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.

1️⃣ Fully justify your body text.

—That will cut lines b/c full justification fits more letters per line than left justification.

2️⃣ Working from the bottom up, systematically attack each paragraph with only a few words in its final line of text.

Here’s the built-a-business side of the story.

1️⃣

In 2016, I got laid off from a BigLaw firm. I can’t lie: that stung.

In the intervening years, I “tried on” many roles. None quite fit.

But be careful after a negative verb: “because” causes ambiguity.

Here are some examples:

1️⃣ She was not promoted because she is female.

—Was she promoted? That isn’t clear.

Dear Legal Writer, Next time you’re trying to cut words or add some punch, try this:

Replace “is not required to” with “need not.”

For example:

❌ Instead of: “The defendant is not required to disprove the plaintiff’s claims.”

Dear 1L,

If you want to succeed in legal writing this year, you’ll need to forget what you’ve learned about how to organize a body paragraph.

For high-school and college writing, you likely did something like:

But it’s no picnic for legal reading, either.

So strip some weight from everyone’s load. Try these 6 sentence shorteners:

🥵 TOO HEAVY 🥵 --> 🎈LIGHT 🎈

1: Despite the fact that —> Even though

2: In order to —> To

It’s official trademark status for Dear 1L!

I don’t quite know yet where I’m taking any of this, but it makes me feel proud to be building something that’s helping so many people.

Your support has meant the world to me. Thank you. Writing to you has brought me great joy.

I received a comment on my recent “5 Hacks” post from someone I don’t know. She seemed quite exasperated by it all:

“Writing great fiction is the antithesis of documenting complex transactions. . . . How can I restore the creative skill I possessed prior to becoming a legal writer?”

Use these 5 hacks to make your brief fit the page limit—without cutting substance.

🔷 1: Convert sentences to active voice.

“The boy hit the ball.” (Active)

—is shorter than—

It started with a cold DM on LinkedIn.

And that DM started unremarkably:
It was a pre-law college student seeking experience in the legal world who wanted to know if I was aware of any internship openings or had any ideas, advice, etc.

Standard fare.

What’s the most important comma for clear legal writing? It’s beyond dispute. Follow this Rule:

Two

Independent

Clauses

Take

A

When I review your writing, one of the first things I do is reword almost all sentences that start, “However, . . .”

“But starting sentences that way is grammatically correct,” you might protest.

And you’d be right. Even so, I suggest you limit your use of this sentence-starter.

I must have seen more than 100 law-student resumes over the past year. Often I see them after a law-school career office has reviewed, and after everyone thinks the resume is “final.” Here’s the problem:

I still catch formatting errors and see other obvious areas for improvement.

Here are 3 fixes for every legal resume:

Dear Legal Writer,

As a junior legal writer, you likely tend to use “Therefore” and “Thus” too often. And you probably always put them at the start of sentences, followed by a comma.

That can make for some pretty plodding prose.  👎