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.

Law Jobs: The Complete Guide

After two years of extensive research that included interviewing more than 150 lawyers, my new book (with coauthors Chris Coughlin and Nancy Levit), Law Jobs: The Complete Guide, has been published by West Academic Publishing.  Here’s a description:

Choosing a legal career that fits a student’s personality, skillset, and aspirations is the most important and difficult decision a law student faces, yet only a small number of law schools incorporate career-planning into their curriculums. Law Jobs: The Complete Guide seeks to help fill the gap.  Law Jobs is a comprehensive, reader-friendly guide to every type of legal career. Packed with authoritative research and featuring comments from more than 150 lawyers who do the jobs, Law Jobs offers for each career general background, pros and cons, day in the life descriptions, and information about job availability, compensation, prospects for advancement, diversity, and how students can best position themselves for opportunities. Covered jobs include:

• Large and Medium-Sized Law Firms
• Small Firms and Solo Practitioners
• In-House and Other Corporate Counsel
• Government Agency Lawyers
• Non-Governmental Public Interest Law
• Prosecutors and Public Defenders
• Private Criminal Defense
• JD Advantage Jobs
• Contract (Freelance) Lawyering
• Judges, Mediators, and Arbitrators
• Judicial Law Clerks
• Legal Academic Jobs

Other chapters address lawyer happiness, the rapidly changing face of the legal profession due to technology and other forces, the division between litigation and transactional law, and the Top 50 legal specialty areas.

Together, the authors have received more than thirty awards for teaching and research, and have written extensively about law students and lawyers in books such as 1L of a Ride (McClurg), A Lawyer Writes (Coughlin), and The Happy Lawyer (Levit).

I got the idea for Law Jobs after reading too much about lawyer unhappiness and making the connection that many lawyers simply have not found their right place in the legal world.  Too many law students do no serious career-planning at all, instead resigning themselves to take whatever job comes along. But it’s far too important a decision to leave to chance.

There is no single right or wrong job for everyone because we’re all different. Students need to know themselves—their skillset, personality types, and true aspirations. Only then can they find the best job fit. We think our book does a good job of providing information to help students identify the careers most likely to lead to their long-term happiness.

McClurg’s 1L of a Ride

1L of a Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor’s Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School (West 4th ed. 2021)

Amazon.com listing

Assigned as recommended or required reading at law schools throughout the country, 1L of a Ride provides a step-by-step navigational guide to both academic and emotional success in law school’s crucial first year.

Covered topics in the newly updated fourth edition include: top student fears, the first-year curriculum, effective class participation, types of law students and professors, case-briefing, note-taking, course-outlining, legal research and writing, exam preparation, essay and multiple-choice exam strategies, stress management, the impact of law school on outside relationships, special challenges faced by part-time and nontraditional students, online learning, career planning, and much more.

Shows rather than tells with dozens of anecdotes and comments from real law students, as well as authentic samples of Socratic dialogue, exam questions, student case briefs, class notes, and course outlines.

The only law school success book that:

• Addresses each aspect of academic success.

• Includes both a professor and student perspective, with comments from real law students as they progressed through their first year from beginning to end.

• Features real samples of Socratic dialogue, student case briefs, student class notes, and exam questions and answers.

• Focuses on practical advice that can be followed by any student from day one.

• Employs a lively first-person voice, humor, and dozens of anecdotes to bring the advice to life.

• Relies on educational research to back up advice.

• Includes input from other law professors, including an interview with five professors of Legal Writing, the course that causes the most angst and complaints from first-year students.

Review Excerpts:

“As a pre-law adviser I’ve read many books about preparing for law school or what to expect in the first year. This is by far the best!”

“[As the pre-law advisor at a California university,] I’d be surprised if anyone ever writes a better book on this topic. If it’s not yet the gold standard, it will be in the near future.”

“This book should be required by law schools as a guide to success. I could not have made it through without it!”

“If you read 1L of a Ride, trust me, you will have an edge over any student who hasn’t read it. There is a reason Professor McClurg has won numerous teaching awards and other accolades from the legal community. … When reading this book, you feel like you are getting honest, personal advice from a trusted friend. Along with advice about how to manage your first year mentally and emotionally, you learn skills such as case-briefing and effective note-taking that you will need on day one. And in law school, day one counts!”

“When I asked a friend and recent law school graduate how I should prepare for law school, she laughed and said, ‘Nothing can prepare you for law school.’ She was wrong. This book is an indispensable tool for anyone considering law school or already committed to law school. I call it a tool because it really is―it is an instrument used to achieve success in law school. It is a reference guide to utilize during the entire first year.”

“This book should be required by law schools as a guide to success. I could not have made it through without it! Included in the humorous, well-crafted text is a map through the misconceptions which all law students spend too much of their valuable first year trying to correct. Most students waste thousands of dollars during the first year just trying to get acclimated to the law school experience. Spend a few bucks on this book, start a step ahead, and get more from your investment.”

“Law schools should provide a copy of this book with each acceptance letter.”

“This book is a tour de force …. If you want to do more than survive―if you want to thrive―in law school, buy this book.”

New Guns and the Law Casebook

Gun Book CoverMy new casebook–Guns and the Law: Cases, Problems, and Explanation–composed with Professor Brannon Denning, just came out.  Featuring cases, problems, and explanation, it offers a balanced treatment of gun law and policy in the United States, which is hard to find in this highly charged area.

Here’s the catalog description from Carolina Academic Press:

McClurg (pro-reasonable regulation) and Denning (pro-gun-rights) apply their decades of experience studying firearms policy and gun violence in this balanced, reader-friendly casebook addressing the contentious issues of guns in America. Through cases, problems, and provocative notes and questions, the book explores current federal and state gun laws, major constitutional cases, post-Heller Second Amendment litigation, modern self-defense rules such as Stand Your Ground laws, civil liability, gun laws in other countries, legal solutions to gun violence, and issues of guns and race, alienage, culture, and gender.

We designed the book to be accessible not only to law professors and law students, but to undergraduate and other graduate school professors.  Professors interested in teaching a course in the area can obtain a complimentary copy from the publisher.

The “Companion Text” to Law School, Understanding and Surviving Life with a Law Student

The Companion Text to Law SchoolThe “Companion Text” to Law School: Understanding and Surviving Life with a Law Student (West 2012)

Amazon.com listing

Table of Contents

As every lawyer and law student knows, law school is an adventure for the entire family. It’s a life-changing experience that affects everyone involved.

Dozens of books have been written to prepare students for law school, but what about all those other suffering souls–the relatives and friends who support and struggle right alongside the student on their wild and crazy journey toward a Juris Doctor degree? Who’s preparing them?

Named one of Amazon Editors’ Favorite Books of 2014.

Read interview with McClurg about the book on the Westlaw Insider Blog

The “Companion Text” to Law School is designed to equip loved ones of law students—parents, partners, and other friends and relatives—with all the information and tools needed to understand both law school and their stressed out, rapidly transforming student.

Highlights

• Written by an award-winning professor with wide experience teaching thousands of law students at six law schools.

• Explains all the essentials of legal education, including the first-year curriculum, the Socratic Method of teaching, and the dreaded single-exam format.

• Explores the psyches of law students, including what they love to talk about, things you should never say to them, their sources of stress, and how law school can change their personalities.

• Addresses the impact of law school on outside relationships—and vice versa—and gives tips for navigating relationships with law students.

• Includes dozens of comments, anecdotes, and insights from real law students and their loved ones.

• Extras include a chapter on the types of jobs available to new law graduates, fun “legal” questions you can use to stump your student, a sample case, and a glossary.

• Backed up throughout by academic research.

• Written in a lively, reader-friendly voice, bolstered by humor.

Gun Control and Gun Rights

Gun Control and Gun RightsGun Control and Gun Rights (N.Y.U. Press 2002) (with David B. Kopel & Brannon P. Denning)

Amazon.com listing

Most firearms policy discourse falls firmly on one side of the debate or the other. Showcasing viewpoints from all sides of the gun control debate, Gun Control and Gun Rights offers the first (and still the only) balanced firearms law and policy book. Anyone looking for a fair, even-handed account of the gun issue will find it in this book.

Review Excerpts: 

“Most academic literature regarding firearms policy is one-sided advocacy scholarship. … This book seeks to create … a balance.” — Future Survey 

“For the most part, the gun-policy debate in the United States could be well summed up by Yeats’ words: The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Truly honest scholarship … has been sorely lacking. … No one, it seems, has come forward to frame the questions that the debate ought to be seeking to answer.  Andrew McClurg, David Kopel, and Brannon Denning have done just that.” — Amazon.com Customer Review 

“[Any book by Brannon Denning,] Andrew McClurg, and David Kopel is bound to be a major—and more importantly an honest and balanced—contribution to the great American gun debate. Both Kopel and McClurg are fastidious scholars who are able to bring to this work the best of both sides.” — Barnes & Nobel.com Customer Review

The Law School Trip

The Law School Trip
The Law School Trip: The Insider’s Guide to Law School (Trafford 2001)

Amazon.com listing

The Law School Trip, a satire of legal education, gives the complete inside story on:  The LSAT® and Other Registered Trademarks, How to Survive the Socratic Method with Treatable Injuries, Learning to Love Mrs. Palsgraf, Fun, Fun, Fun and the Rule Against Perpetuities, Strange Creatures from Outer Space and Other Law Professors, Law’s Greatest Hits: Best First-Year Cases, and more.

Review excerpts:

“Laughter is what McClurg’s book provides. Lots of laughter. Heaps and mounds of undulating and ululating laughter. … McClurg makes the law school experience sparkle and shine. He has the unique ability among satirists to make us laugh with each other, but never at each other.” — The Law Teacher

“[T]he quintessential book on the three years oftorment and tribulation known as law school. … [H]owlingly, gut-wrenchingly, turn purple and blow food out your nose funny! … [S]hould be required reading for every law student and lawyer.” — The Bimonthly Review of Law Books

”McClurg has the ability to take excruciating situations,  turn them around, and make them funny. He laughs at everything, including himself, but retains a reverence for the legal profession that is poignant. It is a gut-busting good time that leaves you proud of your chosen profession and makes your sides ache at the same time.” — The Opinion

“Dispense[s] buckets of advice without ever removing tongue from cheek. … a ‘loving parody’ from the eyes of one who knows.” — The National Jurist, The Magazine for Law Students

“Professor McClurg may be the next Dave Barry. … McClurg’s unique outlook on law school life is guaranteed to make you to make you laugh out loud. Five stars and two thumbs up!” — WorldJustice.com

“[T]akes the sting right out of the high-handed pomposity, the double-talk, and officious seriousness of our legal training institutions … [A] barrel of screwy fun … [A] one of a kind piece of work that you don’t have to be a lawyer or law student to love.” — Text-Book.com

“If your smart bone is connected to your funny bone, there’s only one book for you: Andrew McClurg’s The Law School Trip. It left me holding my sides while thinking: wait! I never thought about that before! This is serious! This book gave me more pure pleasure than anything I’ve read in months.” — Professor Marianne Wesson, bestselling author of Render Up the Body and A Suggestion of Death

“A wonderful, twisted tour through legal education that had me laughing all the way. … [T]he perfect antidote for legal education … [A] must read for law students, professors and lawyers.” — Professor Gerry Hess, Gonzaga University

“Hard to find words to describe it. Spectabulous? Fanacular? McClurg brings legal humor to new heights. … Very, very funny!” — Professor Myron Moskovitz, Golden Gate University

What a ‘Trip’! Hilariously poking fun at law students, professors, judges, and the law itself, Andrew McClurg’s The Law School Trip is truly a classic of legal humor.” — Professor David G. Owen

“A delicious read from beginning to end.” — Grif Stockley, bestselling author of Probable Cause and Religious Conviction

“You’ll howl with delight … chortle uncontrollably … your funny bone will ache.” — Professor Timothy R. Zinnecker

“There is no doubt that this creative and amusing masterpiece will be a classic. You will feel the need to share excerpts with friends, then they will borrow the book and never return it!” — Amazon.com customer review (Cherish L. Cronmiller)

“There was not a single page of this book that didn’t make me laugh out loud.” — Amazon.com customer review (Jacquie Brennan)

Practical Global Tort Litigation

Practical Global Tort Litigation

Practical Global Tort Litigation: United States, Germany and Argentina (Carolina Academic Press 2007) (with Adem Koyuncu and Luis Sprovieri)

Amazon.com listing

Publisher’s listing

Practical Global Tort Litigation is the first entry in The Contextual Approach Series to comparative law, which McClurg conceived while a professor at Florida International University College of Law. The series, for which McClurg serves as editor, is intended to show how the law “really works” in different nations by following hypothetical cases in different subject areas from beginning to completion. The books are designed to “show” instead of just “tell.”

Practical Global Tort Litigation takes readers on a journey through a products liability case in the United States, Germany, and Argentina. Using a shattering glass food container as the vehicle, the book compares how a prototypical products liability case would be handled in the U.S. common law system and representative civil law nations in Europe and Latin America. The book analyzes from a real world perspective issues such as fact gathering and presentation, expert witnesses, burdens of proof, theories of recovery and defenses, and damages and attorneys’ fees.

Review Excerpts:

“McClurg, Koyuncu, and Sprovieri have produced the blueprint for academics interested in examining comparative approaches to the law.” — Ediberto Román, Professor of Law, Florida International University

“It is impossible to conceive of a more creative, effective, or engaging way to get one’s arms around the fascinating if unwieldy issues of comparative law than to examine through separate lenses how a particular lawsuit would be handled under such disparate legal systems, reflecting such differing cultural traditions.” — David G. Owen, Carolina Distinguished Professor of Law, University of South Carolina

“The unique focus on a single case permits three different legal systems to be compared effectively and efficiently. The brisk and accessible style makes it perfect for classroom use, although lawyers outside of the academy will find it worth reading for the sheer intrinsic pleasure of learning about how familiar concepts are handled elsewhere.” — Anthony J. Sebok, Centennial Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School

Amicus Humoriae

Amicus Humoriae
Amicus Humoriae (Carolina Academic Press 2003)

Amazon.com listing

The co-editors–law professors Robert M. Jarvis, Thomas E. Baker, and Andrew J. McClurg– collect twenty-five of the funniest law review articles from the past fifty years, arranged in five categories: law students, law professors, lawyers, judges, and legal scholarship. Who says law journal articles have to be stuffy and boring? An “intelligent gift” for lawyers, filled with outstanding writing and sophsticated wit.

Review Excepts

“A collect[ion] of rare gems.” — The Green Bag

“A very funny romp through legal life.” — The National Law Journal

“Definitely a good read.” — The National Jurist

“[S]plendid examples of the seriously underdeveloped genre of law review humor writing.” — Legal Times


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.