Dear 1L, Too many of you are capitalizing the word “court” when you shouldn't, and not capitalizing it when you should.

Learn the rules governing court capitalization now, and you’ll never need to think about the topic again.

RULES

Dear Legal Writer: Be careful with the word “find.”

In fact, if you’re writing a motion for summary judgment or an appellate brief, don’t use “find” at all.

🔹 An appellate court doesn’t “find” anything. It renders conclusions of law, not fact.

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.”