—Luckily, when I was brand new here in Sept 2021, Jay’s posts were some of the first in my feed.

—That first year, I didn’t let a work day go by without reading Jay.

We were 4 toddlers strapped across the back seat that day—two to a seatbelt, in the 1972 carpool, as then was the way.

I must have had my mother tell me the story of that morning a million times. It became a bedtime ritual.

“As” has as many meanings as cats have lives: 

NINE to be exact:

9️⃣ to the same degree or amount

              (“it was as hot as the sun”)

8️⃣ for instance

            (“such as”)

Read it out loud.

Not to yourself.
Not in your mind.
I mean out loud—
loud and with conviction.

Here’s what I predict:

It could list:
—the firm’s style preferences,
—each partners’ pet peeves, and
—common mistakes to search for and avoid.

That would require associates to self-edit and polish BEFORE they hand in a draft. 

Here’s a full how-to:

🔷 WHAT is it?

An em-dash—which looks like these here—is a punctuation mark that shows a break in a sentence.

New lawyers “don’t know how to write.”

▪️ The law firms blame the law schools.

▪️ The law schools blame the colleges.

Instead, should it say, “legal-writing coach”?

Hmmm. Let’s look at the 3 rules on “phrasal adjectives”:

1️⃣

DO HYPHENATE

Others say, “Aim for about 14 words per sentence.”

Others say, “Aim for an average of 20 words.”

And still others propose, “Aim 26 words or less.”

🔹 Tips for the Brief

Often I would understand an analysis in my head, but I couldn’t get it down into words on the page. The tips I share in the video helped me, and I thought they might help you, too.

That’s the name of a new newsletter you should check out.

It is monthly (to start), and it will (big surprise) contain 3 bullets.

▪️ 1 tip for legal writers,
▪️ 1 tip for law-student writers,
▪️ 1 tip for LinkedIn writers.

A: Transition from your legal rule/explanation section to your discussion of court decisions:

-Under these legal standards,
-Applying these rules,
-When considering these factors,

Dear Legal Writer, I was reviewing a few 1L fall memos this week, and I came across a problem that I also see regularly in litigators’ briefs:

▪️ The response to ABC Corp.'s ("ABC") motion is due on __.

I’ve been scared to talk about my book on LinkedIn:

—What if it isn’t good?
—What if it isn’t successful?
—What if it is really nothing at all?

I’ve always been a downplayer.

—I don’t like to create expectations.

I used to dread it. I used to play out conversations in my mind over and over again. I’d try
—to script my message with just the right words
—to encourage + inspire without putting down,
—to get my explanations clear so they’d learn.