Legal Writing

Today’s Qurious Quote

Posted on January 23, 2009
Today’s quote comes from the latest post at the DC Injury Law Journal, a new blog published by Gabriel Assaad, a personal injury lawyer. Here’s the start of the post: The West Virginia Record wrote on January 9, 2009 a wonderful article about former Justice Larry Starcher overviewing his last days of his term and his fight [...

Getting the Justice You Can Afford?

Posted on January 22, 2009
In this article, Martha Neil describes a 22-year-old man (an African American named Harris) who pled guilty to a possession-with-intent charge. She writes: Harris, who had no prior record, had been convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to deliver and being a party to the crime after entering a guilty plea ...

Most Unusual

Posted on January 21, 2009
A well written, attorney-authored blog wins a writing award. Imagine that.

What Can Happen When You Miss Publishing 101

Posted on January 21, 2009
Suppose you went to a law firm’s Web site. Suppose you clicked on the Newsletters link, and this appeared. What’s weird is this — if you click the link to the article titled “The Role of the Derivative Plaintiff: Second Circuit Withdraws Equity Committee?s Derivative Standing, Emphasizing Central Role of Debtor and Bankruptcy Court Regarding Legal [...

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Be Interesting

Posted on January 21, 2009
Running a blog? Trying to catch juicy potential clients — the ones who could make you wealthy? Then be interesting. That’s right. Be interesting.  Here’s a good example, written by Melisa Rockhill, Tarkoff?s Legal Secretary. Here’s yet another good example...

What Can an Editor Do for a Lawyer?

Posted on January 21, 2009
This time, let’s see what a skilled and experienced editor might do for a busy personal injury lawyer — one trying to promote his practice with a blog. Here’s the intro to a post titled “When Do You Need a Personal Injury Lawyer?“  Here’s what an editor might turn that intro into: Let’s consider some of the changes [...

Sorry. Couldn’t Resist!

Posted on January 21, 2009
Just got a message via e-mail from the Legal Marketing Association. They’re advertising a distance learning program titled Effective Business Writing. From the message: Participants will learn to . . . organize your thoughts quickly and clearly...

Today’s Excellent Writing Advice

Posted on January 20, 2009
Remember — the passive voice is to be avoided. And that’s because — as E. B. White advises — the passive voice is less vigorous and less direct than the active voice. But don’t go overboard on it. If you tell Microsoft Word to do a spelling and grammar test on something you wrote, and it turns [...

Want To Get Published?

Posted on January 15, 2009
If you’re an attorney and you want to promote your practice, then yes — you want your work published. If you’re not sure how to get your work published, you might want to join this Linked In group: Lawyers and Other Professionals Interested in Getting Published for Business Development...

Qurious Quote of the Day

Posted on January 15, 2009
Today’s Qurious Quote comes from a blawg — a popular one — that caters to home-office attorneys. Here it is: Growing up my father was a practicing ophthalmologist in Texarkana, Texas. This is a good example of the sort of problem that 8th-grade English teachers were designed to eliminate — the dangling participle*...

Touched by an Editor

Posted on January 14, 2009
Today’s example comes from a firm’s annual report on Trends in Trademarks. Here’s the original copy: Here’s the revised copy: What was changed, and why? The font was changed from Arial (a display face) to Verdana (a face designed for easy reading)...

Blawg, Humbug!

Posted on January 13, 2009
Mark Herrmann –author of the Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and co-author of the very popular Drug and Device Law Blog — wrote this interesting post about whether blawgging brings in business. If you’re thinking of starting a blawg to promote your practice, give it a read...

The Top 30 Blogs on Writing

Posted on January 12, 2009
Molly DiBianca (proprietor of The Delaware Employment Law Blog) has identified The Top 30 Blogs on Writing, several of which focus on legal writing.

Quote of the Day

Posted on January 12, 2009
Today’s quote comes from an essay written by Mark Richardson, assistant professor of writing and linguistics at Georgia Southern University. The essay — titled “Writing Is Not Just a Basic Skill” — appears in The Chronicle of Higher Education: Writing is not the expression of thought; it is thought itself.

RE the Sherry Fowler Best Writing on a Legal Blog Award

Posted on January 09, 2009
At the end of last year, I ran across this post written by Dennis Kennedy, a technology lawyer who runs a very popular blawg. That post lists the winners of the Blawggies — annual awards for blawggers. What caught my eye was the Sherry Fowler Best Writing on a Legal Blog Award that was won by [...

Dan Harris — A Flavorful Blawgger

Posted on January 08, 2009
Ask Google to search for these two terms: China and Law Do that, and the first item returned is a link to China Law Blog, owned and operated by the Seattle firm of Harris & Moure. With an Alexa rank of 200,000 and a Technorati rank under 20,000, this award-winning blog is among the most popular of [...

Great Minds Think Alike

Posted on January 08, 2009
I firmly believe that — if they’re good — you can use your writing skills to attract clients. Jim Hasset, author of the Legal Business Development blog, seems to agree: ” . . . I often talk to lawyers who are writing articles or books in their marketing time...

Who Publishes Nothing but Old News?

Posted on January 08, 2009
Here’s another New Year’s resolution — if your firm’s site has a section titled Publications, and it’s obvious that nothing’s been added to it in the past few years, do something about it. Two options: Remove the links and references to Publications...

Today’s Quote — The Myth of Precision

Posted on January 08, 2009
Today’s quote comes from one well known in legal writing circles — Bryan Garner. This is from Garner’s Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage: Traditionally, lawyers have aimed for a type of “precision” that results in cumbersome writing, with many long sentences collapsing under the weight of obscure qualifications...

Keeping Up (With a Changing World)

Posted on January 08, 2009
Things change, and if you don’t keep up with them, you could look silly, or worse. The Charlotte Business Journal claims that Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein is laying off attorneys and staff: The layoffs included 13 lawyers, four paralegals and 11 other staffers in various practice areas...

Today’s Quote

Posted on January 07, 2009
Ross Guberman offers Ten Resolutions for the New Year, each meant to improve an attorney’s brief-writing skills. Here’s one : 7. Each sentence contains the fewest number of words needed to make the point. That’s good advice, and so is this: When you edit a brief, replace a longer phrase with a shorter one, if you can...

For Which For That

Posted on January 06, 2009
Here’s an interesting discussion about a strangely-worded provision in the rules for “processing improperly rejected ballots” in the contest between Al Franken and Norm Coleman. Here’s the very strangely-worded provision: Why in the heck did the author substitute for which for that? Tip of the hat to Martin Magnusson of Fairyland Castle for bringing this to our attention.

Qurious Quote of the Day

Posted on January 05, 2009
From this blog published by Farella Braun + Martel: Global corporations of all stripes have been hailed into the small Texas towns of Marshall, Texarkana and Tyler to defend their products against claims of patent infringement. Once sued in the Eastern District of Texas, defendants have typically found themselves stuck...

Looking Smart

Posted on January 05, 2009
Since it’s the start of a new year, let’s see how we’re looking. Step 1: View your firm’s Web site. Look for the Contact Us or E-Mail Us link — the link that people can use to contact your firm. Click it. Send a brief message...

Today’s Quote — Effective Attorney Advertising

Posted on December 18, 2008
Here it is: Why make note of it? Because this copy — now appearing at DurretteBradshaw’s home page — has a rare quality (among law firm Web sites, that is). And that quality is this — it works! And just how/why does it work? It’s very readable...

Getting Ready for Your Future

Posted on December 17, 2008
Your firm needs to be in the very place where more and more people go to find firms. It needs to be in the electronic marketplace evolving on the backbone of the Internet. The Past Suppose it’s the 1890s, and some law firms are installing telephones in their offices...

Kimberly Kralowec — On the Ingredients of a Successful Blawg

Posted on December 16, 2008
Are you thinking of starting a blawg? Or do you already have one, but all it does is take up a part of your day? In either case, I suggest you share a cup of coffee with Kimberly Kralowec, the attorney behind The UCL Practitioner and The Appellate Practitioner...

Client Alerts are not Briefs!

Posted on December 15, 2008
OK. You spend your days reading and writing legal matter. Fine! But now you’re writing a client alert about some recent development. Do you write the client alert as if it were a brief to be filed with a court? No, not if you want people to read it...

A Twitterer on Twittering

Posted on December 15, 2008
Connecticut Law Tribune has this interesting article by Bob Ambrogi about how attorneys can take advantage of Twitter. He offers 16 benefits to twittering, and concludes with this warning: Before you post to Twitter, consider the consequences. A casual tool such as this makes it easy to unwittingly create an attorney-client relationship or overstep an ethical [...

On Improving Your Firm’s Writing

Posted on December 15, 2008
Frank Ramos, a partner with Clarke Silverglate & Campbell in Miami, Florida, maintains a blog titled Advice for the Young Lawyer. He recently wrote this post about what firms can do to get their lawyers to write better. These two excerpts point to the tension in some firms between quality and ego: Face it...

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