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Miscellaneous

the (new) legal writer

A collection of resources for lawyers, who write. From Raymond Ward, an appellate lawyer with Adams and Reese LLP in New Orleans.

Post Frequency: 5.3/day

Last Entry: March 26, 2011 at 15:44:07

Applied Storytelling Conference

Posted on October 05, 2008
If you?re interested in applying storytelling to the practice of law, and if you like to plan your CLE ahead, then block out July 22?24, 2009 on your calendar. That?s when a conference on applied storytelling in law will be...

Defusing negative facts or law

Posted on October 04, 2008
Every advocate confronts the problem of handling bad facts or adverse authority. Do you ignore it? Do you wait for the other side to raise it and then rebut it? Or do you confront it head-on, hoping to defuse it?...

?Sorry? seems to be the hardest word

Posted on October 01, 2008
Sometimes we lawyers have trouble saying we?re sorry. We should try to overcome that inhibition. Saying you?re sorry can be cathartic. For instance, here?s a letter1 by a lawyer saying he?s sorry about having to reschedule a deposition. I?m sure...

Collaboration through wikis

Posted on September 28, 2008
Today, most lawyers who collaborate on writing a document probably swap numerous drafts by e-mail. But an interesting post on Legal Writing Prof Blog suggests a possibly better way to collaborate: wikis. The post includes a short video explaining what...

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Making weight

Posted on September 27, 2008
Sooner or later, every briefwriter is faced with the task of editing a 15,000-word draft to make it fit under the court?s 14,000-word limit for briefs. How do you do that without sacrificing substance? Write to Done provides some editing...

Thomas Jefferson?s editorial board

Posted on September 25, 2008
If you?ve ever bristled at editors who mangled your draft, then you have some famous company: Thomas Jefferson. In America?s Founding Editors, University of Missouri law professor Douglas E. Abrams tells the story of how a group of 65 editors?the...

Effective critique

Posted on September 23, 2008
If you?re a lawyer who reviews and critiques other lawyers? writing, then you will want to read A Methodology for Mentoring Writing in Law Practice, by Jane Kent Gionfriddo, Daniel L. Barnett, and Joan Blum. In their article, the authors...

The Dark-Blue Book: A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, by Kenneth A. Adams

Posted on September 22, 2008
If your work involves drafting business contracts, then you need the second edition of Ken Adams?s book, A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. It is to drafting what Bryan Garner?s Redbook is to legal writing in general. Ken is...

A Shot Across the Bow

Posted on September 21, 2008
John Grisham never wrote a book called The Demand Letter. But if he had, then perhaps the main character would be Bret Rappaport. Bret has written a fine article on how to write an effective demand letter, titled A Shot...

Typography for Lawyers

Posted on September 15, 2008
Who better to advise lawyers about document design than a lawyer trained in typography and graphic design, one whose pre-law career included typeface design? Meet Matthew Butterick, proprietor of Typography for Lawyers. And if you agree that presentation matters, bookmark...

Like the camel with his nose under the tent

Posted on September 12, 2008
Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner has been known to use contractions (gasp!) in his opinions. Well, just as marijuana leads to meth (right?), contractions lead to smiley faces. (Hat tip to Howard Bashman.)

Bulwer-Lytton, move over.

Posted on September 07, 2008
Maybe you?ve seen the viral e-mail titled ?Twenty-Eight Reasons Why English Teachers Die Young.? It purports to list 28 similes found in high-school essays. The e-mail has taken in many bloggers, including this one. Actually the content of the e-mail...

Ken Adams on dysfunctional drafting

Posted on September 06, 2008
In an opinion piece for the National Law Journal, Ken Adams examines what?s wrong with the usual process of drafting contracts, and he suggests some paths to improvement.

Dilbert encounters legal drafting

Posted on August 28, 2008
Ken Adams should enjoy this. (Hat tip to Future Lawyer.)

Quotation of the day

Posted on August 26, 2008
?If any bill, answers, replication, or rejoinder, shall be found of an immoderate length, both the party and the counsel under whose hand it passeth shall be fined.?? Sir Francis Bacon Source: Tom Goldstein and Jethro K. Lieberman, The Lawyer?s...

Advice for 1L?s

Posted on August 24, 2008
Prof. Paul Horwitz offers new 1L?s some advice worth of consideration. I like what he says about legal writing:Legal Writing is Not a Course. Well, OK, it is a course. But it?s not just a course. Don?t make the mistake...

How not to write a bill

Posted on August 23, 2008
If you bill by the hour, then the most important writing you do for your own career are your time entries. A time entry can inform the client about what you?re doing and how it?s helping to accomplish your client?s...

Quotation of the day (or yesterday, actually)

Posted on August 21, 2008
Yesterday?s installment of Garner?s Usage Tip of the Day carried this quotation. As I read it, I couldn?t help but think of people whose ?primary business? is practicing law:The writing of literate Americans whose primary business is not writing but....

Legal-writing blogs and resources

Posted on August 21, 2008
The good folks at Legal Writing Prof Blog have collected a list of their favorite blogs. And one of the contributors to LWPB, Coleen Barger, has her own list of legal-writing blogs and web sites at Barger on Legal Writing,...

Rock-star writing

Posted on August 18, 2008
In this item, Australian High Court Judge Michael Kirby shares the secret of his success with some university students: ?I know the real reason you love me,? he said, before pausing for effect. ?Headings. Headings. Sub-headings. Sub-sub-headings. Indent dot points...

Wretched writing

Posted on August 14, 2008
While athletes of all shapes, sizes, and colors strive to go higher, faster, and farther in the city that gave its name to Peking Duck (before they changed the name to Beijing), the English scholars at San Jose State University...

The blood brief

Posted on August 12, 2008
Last year I wrote a post about a promise literally written in blood. The synopsis: Mr. Kim invested $140,000 in companies run by Mr. Son. When the companies went belly-up, Messrs. Kim and Son met over drinks to discuss the...

?I do not believe that legal writing exists.? Antonin Scalia

Posted on August 10, 2008
The ABA Journal quotes Justice Scalia?s remarks yesterday on accepting the Scribes lifetime-achievement award: I do not believe that legal writing exists. That is to say, I do not believe it exists as a separate genre of writing. Rather, I...

Bryan Garner?s Road Show

Posted on August 09, 2008
Bryan Garner is hitting the road this fall with two seminars: Advanced Legal Writing & Editing and Advanced Legal Drafting. Here?s the schedule: Advanced Legal Writing & Editing Sept. 5: New Orleans, La. Sept. 8: Sacramento, Cal. Sept. 9: San...

?Well then, allow me to retort.?1

Posted on August 06, 2008
What do appellate judges think of reply briefs? This article by Mike McKee provides an answer from California?s appellate judges, who also offer tips on what to do and not to do. (Hat tip to The Appellate Practitioner, via The...

???Well then, allow me to retort.???1

Posted on August 06, 2008
What do appellate judges think of reply briefs? This article by Mike McKee provides an answer from California???s appellate judges, who also offer tips on what to do and not to do. (Hat tip to The Appellate Practitioner, via The...

Et tu, Brute?

Posted on August 04, 2008
Merriam-Webster Online asked readers to submit their favorite mondegreens. A mondegreen is the result of mis-hearing song lyrics. For example: ?The girl with kaleidescope eyes.? Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.) But this post isn?t about mondegreens. It?s about this...

More effective e-mail

Posted on August 03, 2008
Here is an article I wrote for the DRI magazine, For the Defense, on writing more effective e-mail. As you?ll see from reading it, Lynn Gaertner-Johnston deserves credit for some of its ideas. Lynn writes a blog called Business Writing,...

John Brown on the manifest-error standard of review

Posted on August 02, 2008
Appellate lawyers will appreciate this discourse on the manifest-error standard of review: [A]s so often, the briefs on the part of the respondent?appellants cannot resist the natural temptation to reargue the facts from a point of view favorable to (each...

Why Johnny can?t write

Posted on July 29, 2008
I had occasion today to peruse the web sites of two law schools, just to see what their legal-writing programs look like and who teaches them. At both, it appears that 100 percent of the teaching is done by fellows....

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