Legal Writing

On Law Firms Imitating Publishers

Here’s a portion of something published by a law firm. What’s wrong with it?

If you work for a publisher, the problem is obvious. If you work for a law firm, the problem is (most likely) a mystery.

The problem, in this case, is all-too-common among those who don’t know publishing, and it is this: the lack of space between the text and the image.

There should be at least one pica of white space between the text and the image, like so:

Why? What’s a pica?

You needn’t concern yourself with why. Not that it’s not important, but you’re busy; you don’t have the time to learn about layout and design.

Rather than spending your time learning 1000 whys, just imitate the pros.

“An actor playing an attorney doesn’t go to law school to learn his part. No, he just sits in a courtroom and observes how real-life attorneys do whatever they do. Then he imitates them.”

So, how to imitate professional publishers (as an actor imitates attorneys)? By going to the bookstore or the magazine rack, seeing what they do, and then doing the same.

Go ahead; grab a magazine from the rack and look at the pictures in it. What you’ll find is white space between images and text.

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Here’s some advice from a skilled and experienced editor: the next time you publish something on behalf of your firm, imitate the pros if you want it to look professional.

Full post as published by Set in Style on December 22, 2009 (boomark / email).