Legal researcher. Legal writer. Attorney-at-law.
You finally finished drafting the argument section of your brief; you are mentally spent. So for the conclusion you copy and paste: “For the foregoing reasons, Defendant asks this Court to grant its motion.” Yes, it feels a little anticlimactic and abrupt, but at least the brief is done. Perhaps you think that judges aren’t [...]
I recently outran five zombie mobs. My kids ask if I did a zombie run when they get home and whether the zombies got me. At least two of them understand that I’m not really being chased. I’ve been playing Zombies, Run! I take my iPhone on my run, start the app, and I hear [...]
I like to think I know how to design a document. You won’t catch me using two spaces after a period. I don’t use all caps. And my AutoCorrect options are set to use curly quotes. So I was feeling pretty good through the first 50 pages of Typography for Lawyers: Essential Tools for Polished [...]
Forget your teacher’s red marker. I’m an English major and grew up going to fantastic public schools in Virginia. But somewhere along the way I thought that I could not start sentences with And or But. Not until after law school did I learn I was wrong. And if you’ve read my other legal-writing posts, [...]
I’ve written two briefs recently where I was able to incorporate graphics. While I’m not the first person to include graphics in legal writing, I still felt like I was pushing the envelope a bit. And it was fun—a little rebellious and a little creative. I wasn’t sure how the hiring attorneys would feel about [...]
I’ve made it known that when I have my druthers, I use footnotes in briefs. I began to use footnotes when, through my independent studying of legal writing, I became convinced that it makes for a clearer brief when you use sentences and paragraphs to argue rather than string citations. When you move all the [...]
With two librarians in my family, I think my mom would be proud that I am asking, “What would a librarian do?” in studying ways for cost-effective legal research. In Thinking Like a Librarian: Tips for Better Legal Research, Richard Buckingham, the Electronic Services and Legal Reference Librarian at Suffolk University Law School, offers practicing [...]
Now that you are a practicing lawyer and writing briefs for real, how do you improve your writing? For me, it started with a Bryan Garner seminar. His seminar will give new life to your writing, and you’ll leave wondering how your partners will react when you write your first brief without the long “COMES [...]
I am a Georgia attorney with ten years of experience. For the past three years, I've been providing independent contract-attorney services to other attorneys. Whether it is research and writing, litigation support, legal editing, a short-term project, or long-term, I can help.
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