It wouldn’t be spring in America without some federal judges publicly criticizing attorneys in a genre now known as “benchslap.” The offended court this time: the D.C. Circuit. The court’s target: acronyms in briefs…
Month: March 2014
Passive on Purpose
For as much as the legal-writing academy rails against the passive voice, few attorneys can distinguish a true passive construction from a false positive. (Don’t feel bad if you can’t, by the way, as…
Bridge to Somewhere: Better Flow for Busy Lawyers
When you read average writing, shifting from one paragraph to the next can feel like a giant leap. When you read great writing, by contrast, the same shift feels like a small step. Improving…
The Seven Writing Strategies of Highly Effective Trial Judges
Asked to name the world’s best opinion writers, traditionalists might rattle off Lord Denning, Learned Hand, or Oliver Wendell Holmes. Modernists often prefer Antonin Scalia or Richard Posner. And the trendy might cite new…