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.