Welcome to my LinkedIn archive.
Categories: Dear 1L, Dear 2L, Legal Writing
By Year: 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021
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Search by word to find what I’ve written on the topic of your choosing!
Dear Legal Writer: There’s 1 right way & 9 wrong ways to say something CAUSED something in legal analysis.
See if you can spot the best choice:
🔺 As
🔺 For
🔺 Since
✅ Because
▪️ Based on
🔻 As a result of
🔻 For the reason that
🔻 On the grounds that
🔻 In light of the fact that
🔻 On account of the fact that
I feel so much pressure to make this good because I really want to support my daughter.
Greta.
23.
Just released her first single on Spotify.
“Baby Fat”
I have chills.
I’ve listened to 1,000 times on repeat,
Dear Legal Writer, Stop starting sentences with “However”!
Here’s the 3-2-1 on how to use “however” to show contrast:
—3 grammatically correct ways
—2 ways folks mess things up
—1 superior way for legal writing
🔷 Three correct ways to Use “however” to show contrast—
1: You may start a sentence with “however” followed by a comma.
It’s high time we changed how we teach legal writing.
I’ve spent the last five years entrenched in this subject, and I’m convinced our current system is not working.
I’d start with law schools, but I have ideas for law firms, too.
For law schools:
🔹 Align writing with doctrine. Legal writing should reinforce doctrinal learning, not compete with it.
Dear Legal Writer: The solution to “which” vs. “that”?
Never use “which.”
That’s Chief Justice Roberts’s fix.
He hates the word “which.”
He’ll strike it out of your draft.(1)
I will, too.
Here’s why:
Dear 1L, Everyone I’ve spoken to is dying, writing a brief for the first time, self-doubting, second-guessing,
triple-stressing ❗️
It’s way harder than planned, too, prompting:
—what’s wrong with me?
—why’s it taking me so long?
—is anything I’ve done right?
—does this mean I don’t belong?
Every spring, I hear from a few frantic fathers.
So far, they've all called about their sons.
They’re starting law school in the fall.
And they’re “really smart.”
But they “can’t write.”
“It’s their schools’ fault.
They didn’t train him well.”
Dear Brief Writer, You won’t see a court order that reads, “Motion denied: no rhythm.” But judges absolutely feel when your writing has no beat.
They feel it when:
🔻 your prose plods,
🔻 every sentence marches at the same tempo,
🔻 every paragraph lands with the same dull thud.
Dear Legal Writer, Try my editing P-E-N-C-I-L.
It systematically roots out the 6 worst sins in legal writing:
-Passives
-Expletives
-Nominalizations
-Complexities
-Intensifiers
-Legalese
1️⃣ PASSIVES (search for “by”)
Dear 1L, Learn these 5 law-firm sayings before you work in a firm/BigLaw. That way you won’t hear them, feel clueless, and be left to wonder.
🔸 “I forgot how ‘green’ they are.”
This is something more senior layers say after working with summers and first-year associates. “Green” means “inexperienced.”
We did it. It was just 3 yrs ago that I wrote in my book journal:
“10-6-2023: Total failure.
There are too many law school books already.
Some winners. Most losers. And I have no desire to add my book to the losers’ list.”
Today, that book has officially crossed 2,000 copies sold on Amazon.
Dear Legal Writer, Don’t be Demi Moore!
Remember the court scene in “A Few Good Men”?
Tom Cruise says, “I object,” and the court overrules.
But Demi Moore isn’t satisfied. She just has to get up and say: “I strenuously object.”
Why does public speaking cause so much anxiety?
My heart races.
My stomach sinks.
My breath hastens, and SNAP:
I suddenly become drenched, head to toe.
My genes are 99% Irish, too.
So a surge of adrenaline makes the the blood pump up into my face and turn me into the most conspicuously nervous-looking red tomato 🍅.
Dear Legal Writer, Don’t write “Despite the fact that.” It is the most debilitating clause in legal writing.
Yet I see people use it regularly.
I now want you to put it in the trash. 🗑️
Instead, try “Even though.”
It is shorter and so much smoother.
Examples—
I just got the best surprise!
And it’s from someone I’d never even heard of before (Brittany S. Stevens, an author of a series on law school success).
She gave 📕 Dear 1L 📕 this 5-star review on Amazon!
My favorite parts:
👉 “This is not a book you read once and shelve. It’s a trusted supplement students can return to throughout 1L and beyond.”