Not all legal writers were born to be memoir writers. Abony Homes reviews Rick Lax’s “Lawyer Boy: A Case Study on Growing Up” at Law.com and compares the experience of reading the book to slogging through his law school reading assignments. Although Homes sees some comic potential in the newly-minted writer, he chafes at the footnotes (what????) and the tedious experience of following someone though law school.

I haven’t read the book, so I will refrain from commenting on the quality, but I have a couple of thoughts on Mr. Lax and his personal writing venture. First, I applaud him for actually finding the time to record his memoirs while attending law school, which happens to be DePaul in Chicago – a few short blocks from where I lived.  Second, I am of the opinion that any writing practice is good writing practice and using his skill in this way is an investment in his writing prowess and his creative muscle.

Apparently, Mr. Lax is not alone. One of my Twitter follows, law student Omar Ha-Redeye, has just published a textbook on Population Health, Communities and Health Promotion that will be used in Australian universities. Now, THAT is impressive under anyone’s definition of the word.

While I am wowed by the sheer magnitude of the task of writing a book while negotiating Torts, Constitutional Law, Evidence and Commercial Paper, I am not surprised. I believe an interest in writing necessarily precedes an interest in pursuing law. Check out my Civil Procedure professor Jeremiah Healy (the scourge of my first year) and his web site, devoted to his popular crime novels. After all, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, “a lawyer without books would be a workman without tools.”