That’s someone just a few years above you.

{—Of course you must follow all your professor’s rules and style preferences, but otherwise, forget them as your Reader.}

Stay away from phrases like:

➖ “in this case”
➖ “in the present case”
➖ “in the instant case”
➖ “in the case at bar”

TBS, writing those phrases is not “wrong,” per se.

This is AFTER these resumes have been through multiple career-services-office reviews,

AFTER these resumes have been sent to hundreds of law firms and other prospective employers, and,

LONG AFTER the students have been through the formalized OCI process.

Here’s how I got a handle on things + chose which cases to use in my memos and briefs as a lawyer.

I hope it will help you come up with a system that works best for you!

***

🔹 I gathered my cases and divided them into 2 piles.

Do you question what I say?

Here’s a primer plus a question for my friends across the pond:

***

In the U.S., and in U.S. legal English:

📍 In light of the fact that
📍 Due to the fact that
📍 As a result of
📍 For the reason that
📍 On account of the fact that
📍 On the grounds that

All these ways take a roundabout route to get to your point.

That was me in Oct. 1993, and I thought the world was going to end.

To be sure, like most all 1L midterms, it was merely a “practice” exam.

But to me, it was devastating.

Alas, but you do.

Here’s what I mean:

🔹 Definition:

An “expletive” doesn’t just need to be a profane or obscene term.

“Have I done enough?”

Follow these 7 Steps to make sure you don’t miss a key case.

🔹 1. Find, pull, and skim 3 relevant cases (found from secondary sources, sample briefs, searches under keywords & headnotes, etc.).

It’s easy to make it. I did.

It was fatal.

Here’s what happened and 3 lessons learned.

***

RULE:

In addition to the obvious (that you must capitalize “court” whenever you write out its full Bluebook citation), there are only 3 other instances that require or permit capitalization:

1️⃣ CAPITALIZE SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States)

Scope: U.S. Legal Writing*

Here are two examples.

1️⃣ NO COMMA IN ORIGINAL

Original:  “The complaint lacked sufficient facts to survive summary dismissal, but we grant plaintiff leave to file an amended complaint.”

🔷 PRIMER

🔸 Most 1L exams (and all bar exams) present a hypothetical fact pattern followed by a general “Discuss” prompt (or a set of questions that identify which issues you are to discuss).

I’ve noticed that many of you start posts with the word “As,” as in:

“As a lawyer,”
“As a law student,” or
“As an [anything].”

⚠️ Doing that is dangerous. In fact, you need to watch out for any sentence that starts with “As a . . .”

But it does.

And I’m not just talking about Bluebook cites. I’m talking about your prose.

Here’s the deal: Lawyers need to use 2 commas when other writers don’t.

Just learn them now: the Oxford Comma & the TICTAC Comma.