The Practice

Buy Party of the First Part

I just found out that my friend Lisa Solomon over at The Billable Hour now has Party of the First Part for sale! (You do remember my prior post, right?)

Now, if you don't subscribe to Lisa's newsletter, this is a good time to do so. The Billable Hour has a lot of great information, resources, and humorous lawyer gifts.

Of course, don't forget to visit Lisa's practice website for all of your legal research and writing needs. And trust me, she writes in such a way that even Mr. Freedman, author of "Party of the First Part" would appreciate. Clear, concise and in plain English!

Great New Book: The Party of the First Part

I just finished reading this new book from Adam Freedman. He is the "Legal Lingo" columnist for the New York Law Journal Magazine and author of the website by the same name as the book.

This is a great, quick read. The book provides a history of legal terms that you use everyday in your law practice. He then provides a plain English meaning of these words. What a relief! I wish I had this when I was in law school.

Interestingly, I think the book will also help you be a better writer. I know I try to avoid legalese at all costs in my writing. But, I know some gets left in. After reading this book, I am going to redouble my efforts to get all of that nonsense out of there whenever possible.

Go out there and give the book a read. And post a review here.

Blogs as legal authority?

Yes, it is true. Not only is it true but Ian Best of 3L Epiphany fame, has put together a list of cases that cite blogs.

So, lets review briefly the benefits of blogging:

1. Apparently you could be cited in cases as an authority on a subject.
2. You get to research a subject and write about it regularly.
3. You can become an expert in a topic.
4. It is a great way to get clients.
5. It allows you to work on your writing skills (which some of us need badly).

If you are still not blogging, the question is why? If you are blogging, what other benefits have you received? Let me know.

-------Jonathan

PS Ian, keep up the great and creative work.

Check, double check and triple check

I received an opposition to a motion recently. I had written what I thought was a well written motion. It was concise, used proper grammar and had an easy to follow format. I had four main parts (introduction, background, argument, conclusion) and lettered subparts within each main part. It was a thing of beauty.

The opposition - not so much. It has four main parts, but the argument rambles on and on and does not address the points in my motion. Of course, it might, but they don't follow any format so it is hard to tell. It makes the same point about 4 times using the same words. This is very difficult reading.

When you are writing a motion or an opposition, or any other legal paper, make it easy to follow and easy to read. I won't tell you how to write it, I leave that to people like Lisa Solomon who get paid to write. And if you are not a good writer, hire Lisa. But this is just difficult.

The basic rule: if it is hard to read and hard to follow, you lose!

-----Jonathan

Write Less, Say More

I usually leave the writing tips to the experts like Wayne Scheiss or Lisa Solomon. But, this one is too good to pass up. (Of course, they will probably disagree with me, but oh well.)

When you are writing, try to be more like Dr. Brax. Who? Dr. Brax. Everyone knows Dr. Brax. Well, those of us who read sports pages and Sports Illustrated know Dr. Brax.

Dr. Brax is actually Ralph S. Brax, a history professor at Antelope Valley College in California. He is a regular contributor to the LA Times Sports page and to SI's letters. How on earth does one guy get in to the letters to the editor so much?

Easy, apparently, according to SI's Steve Rushin. Dr. Brax is short and to the point. "Short darts with poison-dropped tips" is how Rushin describes them. Isn't that brilliant? Why drone on and on to make a point when you can make a point with a short dart?

I know my writing usually drags on. I am always afraid I will leave out one point or another. However, I think I will give the Dr. Brax style a chance. Judges would probably like to read less, and hopefully give me more. Give it a shot in your next writing assignment.

-----Jonathan

Correspondence: Who are you writing to?

In one day last week, I received two pieces of correpondence that both had problems. The problems were pretty basic ones that should have been caught with some basic proofreading. The first one was a "bcc" that was left on the letter. OOPS! The second one was addressed to me but not intended for me. The sender just didn't check before he sent it.

Both of these problems are pretty easy to avoid.  Proofread your letters, emails, etc.... Do not have your secretary stamp "Dictated but not read in order to avoid delay" on your letters. (For a whole variety of reasons, this bothers me, but we will save that for another day.) Spend an extra 5 minutes reading your letters. Sometimes it makes sense to type it (or dictate it) and then do something else before going back to proofread the letter.

This one little step can avoid some embarrassing mistakes.

-------Jonathan

Legal Writing Blog

As you may know from my prior posts, writing was not my strong subject in law school. Yes, my legal writing professor actually laughed when I told her I wanted to write a law review article. (She ended up being my faculty advisor.)

While surfing the internet today, I came across a legal writing blog. Wayne Scheiss is the director of legal writing at Texas Law. He has some great ideas about writing, including that legal writing does not have to be so serious.

This site is definitely worth a read. You will probably learn a few things about writing. Law students should especially read this as it provides a lot of helpful information on how to write successfully, an important skill when you are first out of law school.

Publicity, Money, and a Competition

This is not so much about running your law practice, but rather a way for you to gain some much needed publicity (and a little cash!)

The ABA is having a competition that provides an opportunity for a young lawyer to demonstrate innovative and original research and writing on emerging issues in the field of lawyers' professional liability law.

There are several good reasons for doing this.

First, as I said before, you get some publicity. It helps to have some recognition from the ABA. I had the ABA publish an article I wrote. The week after it came out, I received a call from opposing counsel in a case congratulating me on it. While its not a big deal, it did change the dynamics of the case some.

Second, you get some practice researching and writing - a skill we all need more work on. Finally, if you win, you get a little money, and that never hurts the bottom line.

Writing Letters

My writing professor my first year in law school (Professor Hether MacFarlane at Pacific-McGeorge School of Law) kept telling me how important writing was for lawyers. I kind of chuckled when she said that, and yet, somehow, it turns out that she was right and I was wrong.

As it turns out, we spend much of our time writing. And we spend much of our time writing poorly. (That last sentence is a good example.) My writing skills have gotten better simply by writing. On my website are several articles that I have written for various publications. Just read them and you can tell which ones were written when.

Barry Kaufman, one of my co-producers of this blog, sent me this excellent article on how to write letters that non-lawyers will read. Every law student, every new attorney, should read this article and learn how to write letters like this. It takes practice - and a lot of it. But its one of the most important things you can learn.