Practice Management

Persuasion and Boilerplate: The Template Vampire.

By Dan Hull

Our friend Ray Ward is a man any new hire--an ambitious law clerk, sought-after first-year associate, needy Teacup, stressed Tubbie, or even flat-out young Looter-in-Training--would be lucky to meet on the first day of work. Unfortunately, most of you won't, and so you risk a quicker and more hideous transformation to the ranks of generic lawyers, mechanics, "legal professionals", law cattle and, in extreme cases, crested newts. Ray, a writer, Renaissance man, and appellate lawyer with New Orleans-based Adams and Reese LLP, can help you avoid these mutations. He's wary of legal forms, or templates, to do his work. Turns out that any boilerplate gives him the willies--especially in his own writing. Read "An Editorial Against Boilerplate" and "The Vampires of Legal Writing" at his The (New) Legal Writer.

New Orleans Forms Vampire

Vampire-Killer Ray Ward

Full post as published by What About Clients? on September 29, 2010 (boomark / email).