Legal Writing

So . . . How Can an Editor Help an Attorney?

Posted on August 26, 2009
That’s our perpetual question (one version of it), and here’s another variation on our typical answer: an editor can make sure an attorney looks good in print. Consider the introduction to this client alert about the Treasury Capital Purchase Program: The Treasury Department this morning provided additional information on the implementation of the Treasury Capital Purchase Program, including an [...

What Can an Editor Do for an Attorney?

Posted on August 24, 2009
That’s our perpetual question. Here’s another answer to it. Consider the following copy — the intro to an article titled ?Letters of Credit May Not Last as Long as Expected” posted at the Banking & Finance Law Report blog: Parties to a letter of credit following the Ninth Circuit?s opinion in Golden West Refining v...

The Beauty of the Proposal

Posted on August 21, 2009
Appearances can be so important. Attorneys (many of them) realize this, and so they tend to their personal appearance before important meetings (e.g., the first meeting with a very attractive, potential client). But when it comes to what they commit to writing, the vast majority of attorneys (and their firms) don’t consider appearances at all...

Setting Law Firm Seminar Materials

Posted on August 20, 2009
I don’t know how this happened (though I know Microsoft facilitated it), but — so far as I can tell — the most common way to set type for law firm seminar materials is to use 12-pt Arial for body copy. That’s a mistake because Arial isn’t for body copy; it’s for headings...

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On the Role of Editors in Legal Writing

Posted on August 04, 2009
Gary P. Rodrigues, a lawyer and publishing consultant, authored this article (?The full stop in legal citation ? has its time finally come??) about whether legal citations should be modernized (e.g., whether a citation should be set as ?LRC 1985 c 1 (5th Supp)? rather than ?L...

Getting Rid of Pretty Lousy Type

Posted on August 02, 2009
It’s been said (mostly by me) that “the power of the press used to belong to those who had one. Now that everyone’s got a press (a computer attached to the Internet) the power of the press belongs to those who know how to use it well...

Client Alerts — Set in Style

Posted on August 02, 2009
It’s been said (mostly by me) that “the power of the press used to belong to those who had one. Now that everyone’s got a press (a computer attached to the Internet) the power of the press belongs to those who know how to use it well...

The Bestest Law Firm — Part I

Posted on July 28, 2009
In my line of work, a typo or grammatical error can be catastrophic. Publishing an error that editors are expected to Catch & Correct just wrecks my marketing efforts. Now, most big law firms advertise that they have (and always seek) the most capable attorneys from the nation’s most prestigious law schools...

Why Do Law Firms Need Editors?

Posted on July 23, 2009
There’s this attorney from China and he’s flying to San Francisco, hoping to start a good relationship. He works for a large telecommunications company that’s planning its first venture in the U.S., and he’s looking for a law firm to provide guidance in several regulatory matters...

The Kenyon Challenge

Posted on July 21, 2009
Most large law firms don’t have editors on staff, even though those firms function as publishers. I find that odd. Let’s review some of one large firm’s publications to make the point — if you function as a publisher, get an editor...

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Posted on July 13, 2009
Here’s the disclaimer you need to accept to enter Morrison & Foerster’s Privacy Library: Note that two graphic images that belong in the right sidebar aren’t where they belong. They’re obscuring part of the disclaimer. Now, here’s how that same disclaimer looks to the people at Morrison & Foerster: ____________ At most firms, all the attorneys and all the [...

To Blog, Or Golf?

Posted on July 09, 2009
More interesting reading from Mark Hermann – Blogging About Blogging: Zach Lowe, over at AmLawDaily, did the kind of thing that reporters do: He called the managing partners of the high profits-per-partner firms and asked why they didn’t sponsor blogs...

Laid Off? Write!

Posted on July 09, 2009
Debra Bruce, president of Lawyer-Coach, offers some sound advice for recently laid-off attorneys: write! Write, she says, “an article on a legal topic you are interested in” — not for some law review — but for “industry magazines, legal newspapers, business journals and online publications...

Why Attorneys Need Editors

Posted on July 07, 2009
Current events — that’s what people are interested in. And the news that California is, once again, issuing IOUs in place of checks means it’s high time for a law firm to issue a client alert about registered warrants. Here’s the intro to a client alert published by Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman: The State of California normally [...

If It Ain’t Broke, Improve It

Posted on July 06, 2009
Consider a recent attorney-authored article titled “Judgments for Defendants Continue in Stock Drop Cases” Here’s the intro: In June, the Northern District of Illinois issued two decisions dismissing employer stock drop claims in favor of defendants, one after an eight-day bench trial in Brieger v...

Scranton Lawyers — Beware of Scranton Lawyers

Posted on July 06, 2009
Lawyers in Scranton, PA might want to steer clear of Scranton Lawyers, a new site that looks like the precursor of a referral service for Scranton lawyers. This recent post indicates why:    

Trolling for Errors

Posted on July 01, 2009
You’re a corporate counselor and you’re doing some research. Along the way, Google finds a client alert (published by a firm you’ve been thinking of contacting) that seems very pertinent. You click the link to it, and then — rather than the alert — you get a message saying something like, “We recently updated our [...

Why Attorney/Authors Need Editors

Posted on June 25, 2009
I’m reviewing an attorney-authored article — “In Re Bilski and Its Impact on Business Method Patents” Here’s the intro: The big problem with the intro is this — the reference to State Street Bank. Why is that reference a problem? For one thing, it’s a new topic, so it needs a new paragraph...

The Legalese Hall of Shame

Posted on June 24, 2009
If you want to see examples of some of the most convoluted constructions as are (legally) possible, then review the The Legalese Hall of Shame, where professional attorney/author Adam Freedman, keeps a whole slew of them. He’s always looking for more examples (hint, hint).

Our Law Firm Can Help You If . . . .

Posted on June 18, 2009
If you’re not a mathematician (or a math teacher), you’re not expected to recall the binomial theorem, or the quadratic formula, or what a tangent is. And if you’re not an Englician (or English teacher), you’re not expected to recall just what is a subordinating conjuction, or a nominative absolute, or a distributive pronoun...

Show Sotomayor How It’s Done

Posted on June 16, 2009
Would you like to receive honorable mention for showing Sonia Sotomayor how it’s done? If so, just rewrite this clunker so it’s crisp and clear: The Agency is therefore precluded from undertaking such cost-benefit analysis because the [best technology available] standard represents Congress’s conclusion that the costs imposed on industry in adopting the best cooling water [...

Providing Happiness to an Attorney

Posted on June 11, 2009
What I sometimes do is this — I spot an error, and then I bring it to the author’s attention. Sometimes, the author appreciates it and even offers me $$$ to spot further errors so others (esp. prospective clients and future employers) never see them...

Recuse Who?

Posted on June 08, 2009
The National Law Journal recently posted this article titled “Supreme Court Issues Landmark Ruling on Judicial Recusal.” Here’s the intro: In a landmark ruling that could affect state judicial elections nationwide, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that due process requires a state judge to recuse when a party in a case before him or her [...

RE Syntactic Ambiguity

Posted on June 08, 2009
According to this entry at Wikipedia on the topic of Syntactic Ambiguity: Syntactic ambiguity is a property of sentences which may be reasonably interpreted in more than one way, or reasonably interpreted to mean more than one thing. Here’s an example: The plaintiff is required to submit an affidavit setting forth at least one negligent act, error, or omission [...

Sound Too Erudite & Appear Too Simple

Posted on June 04, 2009
Some very good advice to attorney-authors who want to be read and respected comes from Daniel Oppenheimer, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Princeton. In his paper — “Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly” published in the journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology — Dr...

Can Twitter Improve Your Writing? (Part II)

Posted on June 01, 2009
Yesterday, I raised this question: is it true, as Josh Camson (host of the Social Media Law Student) claims and as H. Scott Leviant (host of The Complex Litigator) denies, that Twitter can make you a better legal writer? I raised the question, and then I demonstrated some techniques for expressing yourself without exceeding Twitter’s 140-character limit...

Can Twitter Improve Your Writing? (Part I)

Posted on May 31, 2009
First, spend a minute or two with Twitter, an on-line service that lets people write and publish short entries (for all the world to read). An entry can be about anything (many use it to say what’s happening like “I’m getting ready for dinner,” or “the Mrs...

Weekend Reading Materials

Posted on May 29, 2009
I’ve got three recommendations. The first is a list of blog posts you must read. The list is published by the three intrepid law geeks who run3 Geeks and a Law Blog. Here’s an excerpt from the #1 post, written by Chuck Newton, the man who first claimed that, “information becomes the main material for workers, each [...

A Real Has Been

Posted on May 28, 2009
Consider this intro to an attorney’s biography: So & So has been with the firm since 1963. His primary areas of practice include litigation and lobbying. He has also had considerable experience in eminent domain and election law. Now, consider the phrase: He has also had ...

Attorney Hates His Web Site

Posted on May 27, 2009
It’s the better part of a year ago, and I’m in a courtroom. Not to worry; I’m sitting in the gallery. The judge looks like a million bucks. She might be on Boston Legal; if she were, Alan Shore would have a new goal in life — seduce justice...

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