I learned this rule the hard way. I hope to save you a similar day.

My mistake actually got a BigLaw partner to aim an assault rifle at me!

(Ok, it was an imaginary one, but I was just a first-year associate, and the experience had a big
effect on me.)

I confess, I’m a bit of a Latin geek, but most people aren’t, and i.e. & e.g. routinely cause mixups. In fact, it’s one of the top 5 mistakes Grammar Girl (Mignon Fogarty) says she sees when editing technical documents. (GrammarGirl .com).

Both abbreviations are really common in legal writing, too.

Dear 1L, Justice Elena Kagan apparently didn’t rush to “write home about” her 1L fall grades, either. She only received two, according to reports, and they came as a shock:

a B in Crim;
a B- in Torts.

What’s your first move?

Try my P-E-N approach. It kills the culprits behind 3 biggies behind empty words:

—Did YOUR middle-school teacher try to sell you that “rule,” too?

And did she also teach you, “It’s wrong grammatically” to use a preposition that way?

Well, she sold you 2 heaps of crap.

Dear Legal Writer, A recent remark by a BigLaw partner stopped me dead in my tracks.

On a post about legal writing (not mine), he commented,

See if you know which of these 3 sentences is correct:

A: The cake comprised 6 ingredients.
B: The cake was comprised by 6 ingredients.
C: The cake was comprised of 6 ingredients.

Here’s the “how-to”:

For any writing project, cut your process into 4 stages. It helps to think of the stages building a house:

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?

—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)

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.”

Stay away from phrases like:

➖ “in this case”
➖ “in the present case”
➖ “in the instant case”
➖ “in the case at bar”

TBS, writing those phrases is not “wrong,” per se.