“What on earth is that?” you ask.

Well, I’m going to tell you!

👉 The rule’s inspired by a famous court scene in the 1992 film, “A Few Good Men.”

Tom Cruise plays a young Navy lawyer and sits first chair at a trial, while Demi Moore plays his lieutenant commander in second chair.

So here goes. ⤵️

I’m fifty-five, female, and married to Matt for twenty-six years (he’s a lawyer, too). We live in a suburb of Philadelphia and have three daughters in their 20s, including one who is a 3L now.

I grew up in a suburb of NYC. My father was a lawyer and my mother, an English teacher. (Yes, I know; go figure.)

Perhaps you know the Vampire Weekend song?

Well, here’s why you should give a BIG f*ck:

⬇️

During my first year on LinkedIn, I posted a recommendation that you use the Oxford Comma—always—when writing in the legal context.

I am feeling a bit wistful as we approach the TWO-full-years mark since I started writing this series to you on LinkedIn.

In honor of the anniversary, I thought we’d mix things up to see how well you’ve really been paying attention. 🙂

Here’s a little quiz based on a selection of my letters from 2024.

Use fewer “to be” verbs.

Here’s what I mean:

⬇️

There are 2 kinds of verbs:

1-ACTION verbs
2-TO BE verbs (also called, “state-of-being” verbs).

It could list:

—the firm’s style preferences,
—each partners’ pet peeves, and
—common mistakes to watch for and avoid.

If I had a law firm, I would require all associates to edit their own drafts using the checklist and to fix, correct, and polish the drafts BEFORE they hand them in.

If you initially say the incident occurred on a “bridge,” don’t later refer to it as an “overpass.”

And if you initially describe the incident as a “robbery,” don’t later call it a “theft.”

Get the gist?

1️⃣ STEP 1: Fully justify your body text.

▪️ Set the format for all paragraphs so the text ending at the right margin makes a perfectly straight line.

—When you fully justify, you often cut a few lines of text per document.

It’s been like this since I went to law school in the 1990s, and it’s largely the same today.

LRW profs rarely get tenure.
They often have no vote.
And they typically make less than $100,000/year.

That’s a lot less than clinical profs, and only about HALF of doctrinal-prof pay.

“How many of you have gotten a job because of a connection?”

There must have been at least 100 lawyers in the room.

Every single one raised their hand.

👉 Law students: This is the way to get jobs.

🔹 On turning 55:

—“Yikes!”

(We are definitely more than half way through now.🙀😱)

—But also, “Ahhh!”

(At least compared to 25, a birthday on which I cried, as I was 100% single and thought I’d grow old, a spinster, and die.)

Beta-readers.

👉 A beta-reader is like a test case.

—The idea is that you send a very early draft of your book to people who resemble the types of readers you're targeting.

—Then, you get all their feedback; you make the draft better; and you send it to a new set of beta-readers.

This happens a lot to junior lawyers.

When it happens to you:

Please DON’T guess.
Please DON’T wing it.

✅ Please DO find out all needed info info BEFORE starting.

Here are the types of proactive questions I recommend you ask:

Dear Legal Writer:

Put a comma or period INSIDE the quotation marks.

Do this regardless of whether that comma or period appeared in the original, quoted material.

Scope: U.S. Legal Writing*

Here are two examples.

1️⃣ Mistake No. 1:

The items don’t make sense with the words setting up the list.

🔻 Example: “The applicant must submit a filing fee, a copy of the permit, and fill out a form.”

The culprit is easier to detect if you diagram: