Appellate Law

Selya love fest in progress

By S. COTUS

Oh look, the Wall Street Journal and NLJ* are talking about how one of Selya?s former clerks says that Judge Selya is the cat?s meow.  Apparently, in some circles, using big words to show how smart you are makes you great.

The post ends with this choice sentence, ?See if you can work one into a brief, a memo, an email, or even better, a client conversation.?

This animal is cute.  Using big words just annoys people.

And that is the problem.  Using obscure words does not persuade.  It annoys.  Is anyone really enlightened by his use of big words?  I doubt it.  You just look pretentious and sound annoying.  Instead, we know that every time we read one of his opinions, we are reminding time and time again, that the issue isn?t the law, but rather the judge.

Is that weird enough for you?  If not, remember that this guy teaches legal writing.   Of course, nobody without life tenure can get away with writing the way he does. 

I wonder if the Wall Street Journal will seek out the opinions of one of the many folks who are spending the rest of their life in a hole on the basis of an opinion containing such whimsical big words. I bet they are really happy to know that the reason that they will be treated like animals (and not the cute kind) for the rest of their lives has something to do with a word that Selya had his clerks locate and type.

See other comments on Selya here.

*NLJ is probably doing this to suck up to some large partner at some large law firm because they believe that only associates at large law firms pay to read their publication. 

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on February 04, 2008 (boomark / email).