triple-stressing ❗️

It’s way harder than planned, too, prompting:

—what’s wrong with me?
—why’s it taking me so long?
—is anything I’ve done right?
—does this mean I don’t belong?

So far, they've all called about their sons.

They’re starting law school in the fall.

And they’re “really smart.”

But they “can’t write.”

“It’s their schools’ fault.
They didn’t train him well.”

They feel it when:

🔻 your prose plods,
🔻 every sentence marches at the same tempo,
🔻 every paragraph lands with the same dull thud.

It systematically roots out the 6 worst sins in legal writing:

-Passives
-Expletives
-Nominalizations
-Complexities
-Intensifiers
-Legalese

1️⃣ PASSIVES (search for “by”)

🔸 “I forgot how ‘green’ they are.”

This is something more senior layers say after working with summers and first-year associates. “Green” means “inexperienced.”

“10-6-2023: Total failure.
There are too many law school books already.
Some winners. Most losers. And I have no desire to add my book to the losers’ list.”

Today, that book has officially crossed 2,000 copies sold on Amazon.

Remember the court scene in “A Few Good Men”?

Tom Cruise says, “I object,” and the court overrules.

But Demi Moore isn’t satisfied. She just has to get up and say: “I strenuously object.”

My heart races.
My stomach sinks.
My breath hastens, and SNAP:

I suddenly become drenched, head to toe.

My genes are 99% Irish, too.

So a surge of adrenaline makes the the blood pump up into my face and turn me into the most conspicuously nervous-looking red tomato 🍅.

Yet I see people use it regularly.

I now want you to put it in the trash. 🗑️

Instead, try “Even though.”

It is shorter and so much smoother.

Examples—

And it’s from someone I’d never even heard of before (Brittany S. Stevens, an author of a series on law school success).

She gave 📕 Dear 1L 📕 this 5-star review on Amazon!

My favorite parts:

👉 “This is not a book you read once and shelve. It’s a trusted supplement students can return to throughout 1L and beyond.”

Just as you’re starting to hit your stride—thinking you might actually “get” how to do this whole law school thing—

WHAM ❗️—the brief smacks you in the face and you feel totally inadequate again.

Please know: it is not just you.

Writing a legal brief for the very first time is enough to bring even an experienced legal analyst to their knees.

Dear Pre-L:

If you start law school in the fall, please don’t get blindsided by early recruiting. Do these 4 things:

🔷 1: Invest time in deep soul-searching about what you want to do with your JD.

Research the types of jobs lawyers do;
find out how different lawyers actually spend their time;

 —Chris Schandevel

(describing a brief in which “MOO” was used to define an agreement (“Memorandum of ?”))

Dear Legal Writer:

📌 CUT “the weird acronyms and initialisms.” (Make sure to read the comments below the post, too!)

That is both good and bad.

Good is that:
—No one criticizes me.
—No one dictates my schedule.
—No one tells me what work to do.

Bad is that:
—I criticize myself more than any boss would.
—I do better when I have a schedule.
—What work should I do???

I haven’t seen this before.

Apparently, too, several schools had some type of OCI (on-campus recruiting) program last week, and students now have call backs coming up soon.

So I pulled together my best interview tips from “Dear 1L” ch 15 and added a few more.