Letters to a Law Student, 6th edition

Published by Pearson (September 21, 2026) © 2027
Nicholas J McBride

Title overview

Voted among the top 6 books for law students

Letters to a Law Student is an industry-leading text with built-in resources and worked examples to help students transition from university to their first year of law school. Practical and easy to read, it flows as a series of letters covering the chronological journey of a law student. By promoting critical analysis of the law, the text serves as a valuable companion to general law modules covering skills, the legal system and more.

The 6th Edition has been updated to take account of the state of legal education today, with new chapters on AI and doing coursework and dissertations, while also providing readers with a wealth of practical advice on all aspects of studying law.

Hallmark features of this title

A format unlike any other

  • The content is organized as an exchange of letters between a lecturer and an aspiring student, providing a uniquely engaging reading experience.
  • The text lays out a roadmap for legal studies, from contemplating a law degree to preparing to study law to studying law to writing like a lawyer to pursuing a legal career.
  • The text’s chronological format makes it easy to dip into segments at various stages of a law student’s journey.

Real-world applications

  • A wealth of practical advice covers aspects of the legal system and debates around political and legal principles, such as free speech and the harm principle.
  • LNAT exam considerations are woven into select letters, helping students prepare for entrance into legal studies.

New and updated features of this title

  • NEW: A new chapter on AI explores the impact of AI on legal education today and how students should be using AI in their studies.
  • NEW: A new chapter on coursework and dissertations takes into account the evolution of assignments undertaken by today’s law students.
  • REVISED: Completely revised chapters on the nature of law and why students should be interested in studying law help readers make informed choices about whether law is the right subject for them.
  • NEW: Suggestions for further reading were added to the back of the new edition, promoting active engagement with materials relevant to becoming an excellent law student.

Table of contents

PART 1: THINKING ABOUT STUDYING LAW

  • Letter 1: What is law?
  • Letter 2: Why you should study law
  • Letter 3: Why not do something else?
  • Letter 4: But is law the right subject for me?

PART 2: PREPARING TO STUDY LAW

  • Letter 5: A fundamental problem
  • Letter 6: On free speech
  • Letter 7: Means and ends
  • Letter 8: Acts and omissions
  • Letter 9: The many and the few
  • Letter 10: The harm principle
  • Letter 11: Justice and rights
  • Letter 12: How (and how not) to argue
  • Letter 13: Doing the LNAT

PART 3: STUDYING LAW

  • Letter 14: The secrets to your success
  • Letter 15: Avoiding problems
  • Letter 16: What AI can (and cannot) do for you
  • Letter 17: Making the most of your time
  • Letter 18: Using a textbook
  • Letter 19: Reading cases
  • Letter 20: A brief history of law reporting
  • Letter 21: Making sense of statutes
  • Letter 22: Getting through articles
  • Letter 23: Getting the most out of where you are

PART 4: WRITING LIKE A LAWYER

  • Letter 24: Writing essays
  • Letter 25: Answering problem questions
  • Letter 26: Doing coursework and a dissertation
  • Letter 27: Revising for, and doing, exams

PART 5: AFTER STUDYING LAW

  • Letter 28: Moving on

APPENDICES

  1. A mini-dictionary of law
  2. Century Insurance v Northern Ireland Road Transport Board [1942] AC 509

Suggestions for Further Reading

Author bios

About our author

Nick McBride is a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was formerly a Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, having studied law at Brasenose College, Oxford, both as an undergraduate and for the Oxford Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) exam. As well as Letters to a Law Student, he has written (with Roderick Bagshaw) a textbook on Tort Law, the 7th edition of which was published in 2024 and cited with approval by the UK Supreme Court in Tindall v Chief Constable of Thames Valley [2025] AC 1046 and by the Privy Council in Rubis Bahamas Ltd v Russell [2026] UKPC 9. He has also written (with Sandy Steel) Great Debates in Jurisprudence (Hart Publishing, 2nd edn, 2018), which has now been translated into Chinese, and contributed two volumes to the Key Ideas in Law series (which he edits): Key Ideas in Contract Law (Hart Publishing, 2017) and Key Ideas in Trusts Law (Hart Publishing, 2023); Key Ideas in Contract Law was translated into Japanese in 2020.

He has also written a two-part work on the values underlying English private law, the nature of human flourishing and the future of the West: The Humanity of Private Law, Part I: Explanation (Hart Publishing, 2019), and The Humanity of Private Law, Part II: Evaluation (Hart Publishing, 2020). In August 2020 he was appointed by the then Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland QC, to serve on an independent panel (chaired by Lord Faulks) to conduct an Independent Review of Administrative Law. The panel’s report, which was delivered in March 2021, formed the basis of the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022. He ranks in the top 0.2% of authors on the Social Sciences Research Network (5,382 out of 2,669,899), where almost all of his papers are available for download.

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