I'm going into my 2nd year and bought this book because I didn't get the grades I wanted as a 1L. I was a straight-A undergrad (English major) and scored 96th percentile on the LSAT, so I had high expectations of myself. The problem was, I didn't really "get" what my professors expected of me. This book nails it. I learned of it last week by desperately reading through law student Listmanias on Amazon when the last of my grades came through and I knew I needed some help if I wanted to do better next year. I had never heard of the book and don't know anyone who has read it-- it seems to be self-published, and I ordered it directly from his company; I don't think you'll see it in your school bookstore (I didn't).

I actually don't even know if his advice would resonate as well with me as a 1L as it does now, so I'd encourage other current law students looking to improve their grades to read it, especially if you're like me and struggling to understand why you didn't do better than you expected. But I definitely wish I'd read it last year-- my classes would have made a lot more sense. On the first page of Chapter 1, Delaney proposes a definition of "what law is" to explain what the first year of law school is about: "Law is a process of legal reasoning for decision-making about particular controversies." Believe it or not, I truly didn't get that my first year; I thought I just needed to "spot the issues." But there's a lot more to it than that, and I'm glad I found something that spells it all out in a way that none of my professors did. I've only just started reading so I can't report on all the content, but I wanted to encourage anyone just starting or looking to improve their grades to pick this one up before school starts. Good luck in school!

Fantastic book on the introduction to law. Buy it and read it rather than waste your time with books like Law School Confidential and its technicolor briefs. Also check out Delaney's other books (How to Do Well on Law School Exams and Learning Criminal law), which are written in the same easy to follow and enjoyable style. Two thumbs up.

Read this book the summer before law school. You'll understand more and more of it as you go through your first year, and it will help you tie the first year courses together.

The best book out there for what you'll need starting the first day of law school - how to take apart a case and make sense of it. I would read it before starting classes, and you won't have to spend the first few weeks dithering on how to brief.

The immediate challenge in my law school experience was having to learn a a new way of reasoning and a method to make it work in the case format. I thought I was prepared for the volume of work but without a running start with these, even at a rudimentary level of competence, the work load became overwhelming. I recommend highly you avoid this situation, and it's easy to do. Buy Mr. Delaney's book and spend enough time prior to beginning law school making its contents the blueprint for your approach to learning. This the best advice I can give anyone entering law school or considering a law school education.

This is a wonderful introduction to the law school experience. My only regret about this book is buying it prior to starting my second semester, instead of purchasing it during the summer before law school.

John Delaney explains Legal Reasoning in very practical terms without sacrificing any educational value. It is hands down the best legal guide to case briefing and analysis that a first-year would need.

Delaney's simplication of the legal process in lay terms, enables the reader to effortlessly acquire the necessary acumen needed to adequately dissect the pertinent aspects of the judicial decision, which from the onset, seems to be embedded in a sea of ambiguity. The language is concise, explanatory, and friendly to novice legal minds, which helps to expedite the legal reasoning learning curve. Unlike most books, in which only the path of reason is analyzed, Delaney seeks to illuminate the right way by highlighting the inadequacies present in poor reasoning to the corresponding cases. The pedagogy employed enables the reader to independently assess their shortcomings in conjunction with Delaneys explanations, together facilitating the cleansing process. The book has helped to abolish the ambivalence surrounding law school. I no longer feel inadequate, but rather confident that I can not only survive, but even excel during the infamous 1L experience. Although I realize that mere recital of Delaney's lesson will fail to suffice in molding my brain into a legal reasoning machine, Delaneys "Learning Legal Reasoning" has instilled a sense of undeterred confidence in my ability to succeed in the law school classroom.

If you've already read the very general books about law school and the mundane aspects of the process and are ready to begin learning something more of the processes you will need for your first year, there is no better place to start than this book. Mr. Delaney does an excellent job at laying out the basics of what will be expected of you in your first year and how you can begin to train your brain to think like a lawyer. This book covers case briefing and was invaluable to me in my preparations for law school. I highly recommend it.

My instructor follows a "trial and error" method of instruction for legal writing. We had a two-week coverage about briefing a case and we were given a pair of assignments. The class had uniformly negative feedback, we were shown a few "best case" examples from the assignments handed in and---the instructor moved on to other legal writing subjects (case analyses, memoranda, etc.)and never discussed what had been called "the basic building block of legal writing" again. At this point I ordered Mr. Delaney's textbook, rush-delivery, to see what I should have been told about before the assignments ever began.

I have not been disappointed from what I read of "Learning Legal Reasoning" and the discussion about societal issues that judges tend to focus most upon in case analyses was of great help in rescuing my grade on the pair of legal analyses. I recommend this for any novice to legal writing who has been thrown into deep water and been told to "Swim" with almost no preparatory help.

Professor Delaney shows the student exactly what is expected of them when they step into their law class. Learning Legal Reasoning demonstrates by example the art of engaging in a kind of lawyerly reasoning. Using a hand full of cases Prof. Delaney engages the reader by working out their intricacies, where a model good brief and a model poor brief are given to illustrate what it is to think and communicate in a lawyerly fashion. Professor Delaney makes clear that it is simply not enough to memorize rules, but rather the job of the 1L is to start their journey in the art of communicative reasoning. This book makes clear why the case study method is employed: briefing a case allows the student to see the reasoning of the law at work. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that would find the thoughts and suggestions of a long time NYU law professor (30yrs) helpful.

Delaney's Learning Legal Reasoning is a really great introduction to how to think critically about legal cases and how to write a good brief. I'm really glad I was directed to it, and I would highly recommend it to future law students. He's also happy to answer individual questions from people who have read his book--it doesn't really get better than that!

I read LLR before starting my first year of law school. It is a GREAT introduction to the law. Professor Delaney wrote this with the beginning law student in mind. It covers everything a neophyte needs to know (common law tradition, court opinions, law school briefing, etc.) in a workbook format. Professor Delaney also places great attention on the role of judges in shaping the law. This book is straightforward and easy to understand, yet provides the reader with all the tools necessary to attack your 1L classes. Worth every penny (and then some).

This is a must-read for anyone going to law school. It orients the beginning law student to the interweaving case law, statutory law, and policy that guide judicial opinions and teaches students how to extract the key elements from those opinions by way of the case briefing method.
At 130 pages, it is page for page, and pound for pound, one of the best law prep books you can find.
That said, don't think this book is a "quick read." Quite the contrary. To get the most out of this book, you must do some writing - "brief" all six cases presented and compare your work to the samples provided. Then highlight and note what you did right, and what you did wrong. Put the time and work in, and by your 6th brief, you will be amazed at how much progress you have made towards case briefing proficiency (one of the fundamental skills required of first year law students).

Whether or not you read anything else before starting law school, you will want to read this book. If you are really serious about preparing for law school (which you should be if you plan on getting good grades), you'll also need the other books in the Delaney series: "How to Do Your Best on Law School Exams," and "Learning Criminal Law as Advocacy Argument."