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1L of a Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor's Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School

5th Edition
Andrew J. McClurg
ISBN: 9798892099370
Subject: Academic Success
Format: Print & Digital - Softbound
Page Count: 522
Copyright: 2025 | Status: In Stock
Available in the Study Aids Collection Your school may already provide your students with access to this title through a school-wide subscription.

Assigned as required or recommended reading at law schools throughout the country, 1L of a Ride 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. Told in an accessible first-person voice, covered topics in this completely updated fifth edition 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, online learning, career planning, 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 is an award-winning professor who taught at six different law schools.

For the first time, this edition includes free access to the 1L of a Ride Video Course, a collection of thirteen videos designed to reinforce the reading, often from fresh angles and with additional content. Along with McClurg, the videos feature award-winning law professors Christine Coughlin (Wake Forest University), Meredith Duncan (University of Houston), and Nancy Levit (University of Missouri-Kansas City). Each video is roughly ten minutes, followed by a short self-assessment quiz.


Imprint: West Academic Publishing
Series: Academic and Career Success Series
Publication Date: 04/17/2025

Andrew J. McClurg, University of Memphis School of Law

CasebookPlus™

This title is available in our CasebookPlus format. CasebookPlus provides support beyond your classroom lectures and materials by offering additional digital resources to you and your students. Anchored by faculty-authored formative self-assessments keyed to our most popular casebooks, CasebookPlus allows students to test their understanding of core concepts as they are learning them in class – on their own, outside of the classroom, with no extra work on your part. CasebookPlus combines three important elements:

  • A new print or digital casebook
  • Access to a downloadable eBook with the ability to highlight and add notes
  • 12-month access to a digital Learning Library complete with:
Multiple-choice self-assessment questions, including:
  • Chapter questions keyed to the casebook
  • Black Letter Law questions (available in select subjects)
  • Subject area review questions for end of semester use
Essay and short answer questions with sample answers and expert commentary, in 1L and select upper-level subjects

Leading digital study aids, an outline starter, and audio lectures in select subjects

Students can still utilize CasebookPlus digital resources if they’ve purchased a used book or are renting their text by purchasing the Learning Library at westacademic.com.

With CasebookPlus, you can customize your students’ learning experience and monitor their performance. The quiz editor allows you to create your own custom quiz set, suppress specific quiz questions or quiz sets, and time-release quiz questions. Additionally, the flexible, customized reporting capability helps you evaluate your students’ understanding of the material and can also help your school demonstrate compliance with the new ABA Assessment and Learning Outcomes standards.

New content includes:

  • Access to the 1L of a Ride Video Course, included free for the first time.
  • Two additional “short essay” questions with model answers in the Appendix
  • Completely updated with revisions on nearly every page, including discussion of new studies and data in numerous areas such as:
    • New studies on superiority of print reading over e-book reading
    • Law school attrition rates
    • New ABA accreditation rules addressing: urging schools to allow pay and course credit for externships; requirement that schools educate students in their “Professional Identity”; allowing schools to substitute GRE for LSAT and ongoing push toward eliminating an entrance exam altogether; 75% bar pass requirement within two years; new “distance learning” rules.
    • Latest law faculty demographic data
    • New studies regarding superiority of handwriting class notes versus typing them on a computer
    • Updated info on mandatory grading curves
    • Info re new “NextGen” bar exam coming in 2026 (already adopted by 21 states)
    • Complete revision of Online Learning chapter (which was added during the pandemic)
      • New studies on effectiveness of online learning versus in-person learning
    • Substantial revisions to Career Planning chapter, including lasting impact of the pandemic on practicing law and the introduction of Generative AI.

Learn more about this series.