“Time and again, Box has proven he can write a tense thriller that is funny, dark, and completely endearing. It’s the perfect combination of a smart storyline and characters that keep you reading well after bedtime. Fantastic!” — NetGalley

Funeral Daze is a macabre and hilarious novel that intersects the lives of several bizarre and oddly compelling characters. … Dorian Box masterfully directs the story into a series of unpredictable and uproarious events that are deliciously ironic, unexpectedly thought-provoking, and always edgy and dark.” — D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

And don’t forget McClurg’s (Box’s) other award-winning novels.

Wacky Personal Injury Sticker: Injured? Good!

Talk about a wacky sticker. We’ve all seen the billboards and city benches and bumper stickers, etc., bearing advertisements from plaintiffs’ personal injury lawyers along the lines of:

INJURED? You may be entitled to compensation. Call Tammy the Terminator today for a free consultation!

But walking to a gym last week, I passed a car with this sticker on the rear window:

INJURED? GOOD

Yikes! Surely it’s a joke … I hope. If anyone recognizes the two dudes pictured, let me know.

Motion to file Box of Crayons

When you come across a motion to file a box of crayons in a case seeking a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, you just have to know more. Specifically, why are the lawyers asking “FOR LEAVE TO FILE ONE PACKET OF CRAYOLA COLORED PENCILS”?

(I borrowed this from the Facebook page of a former student of mine at the Florida International University College of Law.)

Forged License Plate Is Art for Art’s Sake

This effort to forge a license plate’s vehicle registration renewal sticker must have been art for art’s sake, because it surely had no chance of fooling anyone.

Bartlett is an incorporated suburb of Memphis. The Bartlett police recently posted this picture on their Facebook feed.

Give them credit for their sense of humor. “Nice try, but no,” they said.

Wacky Warning: Do Not Mow Rocks

Help me figure out this wacky warning/instruction sign in a bed of stones that says “Do Not Mow.” Comes via a friend of a Facebook friend.

Possibilities:

The property owner recently redid the landscaping and replaced the grass with rocks. The property owner lacks confidence in the skill and judgment of the person or company responsible for maintaining the landscaping. The property owner’s lawyer is one of my former Torts students to whom I taught the adage, “Tort law is a world where everything that can go wrong does.”

McClurg Interviewed for “Criminal” Podcast Re “Mantraps”

“Criminal,” the highly rated podcast of true crime stories run by former NPR reporters, interviewed me for its newest episode called “Mantrap.” It addresses civil liability for harm caused by deadly booby traps set to protect uninhabited property. Here’s a link to the website podcast and here’s a link to all of the links where the podcast can be heard (e.g., Spotify, Google Play, iTunes, etc.).

My contribution involved one of my favorite tort law cases, Katko v. Briney, the infamous Iowa spring-gun case.

Plaintiff Marvin Katko broke into Ed and Bertha Briney’s uninhabited farmhouse in Eddyville, Iowa, in search of old jars and bottles he considered to

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1L of a Ride Number One Bestseller … in Jurisprudence?

Karl Llewellyn, Roscoe Pound, Ronald Dworkin … McClurg?

And you thought 1L of a Ride was simply a helpful law school prep book, but it’s the number #1 Best Seller on Amazon in “Jurisprudence.”

Yale, Chicago, Harvard, I’ll be waiting for your calls.

Tips for How NOT to Move a Washer and Dryer

At lawhaha.com, we love what we call “rolling torts,” also known as “accidents waiting to happen.” A rolling tort consists of an effort to move large objects via a vehicle in a way that creates an unreasonable danger to other motorists.

Courtesy of a former student, here we find a valiant effort to transport a full-size washer and dryer with a compact car. To the driver’s credit, the elaborate straps show a solid effort to arrive at the destination without disaster.

More rolling torts can be found scattered through these pages, including here, here, and here.

The Eminent Domain Power Explained in a Child’s Drawing

“Eminent domain” is the power of federal and state governments to “take” private property for public use. In 1879, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the power “requires no constitutional recognition” because it is an inherent power of sovereign governments. But governments can’t just take your property without paying for it. The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that no private property can be taken for “without just compensation.” Here’s a good history of it.

The Fifth Amendment eminent domain clause is often called “the taking clause,” for obvious reasons. While it only applies to federal actions, all states provide for the power of eminent domain in

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How To Know If You’re a Small-Town Lawyer

While many law students crave the riches and prestige of Biglaw, small-town lawyering is where the real action is at. But how do you know if you really are a small-town lawyer?

The answer came to me courtesy of former student Jim Jackson, who practices tort law in Arkansas (and generously says he was inspired to pursue that area after taking my Torts and Products Liability courses at the UALR School of Law). He shared a quiz of sorts compiled by a friend named Michael who practices in Crossett, Arkansas. Crossett, on the Louisiana border, is the county seat and has a population of about six thousand. It’s the very

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Experts Predict the Job Market in 20 Legal Specialties

Law students spend too much time reading cases and too little time thinking or learning about what kind of legal job would be the best fit for them. In the cover story for the Fall 2021 issue of The National Jurist Magazine, I and my co-authors of Law Jobs: The Complete Guide (West Academic Publishing 2019) seek to predict the job market in 20 legal specialties.

Read 20 Hottest Law Jobs for the Next Decade

Worthwhile reading for all law students. But it’s not enough. Your goal in choosing a legal career isn’t just to find a job, but find one that fits your values, personality, and overall

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What is this Graphic Warning Sign Trying to Say?

Can you figure out all the things this sign is trying to tell you?

Pictorial or graphic warning and instruction signs and labels are intended to be universally understood. That’s why they exist. There are roughly 6,500 different languages on this planet and space limitations, among other concerns, limit the ability to use multiple languages to explain warnings and instructions.

Many product makers and public space operators do use multiple languages in their warnings, but they generally stick to a few top choices, usually selected by anticipated regional audiences. Dual English and Spanish warnings, for example, are common in the U.S.

The problem is that it’s difficult to

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Funny Law School Stories
For all its terror and tedium, law school can be a hilarious place. Everyone has a funny law school story. What’s your story?

Strange Judicial Opinions
Large collection of oddball and off-the-wall judicial opinions and orders.

Product Warning Labels
A variety of warning labels, some good, some silly and some just really odd. If you come encounter a funny or interesting product warning label, please send it along.

Tortland
Tortman! Andrew J McClurg
Tortland collects interesting tort cases, warning labels, and photos of potential torts. Raise risk awareness. Play "Spot the Tort."

Weird Patents
Think it’s really hard to get a patent? Think again.

Legal Oddities
From the simply curious to the downright bizarre, a collection of amusing law-related artifacts.

Spot the Tort
Have fun and make the world a safer place. Send in pictures of dangerous conditions you stumble upon (figuratively only, we hope) out there in Tortland.

Legal Education
Collecting any and all amusing tidbits related to legal education.

Harmless Error
McClurg's twisted legal humor column ran for more than four years in the American Bar Association Journal.