Dear Legal Writer: Don’t create ambiguity by using “while” to mean “although.” Here’s the problem:

Example 1: “While the stove is off, the toaster works.”

❓ What does the writer mean in the below sentences, A or B?

Dear Legal Writer: Welcome! I’m starting #dearlegalwriter to collect my writing posts and offer a space for newer legal writers to ask questions and learn.

🔹 I write from the perspective of a former 20-year BigLaw litigator, law-firm blog editor, and Fortune 500 in-house counsel.

🔷 Check the formatting of your punctuation marks. 🔷

1st:

If you have commas, semicolons, or periods at the end of bolded, underlined titles, is the punctuation also bolded & underlined? Should it be?

Dear 1L, I’ve seen 100s of 1L resumes over the years. I typically see them after an office-of-career-services (OCS) review, and after you think the resume is “final.” Here’s the problem:

I still catch nits & formatting errors.

PLEASE, before sending to any prospective employer, run these 4 tests:

Dear Followers,

This post is for those who follow me for a non- #Dear1L reason.
Maybe you follow me bc I write posts about legal writing.
Or bc I’m a LinkedIn-lawyer/“Content Creator.”
Or bc I contribute so many comments.
Whatever your reason, thank you.
In 2023, I’ll write more.
More for you.

I’ve read about law students pre-writing their “Rule statements” for use in their essay answers.

{In other words, they pre-type paragraphs that state & explain each possible Rule, then on an exam question giving rise to the Rule, they simply plop in the pre-prepared “R” part of their IRAC essay.}

1️⃣ Brainstorm and outline your answer before you start to write.

If I had allotted 1 hr. for a question, I’d typically spend at least 15 minutes thinking about, planning, and organizing my essay before starting to write.

The more disciplined you can be about this pre-writing work, the more organized and thorough your final product will be.

✏️ Rewriting the same sentences over and over again.

If that happens to you, try this:

🔸 Revisit your outline.

—If you didn’t make an outline at the start, definitely make one now.

✏️ Legal writing always takes so much longer than you think it should.

In an effort to help, I share 4 things for the memo that many 1Ls aren’t clear about.

1: Check your capitalization of “court.”

🔷 1: Convert sentences to active voice.

Eg
“The boy hit the ball.”

—is shorter than—

❌ “The ball was hit by the boy.”

🔷 1: Using “utilize” for “use” won’t make you sound smart.

More likely, you’ll come off as “trying to sound smart” — perhaps smarter than you really are. That’s a bad look.

⭐️ Unless you are positive that in your legal context, your Reader prefers “utilize” to mean “use” — does anyone? — just write “use.”

✏️ Dear 1L Writer,

Your professor is prone to boredom and distraction.

That’s not some big revelation.

All Readers are, and it’s especially true for Readers of legal writing.

✏️ And so, in that spirit, here are are the top 10 writing mistakes I see 1Ls make:

1: Too much passive voice. (Prefer the active.)

2: Needlessly long sentences. (Keep ‘em short.)

3: Needlessly complex sentence structure. (Keep ‘em simple.)

“You should never end a sentence with a preposition.” Were you taught this rule, too? Well, it’s crap.

Here’s evidence, with some important caveats to think about & references for further reading.

🔷 Bryan A. Garner, Garner’s Modern Legal English Usage, 4th ed. (2016), pp. 723-24:

I write today to thank and recommend someone who helped and inspired me the most during my first year on LinkedIn.

John Espirian is my LinkedIn guru and overall favorite source of advice for marketing and business development (BD). John is humble, kind, and approachable—do follow him, but only connect if you’re willing to do some homework first.