Document Type
News Article
Publication Date
10-16-2014
Abstract
Legal education is often described as teaching students "how to think like a lawyer." Indeed, most lawyers will agree that law school pedagogy altered their intellectual approach to problems, arguments and analytical challenges. However, most attempts to define the old saw "think like a lawyer" prove elusive. Maria Konnikova's book, "Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes," effectively captures what it means to think like a lawyer in a way that is both meaningful and relevant to the transformations occurring in legal education and in the practice of law. The book contains some great lessons for cultivating the habits of mind that support logical and thoughtful problem solving—attributes needed for success in law school and the legal profession. Lawyers and law students would do well to learn from the literary world's most successful problem solvers, even if he is a fictional one.
Recommended Citation
Van Cleave, Rachel A., "Viewpoint: Want to Learn to Think Like a Lawyer? It's 'Elementary'!" (2014). Publications. 651.
https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/pubs/651
Comments
Reprinted from the Recorder with express permission.