Four Recommendations: Exemplary Legal Writing 2022 Books

Abstract

This solicited essay describes four of the most important books of 2022 on legal education and the legal profession.

We’re at a pivotal time for legal education. The COVID pandemic disrupted, among other things, the administration of bar examinations in light of social distancing requirements, and many states are taking the opportunity to rethink the bar examination. In fact, the National Conference of Bar Examiners has announced that its NextGen bar examination is “[s]et to debut in July 2026,” and that it is “[d]esigned to balance the skills and knowledge needed in litigation and transactional legal practice.” At the same time that states and the NCBE are rethinking the bar examination, artificial intelligence is changing the practice of law itself. We’re used to the idea of using AI to help us access legal content. But using AI to generate the content itself? That’s at least new-ish, and the burgeoning use of AI will have a profound effect on the practice of law. In this series of short book reviews, I’ll focus on the legal education side of the house.

Keywords: law, legal education, legal profession, rankings, USNWR rankings, bar exam, professionalism

JEL Classification: K00, K1, K10, K19, K2, K20, K3, K30, K39, K4, K40, K49