Legal Writing

On Paragraphs and Topic Sentences

Posted on March 02, 2009

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Posted on February 27, 2009

The Work of the Eyes

Posted on February 24, 2009
The last few posts focused on an important aspect of typesetting ? consistent word spacing. I can show you how to achieve it, but ? if you want to know why it’s so important ? you need to listen to those who study things like fixations and saccades...

Girl & Monkey ? Both Offer Help with Words

Posted on February 24, 2009
Do you wonder whether you should put an adverb before or after a verb? Do you find yourself writing fewer when you should have written less? What about when to use who and when to use whom? Then here are two good resources you should know of about: Grammar Monkey Grammar Girl

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Want to Know a Secret?

Posted on February 23, 2009
The secret is in plain sight. Grab a newspaper, or a magazine, or a book ? especially a book. Take a look at the spaces between the words. And note how consistent those spaces are. Now, consider some copy from a client alert published by Ogletree Deakins: Note the spacing between the words...

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Posted on February 23, 2009
This image is a 25% reduction of one page of a client alert published by Ogletree Deakins. Are you having a hard time deciding what’s wrong with the image? Then it might be that you’re an attorney, or a paralegal, or you work in a firm’s marketing department ...

Typesetter’s Secret Revealed

Posted on February 23, 2009
Consider the following block of type (which appears in this alert published by MBHB), an IP firm near Seattle. Note the consistent word spacing.                             Justified Copy with Hyphenation   Consider the following block of type, and note the inconsistent word spacing...

The Hobgoblin of Multi-Author Blogs

Posted on February 18, 2009
I’m reviewing several blogs right now. Each is: published by a firm with from 70 to 160 attorneys authored by from three to eight attorneys inconsistent in appearance Here’s what else they have in common: there’s nothing between what the attorney-authors write and what their prospective readers read...

Ogletree Deakins Act Fast

Posted on February 17, 2009
Ogletree Deakins, a firm that focuses on employment law, issued this alert titled “President Signs Stimulus Bill With Significant COBRA Changes for Employers” just minutes after the president signed the bill. A good way to connect to current events? I say so...

Samuel Glover’s Observation

Posted on February 17, 2009
You know the old saying ? “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” And ? I suspect ? you know how valid that saying is. But what do you know about audience analysis ? knowing who’s watching you? And what do you know of audience selection ? deciding who you want watching you? ____________ I just read this interesting [...

Today’s Quote

Posted on February 13, 2009
Today’s quote comes from Mike Dillon, general counsel to Sun Microsystems. Here it is: After many years in the profession, I’m convinced that the most difficult skill for any lawyer to master is the ability to write with simplicity and clarity...

A Shout Out . . .

Posted on February 12, 2009
. . . to the New York Injury Cases blog published by John M. Hochfelder. Very well done!

Ponder Before You Publish

Posted on February 12, 2009
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again ? legal writing is one thing; writing to attract clients is something else. In legal writing, you strive to get someone to agree with you, to buy into your take on things. In copy writing, you strive to get lots of people to ask your for help...

Typography for the Modern Lawyer

Posted on February 10, 2009
Let’s begin with a relevant quote: “There’s a lot more to learn about typography than most lawyers realize. Or want to realize.” ? Bryan Garner; Legal Writing in Plain English One of the things lawyers ? those who want to appear as if they know their way around computers ? need to know is when they should use italics [...

Abe Lincoln & Patent Law

Posted on February 09, 2009
Interesting article titled “Patent Litigation and Abraham Lincoln” concludes with this: Lawyers are most effective when they eliminate weak arguments and marshal the facts to support their strongest arguments. In addition, both judges and juries appreciate the use of plain English, simple exhibits, and a sense of humor.

Sloppy Writing = Sloppy Thinking

Posted on February 06, 2009
This morning, I stumble upon the Web site of Nelson & Carver, P.S. I read the About Us page, and I find this: Our Escrow Team is comprised of highly competent individuals who are prepared to expertly handle your real estate transactions. Fine (except for the caps), but then I read this: Our legal team is highly skilled [...

Space Control

Posted on February 06, 2009
Take a good look at this chunk of a recent blog post: Notice, in particular, the space around the photo. There?s less space above it than below it, and the text on the left practically runs into it. That’s not good. Take a look at this chunk published by a pro: The pro uses white space to separate [...

What Are You Waiting For?

Posted on February 04, 2009
FindLaw has an idea for enhancing your on-line reputation ? Go Google Yourself! FindLaw has some other great ideas: Publish articles on submission sites ? Do you have information to share with the world? Consider publishing informational articles on content submission sites like EzineArticles...

Subject-Object Agreement

Posted on February 03, 2009
Most of us are hip to the notion of agreement between subjects and verbs. We know it’s incorrect to say the employees is or the employee are, but what do we know about agreement between subjects and objects? Consider the following intro to a recent post at the New Jersey Law BLog: During recessionary times, most people [...

Connect Your Blog to Kindle

Posted on February 03, 2009
Here’s an interesting idea ? make your blog available via Kindle, Amazon’s nifty little reader. And so it is with Kimberly Kralowec’s popular blog: The UCL Practitioner Here are the details.

Capping Consistently

Posted on February 03, 2009
Consider this intro to a blog post recently published by Littler Mendelson?s Governmental Affairs Team: In what may be considered a gift to organized labor, President Obama issued a series of Executive Orders on Friday aimed at undoing Bush-era policies involving federal contractors...

Details! Details! Details!

Posted on February 03, 2009
Consider the following intro to a post at the Alaska Personal Injury blog: In Noratak v. City of Chevak (Case No. 4BE-06-258 CI), plaintiff on behalf of his 2 year old child alleged the City of Chevak negligently maintained its playground, which resulted in an injury to his child...

Where Does the Comma Go?

Posted on February 03, 2009
Consider the following intro to a recent post at the Art Law Gallery blog, published by Sheppard Mullin: The liaison between fashion and contemporary art has been continuously growing changing over the years. Painters, photographers, visual artists, illustrators, performers and creative artists, are commissioned by top luxury brands of fashion and trendy stylists to create new [...

Get Your Act Together

Posted on February 02, 2009
So, you’ve been invited to speak before an audience of your peers . . . and you show up wearing your bath robe and your slippers . . . your hair’s a mess and your breath smells like death. You wouldn’t, would you? Then why in the heck would you publish a blog post chock full of [...

Dan Harris — Super Hero!

Posted on February 01, 2009
Check out this article in Law Practice Magazine about the China Law Blog and its primary author, Dan Harris. Very impressive! Or check out this interview with Dan about what makes a good blog good.

What Can an Editor Do for an Attorney?

Posted on January 31, 2009
Consider the intro to this article published by a Florida firm. It’s about some recent news: The FDA released new information on the Peanut Butter Plant that shows the company knew about the Salmonella potential, but failed to act on the information...

Personal Injury Plagiarist — Part II

Posted on January 29, 2009
Let’s see — well established newspapers are having a tough go of it right now, and so are some great big law firms. Perhaps they should get together. Why? Well, just the other day, I noted how some personal injury lawyers completely ignore the rights of others — in particular their copyrights...

Law Firm Branding — “We Are So Mediocre!”

Posted on January 28, 2009
Both Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold LLP and Dilworth Paxson LLP have been celebrating their 75th anniversaries, but in different styles. Here’s Sedgwick’s style: And here’s Dilworth’s Quite a difference. Sedgwick shows good style, but Dilworth uses an image from a video feed and it looks lousy...

A Study in Contrast

Posted on January 27, 2009
Have you ever watched a foreign-language film, the dialog is set in subtitles, but you can?t read it because there?s not enough contrast between the text and the background, or because the background is just too busy? A bit of a pain, is it not. Lots of attorney-authored blogs and law firm Web sites suffer a [...

Personal Injury Plagiarist

Posted on January 26, 2009
Hayman & Kirshenbaum are the sort who make personal injury lawyers seem no better than common crooks and scoundrels. Why do I say such a thing? Take a look at their untitled blog, which is chock full of news reports about accidents and such. Here’s the intro to their latest post: It was a driver?s education course, about [...

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