[1] Author David Hoffman released the book when there were 40 lawyers practicing in Baltimore[2] and shortly after founding the University of Maryland School of Law in 1816.

[6] Hoffman designed the course to require between five and seven years to complete, but Supreme Court Associate Justice Joseph Story believed it should take at least seven.

[9] Hoffman was left out of The Bench and Bar of Maryland: A History 1634 to 1901 (1901), but his approach to legal ethics gained renewed attention in the 1970s after the Watergate scandal.

[3] The same year it was first published, Joseph Story recommended Hoffman's Course of Legal Study in the North American Review,[10] and said of Hoffman that "the writers whom he recommends are of the very best authority; and his own notes are composed in a tone of the most enlarged philosophy, and abound in just and discriminating criticism, and in precepts calculated to elevate the moral as well as intellectual character of the Profession".

[12] John Gage Marvin offered praise for the book in his 1847 legal bibliography, calling it "a work of peculiar excellence ... a priceless contribution to young men just starting upon the life-long study of the law" and "truly a bibliographical treasure, that none will do without who are in downright earnest in studying the law".