“Find” and “hold” mean very different things.

▪️ “Find” refers to determining facts—what actually happened. This is the job of a fact-finder (a jury, or sometimes a judge in a bench trial or preliminary hearing).

▪️ “Hold” refers to a legal conclusion—a court’s determination of what the law means or what the law requires, given the facts.

‍ ‍

Well, here’s why we use it and how you can do so effectively in your spring brief:

🔷 “To be sure” signals, “I will now acknowledge the point that most hurts me, in hopes of defusing it on my own terms.”

— “The date was amazing for Brad and myself.”
— “Sarah and myself have a real connection.”
— “This journey has really helped myself grow.”

❌ NO! NO! NO!
(Somewhere, a grammar teacher is sobbing into a rose.)

I hadn’t worked a “real job” in 5 years;
I’d let my lawyering skills lapse;
I’d let my people skills lapse;
I’d let my self-worth lapse;
I’d become a nobody.

But the worst part was having no community.

It’s unnecessary, and it’s considered redundant.

WRONG: The teacher said “hi” to only one student, (whose name was Charlie).

WRONG: The plaintiff, (who had a strong case), looked confident at the hearing.

In 2026, I will:

Put more verbs in the active voice (1)
& use “that,” not “which”
when given the choice (2).

I’ll use “therefore” or “thus”
(but never “as such”) (3),
and I’ll throw away my “However, . . .” crutch (4).

“The same” leaves havoc in its wake. To illustrate:

🔹 "She delivered the goods to the warehouse and then sold the same."

—Does "same" refer to the goods or the warehouse?

🔹 “The contract has a 30-day notice rule. Failure to comply with same will result in penalties."

—To me, it meant awkward alumni dinners, bar ass’n meetings, and cocktail mixers with lawyers 20–40 years older than me.

—I spent events like those wearing a plastic smile, laughing at jokes I didn’t understand, and feeling like a complete idiot.

-law school applicants,
-law school students,
-full-fledged lawyers of all levels.

I’ve identified the top 10 most common errors.

So I made a checklist for you.

I hope it helps!

▪️ Example: “There’s no unlawful wiretapping if one of the parties consents.”

✅ Improved: “There’s no unlawful wiretapping if one party consents.”

Shorter

Cleaner

Better

1️⃣ MISTAKE 1:
You post with a FIREWALL. 👺

You post an article you’ve written,
but you give us no info about it.
And the full article’s behind a firewall. ❌

So we can’t read it, so we don’t like it or comment on it, and we definitely don’t save it. We just scroll on.

The RIGHT way is below each example.

🔹 DON’T say that “the plaintiff is like the Jones case . . .”

What you mean is that your plaintiff is like the PLAINTIFF in the Jones case.

You can apply these 3 steps to test if something’s set in parallel structure:

1️⃣ Test with the stem to make sure it would make sense standing alone.

▪️ Ex:
“The tenant must provide proof of income, a photo ID, and sign the lease.”

But we legal writers MUST use it, even where others don’t.

RULE: DO use a comma before “and” or “or” in a list or series that has 3 or more.

❌ A, B and C
🟢 A, B, and C

❌ He walked home, ate dinner and went to bed.
🟢 He walked home, ate dinner, and went to bed.

—What’s that you say? “However, . . .” is grammatically correct?

Yeah, yeah, I know.
I still cringe.

Here’s why you should reconsider using it:

🟦 Your reader is bored.