There’s something magical about meeting in person.

It was 2-2-2022 when I first reached out to Dena Lefkowitz, Esq., PCC ★

— just to say “hey.” (I sent an out-of-the-blue DM.)

Dear 1L, I thought you might relate to these words by Justice Antonin Scalia.

They were a key theme in his speech on “Writing Well,” as delivered at a 2008 Scribes award dinner in NYC*.

So please know, it is NOT just you.

Dear 1L, These weeks with the memo were the most brutal of 1L for me.

The memo is a bear for everyone, every year.

I know many of you are struggling out there. Please know I think of you EVERY day.

Dear Legal Writer, I got 2 kinds of contradictory, negative feedback when I was new at different firms. Both turned on the meaning of “draft”:

1️⃣

“Why on earth would you spend time at $500+/hr filling in citations when a paralegal could have done that for $100/hr?

Dear 1L, Every year, I see the EXACT SAME substantive mistakes in 1L legal
memos.

Here are the 4 biggest, common culprits.

I’ll get you a self-editing checklist with technical fixes tomorrow For now, start by fixing these:

Law schools do students a disservice by treating legal-research & writing (LRW) professors like third-class citizens.

It’s been like this since I went to law school in the 1990s, and it’s largely still like this today.

Dear 1L, No 1L wants to spend all weekend inside writing a legal memo, but many of you will be.

Please know that even seasoned lawyers get stuck when writing up a legal analysis that’s new to them.

—Courts’ words sound better than your words
—Courts’ full sentences should be quoted at length
—Courts’ reasoning will be more persuasive than your own

Instead, you should know:

Dear Legal Writer, If you think your reader wants sophisticated words, think
again.

Case in point:

“utilize” (aka, the most stilted, stupid word)

I also started a “book journal,” so I’d have someone to talk to.

It’s been a lonely road, so far.

Going round and round in my own head.
Listening to people who put me down.

The note said:

1: “We’re overworked.”
2: “We’re bored of being first in sentences.”
3: “We’d like to sit next to someone other than a comma for once.”

I told them I would see what I could do.
So here’s this to you, my dear legal writer:

better briefs.
better motions.
better petitions.
better letter briefs.
better client updates.
better law review articles.
better position statements.
better settlement agreements.
better responses to client RFPs.
better thought-leadership articles.

🔷 Remember the court scene in “A Few Good Men”?

Tom Cruise says, “I object,” and the court overrules.

But Demi isn’t satisfied.
She just has to get up & say: “I strenuously object.”

Dear 1L,

As you know, law-school ethics codes prevent anyone from assisting with specific, 1L writing assignments before final drafts are submitted.

I see these memos after-the-fact, when I help students with job applications.

There’s also CRAC, TRAC, and TREAC.

I could go on, but won’t.

And instead of explaining it to you in writing now, I’m working on finishing a fictional model “Memo” for you that illustrates the basic structure.