“It’s hard to take a brief seriously when it is MOOing at you.”
—Chris Schandevel (describing a brief in which “MOO” was used to define an agreement…
As a solopreneur, I am still figuring out what I “do.”
That is both good and bad. Good is that:—No one criticizes me.—No one dictates…
- 2026 | Dear 1L | Legal Writing
Dear 1L, A legal brief should be evergreen.
“Evergreen” is a term you might recognize from the plant world:—it refers to trees…
If you want to get better at legal writing, you need to shift how you THINK about legal writing.
Here are 5 key shifts to make: 1️⃣ I am writing to impress —>…
Dear legal writer, Feeling lost in a sentence/nothing is sounding right? Just move these 2 words:
Subject + Verb 🔹 1: Identify the subject in your sentence. The SUBJECT tells…
Dear Legal Writer, It’s hard to promote something when you’ve never done it before and don’t know how it will go, but here’s my stab:
I am thinking of hosting a small “legal writing lab” in February. The idea…
Dear Legal Writer, Hello to you, and DO-SI-DO. Today you become a 3-dash pro:
the hyphen (-),the en-dash (–),the em-dash (that’s 3!) Check out below, and an expert…
- 2026 | Dear 1L | Legal Writing
Dear 1L, Expel “regard” from your legal writing.
And while you’re at it, cut “regard” from your vocabulary altogether: 👎 “Regarding”👎👎 “In…
- 2026 | Dear 1L | Legal Writing
Dear Legal Writer: Stop writing “the court found”!
“Find” and “hold” mean very different things. ▪️ “Find” refers to determining facts—what actually…
- 2026 | Dear 1L | Legal Writing
Dear 1L, “To be sure” is a genteel expression that lawyers use a lot. Perhaps you’ve noticed.
Well, here’s why we use it and how you can do so effectively in…
Dear Legal Writer, If I had a dollar for every time someone on The Bachelor used “myself” incorrectly . . .
— “The date was amazing for Brad and myself.”— “Sarah and myself have a…
- 2026 | Dear 1L | Dear 2L | Legal Writing
In 2020, I was a washed-out, unemployed lawyer with zero presence (anywhere).
I hadn’t worked a “real job” in 5 years;I’d let my lawyering skills lapse;I’d…