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Don’t Hide Behind Your Wordprocessor If You Want A Cordial Relationship
I know that I am not alone in feeling the inclination sometimes to dispatch a really sharply worded letter or email to my opposing counsel. I’m talking the kind of letter that says a big, snotty “so...
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The Hyperbole of Hyperbole
I wrote last about credibility in the context of preserving one’s reputation for honesty. I doubt many lawyers will argue with the importance of reputation. However, at a more granular level, there...
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How We Must Explain Why To The Judge
A recent post at the excellent Bow Tie Law’s Blog illustrates, in the realm of E-Discovery, the importance of explaining “why” to the judge. Specifically he discusses the importance of explaining why...
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Why I Blog
This is my second blog. I first blogged when my wife and I took a sabbatical to travel throughout Asia from the Fall of 2006 to the Spring of 2007. I really enjoyed my blog, even when we were in...
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Some Other Things The Judge Said
I last wrote about a recent presentation made to my office by a retired judge, “Practical Advice and Perspectives From the Bench.” While I found it most compelling (disturbing) to learn that many...
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A Period, And Then One Space Or Two? The Definitive Rule!
Ok, so I’m 46 years old and when I was young we had rotary telephones, vinyl records, rode on the backs of dinosaurs, etc. Therefore I wasn’t born knowing that we only put one space–not two–between the...
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Driven To Fits Of Reckless Alliteration
Honored. Humbled. Happy. The ABA Journal’s inclusion of Atcounseltable.com in its annual Blawg 100 pretty much made my week. Thank you! But I worry. What will happen if I go “Blue?” If I “sell out?” If...
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The Brilliance of Brevity
It’s really a shame I did not meet my longtime mentor (with whom I still practice) before I started college or law school. It would have made life much easier for legions of professors who had to...
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When Collaboration Is A Race To The Bottom
This post could be alternatively titled: “Beware The Interloper With The Pen,” or “Why I’m Not A Great Team Player At The Writing Table.” In a recent article in the ABA Journal,”Why Lawyers Can’t...
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David Foster Wallace: Avoid Noxious Puff-Words
I confess that I dream of having the kind of following that if I said, “Read David Foster Wallace or you’re dead to me!” there would be a subtle, but statistically significant, uptick in sales of...
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Does Style Matter In Legal Writing?
When we write to a court or to opposing counsel our goal is typically to persuade. When we write to a client, an expert or to a colleague, our aim is primarily to convey information. Is there any room...
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Useful Tips From A Recent Bench-Bar Conference
Because I pay attention to analytics, I know that my most popular posts are those in which I have passed on advice or comments from a judge or judge’s clerk. People apparently find and read my blog...
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Give Your Brief Headings The Marquee Treatment
A colleague who recently passed the California Bar Examination hosted a group of us to a round of drinks and the talk turned to bar examination grading. Specifically, how little time the graders spent...
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Four Rhetorical Figures That Will Enliven Your Legal Writing
Why introduce rhetorical figures into your legal writing? Well, if done right, they can elevate good writing to great writing. As pointed out by that acknowledged legal writing guru, Bryan Garner, in...
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Five Psychological Principles of Jury Persuasion
It is no accident that Thomas Mauet’s Fundamentals of Trial Techniques is the best regarded textbook for trial advocacy, at least among professors and adjunct professors who use a text at all. I kept a...
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Repetition, Rhetoric, Dr. Seuss and Dr. King
Most writers who take their prose seriously have a few favorite rhetorical devices. When these are used well, they contribute to what is loosely referred to as style. When used poorly, they . . ....
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Partners: Go Easy With That Damned Red Pen
I can trace four periods in my life that significantly shaped my writing. First, I’ve always been a passionate reader. Reading the good writing of others is not only great fun, it’s indispensable for...
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Do You Use The Rhetorical “Rule of Three”?
Well, you should. I’m referring here to rhetorical device of organizing and presenting topics, words or phrases in groups of threes. Sadly, I neither discovered nor perfected the Rule of Three. But I...
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If A Literary God Wrote An Appellate Brief . . .
What would his sentences be like? Would they read like his prose, if the prose that he wrote read like this? “It was this look on the face that (slowly) turned left to look at her from the ambulance–a...
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3 Ways To Make Your Brief Read Better On An iPad
Thanks to some of my Michigan colleagues, I learned today for the first time that a growing number of appellate court justices are reading briefs on an iPad. I guess it’s pretty clear that I’m out of...
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