NONFICTION - Jan. 19, 1992

BROKEN CONTRACT: A Memoir of Harvard Law School by Richard D. Kahlenberg (Hill & Wang: $22.95; 229 pp.). The two best-known books about law school are Scott Turow’s “One L” and John Jay Osborne’s novel, “The Paper Chase,” and both deal with the first year of Harvard Law. “Broken Contract,” by 1989 Harvard Law graduate Richard Kahlenberg, continues that tradition, but he writes about all three years of law school, and with a significantly more critical eye; he is deeply disturbed by the fact that so many students enroll in law school “determined to use law to promote liberal ideals and leave three years later to counsel the least socially progressive elements” of society. That complaint, though familiar, needs to be constantly restated, for it goes against the grain of the legal powers that be; though the idea was best articulated by former Harvard president Derek Bok (a lawyer himself) in 1982, Kahlenberg notes that Bok effectively disavowed it a few years later by appointing as dean of Harvard Law a conservative professor who immediately abolished the school’s public-interest office. “Broken Contract” is a forceful cri de coeur .