For the very first time EVER:

I gave a big speech.
It was before a whole section of 1Ls.
It was for “Welcome to Law School” Day.
And it was my alma mater, Boston College Law School.

Never having given a true “speech,” I was NERVOUS.

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:

They may say they already:

-finished 2 pre-law prep courses,
-did the first month’s worth of reading,
-met with your professors at office hours, or
-copied all the final doctrinal exams from the library.

They didn’t give you much of a break, did they? Since right after exams, you’ve had the write-on, your first “legal” job, early recruiting, OCI, and whatever you’ve had going on in your personal life.

Whether you have a 2L summer job lined up or not, it probably hasn’t felt like much of a summer “break.”

I knew it would happen eventually, but wow, it still sucked.

Last evening, as I played the otherwise terrible day back in my mind, the review was the thing that really stuck in my craw.

Then a real friend came through for me.

And I emphasize “real.”

The JDs coming from law school do not know how to write.

🔹 Yes, law schools are too academic + unfocused on the practical skills needed.

🔹 But legal-writing professors face a mounting challenge:

The students coming out of college do not know how to write, either (at least not anywhere near as well as they used to).

Some 2Ls try to do everything under the sun.

-They do every affinity and interest group.
-They do law review and moot court.
-They assume roles on committees.
-They attend each social event.
-They even work part-time.

--> They have no free time.

(Old law-school deans apparently used say that on the first day of law school.)

Here’s what I want you to think about today instead:

⬇️

Look left; look right;
30 years from now,
1 will be your boss,

🔹 Old, obsolete way:

-Use complex words non-lawyers won’t know.
-Use no charts, timelines, or photographs.
-Add emphasis with boldface and italics.
-Write in Times New Roman font.
-Use acronyms for party names.
-Use footnotes to save space.
-Maximize use of legalese.

To me, marking edits in red ink is like using ALLCAPS in an email.

Where ALLCAPS signifies shouting, red ink signifies barking.

The result is a bloody butchering of the pages:
—> the draft looks like a crime scene,
—> the junior lawyer feels skewered.

Dear 1L,

You will do better this year if you decide how the important parts of each day go in advance.

Most 1Ls choose to play things by ear.
They let external factors dictate their days.

It starts with what time they wake up.

▪️ “I love ‘But’ at the beginning of a sentence, and I never put ‘However’ at the beginning—almost never.”

— Justice Antonin Scalia (Garner, 13 The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing (2010), at 60.)

▪️ “‘However,’ is a ‘ponderous’ way to [start a sentence].”

🔹 When you wrote in college, you got rewarded for writing MORE.

—You had to write papers LONG enough to meet a page or word MINimum.

E.g., “must be at least twenty-five pages.”

🔹 But in law school, you get rewarded for writing LESS.

Hello! I hope your summer has been going well and that you’re getting excited for law school to start.

Most people also feel some anxiety, and as orientation approaches, the fear of uncertainty can come on pretty strong.

I am going to try to alleviate some of that for you by sharing helpful info and tools you can use throughout the year.