Dear Legal Writer, If you want a quick read that’s chock-full of info & advice on written & oral advocacy, I recommend:

“Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges,” by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the well-known, legal-writing scholar, Bryan A. Garner (“MYC”).

If you work your way up through the BigLaw associate ranks like I did, eventually you face a time of reckoning. The only question becomes:

⁉️ Do you have a book of business? ⁉️

You may even awake one cold day to the stark reality that even though you’ve done a superlative job as an associate, there is only up, out, or, in select cases, on indefinite “hold.”

Today I write about a writing question I just faced: Should you capitalize the word that comes after a colon (“:”)?

In other words, should the “should” in the preceding sentence be capitalized?

Answer: I’ve found no legal-writing style guide on the topic. Under non-legal, writing-style guides, the answer is inconsistent.

Conventional wisdom says the best way to become a better writer is to read a lot of good writing. That may be true, but I find it impractical for too many.

What percentage of lawyers and law students have daily free time to read significant additional writing, “good” or otherwise?

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.”