English Grammar and Usage
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Courts
Judge Drops Amazing 700-Word Footnote Dedicated To Finding Proper Legal Terminology For Attorney's Fees
This is deliciously nerdy -- and we love it! -
Boutique Law Firms
Substance Over Form, But Decorative Dishes Please The Palate
Attorneys must remember what gourmet chefs have long mastered: the details matter. - Sponsored
Document Automation For Law Firms: The Definitive Guide
Legal document automation is no longer only for the exclusive few. -
Education / Schools
White People And The N-Word: A Complicated Relationship?
It's horrifying that you WANT to use a word that is so intertwined with oppression and enslavement.
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In-House Counsel
On Word Choice
Lawyers should make an effort to sound like real people when they speak. -
Law Schools
The Two-Spacer Manifesto For Legal Writing
Does sentence spacing really matter? This law professor thinks so, and is leading the double-spacing rebellion. -
Courts
Lawyer's Pleadings Are So Bad That Judge Orders Future Filings Must Be Reviewed By English Teacher
These pleadings are an embarrassment to the legal profession at large. -
English Grammar and Usage, Law Professors
In Defense Of Space (The Extra One After A Period)
Does sentence spacing really matter? This law professor seems to think so. -
English Grammar and Usage, Technology
How To Improve Your Writing And Draft More Effective Contracts
Here's a new product that transactional lawyers should check out. - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 07.11.16
* In case you haven’t been keeping score like we have, these are the firms that recently raised salaries: Duval & Stachenfeld; Seyfarth Shaw; and Foley & Lardner. If you’re worried you’ve missed any of our coverage on pay raises, check out our omnibus 2016 salary chart where we collect these stories. [2016 Salary Increase / Above the Law]
* Lawyers are “the best-paid writers in the world,” so grammar god Bryan Garner suggests they emulate one of the greatest language snoots of them all: the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Garner identifies with Scalia’s textualism because “[he] believe[s] that words have meaning, and that we should take them seriously.” [Wall Street Journal]
* According to constitutional law scholar Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of UC Irvine Law, SCOTUS may be at a turning point since the next president will likely be able nominate up to four justices. “Whether you see yourself as conservative or liberal … this affects all of us, our most intimate and important aspects of our lives.” [Los Angeles Times]
* Lawyers for Led Zeppelin are seeking about $800K in costs and legal fees for their defense of the seminal rock band in the “Stairway to Heaven” copyright infringement suit. Peter Anderson, the band’s lead counsel in the case, claims that his $330 per hour rate is “actually below” the going rate for this caliber of high-profile work. [Ars Technica]
* Venezuelan authorities have arrested a woman connected to Mossack Fonseca, the firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal, for allegedly being “in charge of seeking customers to invest illicit funds in outsourcing-type business arrangements.” She’s been charged with illegally obtaining funds in violation of banking regulations. [Reuters]
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English Grammar and Usage, Politics
Bernie Sanders Hates Wall Street So Much That He Forgot What A Noun Is
His fury is grammar blind. -
Small Law Firms
Use These Words, Not Those Words
As lawyers, whether we’re transactional lawyers or litigators, we certainly know the importance of words. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.20.15
* You’ve heard about what it’s like to be a Supreme Court clerk, but we bet you’ve never heard about what it’s like to be a Supreme Court intern. It’s apparently the “opportunity of a lifetime” to do errands and prepare lunch and meals for Justice Sonia Sotomayor. [Supreme Court Brief]
* If you’re trying to file an effective brief with the Supreme Court, it’s best to write in “relatively short sentences, with a non-confrontational tone.” In other words, you really shouldn’t be trying to emulate Justice Scalia’s “jiggery-pokery” flair. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]
* Wachtell Lipton may interested in going “big brother” on its associates, but when it comes to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm wants to steer clear of such voyeurism by doing away with clients’ quarterly reports. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]
* This judge didn’t play “just the tip” when it came to piercing his corporate veil: Paul Hansmeier of copyright-troll firm Prenda Law must pay sanctions to the tune of $64,000 after he drained cash from another one of his firms and then dissolved it. [Ars Technica]
* Texas Tech Law is introducing a “brain-training” seminar for its first-year law students that will “maximize their brains’ performance.” One wonders if they took such a course before law school if they’d be enrolled in the same place. [Lubbock Avalanche-Journal]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 07.10.15
* Aww man, nothing’s going right for this firm: After facing mass defections that forced it to move to a smaller office, struggling law firm Gordon Silver is locked in a legal battle with its former landlord to the tune of $786,000 in rent that allegedly went unpaid. [VEGAS INC.]
* Ted Cruz isn’t the only person Ted Olson has a bone to pick with. Justice Scalia thinks the Obergefell decision is a “threat to American democracy,” but Olson disagrees: “[W]ith respect to Justice Scalia, who I do have great respect for, he is wrong.” [National Law Journal]
* Brooklyn Law School is selling off buildings left and right, and one of its prime pieces of real estate could sell for up to $30 million. According to Dean Nick Allard, its sale will serve as a “better advantage for the future of the law school.” [New York Daily News]
* Lawyers, make sure to draft your documents carefully, or else you could wind up getting screwed by an errant comma (or the lack thereof). An Ohio woman got out of a summons because she pointed out a missing comma in a local ordinance. [Lexicon Valley / Slate]
* From the sound of it, not all Uber drivers want to become Uber employees; some of them are perfectly content to be classified as independent contractors. That’s probably going to screw up that whole typicality requirement for this would-be class-action suit. [Forbes]
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Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
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English Grammar and Usage, Gender, In-House Counsel
The Road Not Taken: 'Just'ice Denied
All attorneys should proof their communications for language that undermines their credibility. -
English Grammar and Usage, Lawyer Advertising
An Embarrassing Law Firm Advertising FAIL
FYI, the best way to market your firm is without absurd grammatical errors. -
Career Center, Career Files, Lawyers
From The Career Files: LawProse -- Whether 'Whether' Causes Problems For Legal Writers
Yes, it does—in four ways... -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.15.15
* Sorry, Chicago Law, but it looks like you’re going to lose your dean. Michael Schill, the school’s departing dean, will leave to assume the presidency at the University of Oregon. It’s an upgrade for UO, and a potential downgrade for UChiLaw. Yikes… [Willamette Week]
* FYI, D.C. Circuit litigants, you really need to “avoid using acronyms that are not widely known.” This is your second warning, your colleagues have already been benchslapped for this behavior, and the clerk’s office literally can’t even anymore. [National Law Journal]
* After six months spent completing a domestic violence program, the battery charge against Judge Mark Fuller has been dropped and expunged from his record. Whether he’ll be allowed to keep his job on the federal bench is another story entirely. [Reuters]
* Your law school application is a great place to explain why your undergraduate GPA is so damn low, because at this point in the process, the law school of your choice may be happy that you actually have a pulse. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News & World Report]
* Theo Shaw, a member of the “Jena Six” who had to spend 7 months in jail because he couldn’t afford bail for his alleged participation in a gang-beating, is going to law school on a full ride. He’s “profoundly grateful” to Washington Law. Congrats! [Business Insider]
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 01.13.15
* From the “Why the hell didn’t you settle this?” file: Now that Alexandra Marchuk’s case against Faruqi & Faruqi and Juan Monteverde has gone to trial, it seems the firm is getting all sorts of publicity — mostly negative. [New York Post]
* Supreme Court justices are really just like us… they show up late to work, too. Because Justice Antonin Scalia was stuck in traffic this morning, Chief Justice John Roberts had to summarize two of Scalia’s opinions from the bench. Oops! [NPR]
* Speaking of Justice Scalia, the Supreme jurist managed to sneak in a citation to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in his opinion in Whitfield v. United States to show the common usage of the word “accompany.” [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]
* Remember Dennis Doyle, the lawyer who lost his job and dropped $25K to see every single Knicks game this season? He said this of his tragic endeavor: “I can’t shut it down. I’m in too deep. … I’ll see it through—if it doesn’t kill me first.” [Bleacher Report]
* An Idaho prosecutor is having regrets over the fact that he chose to issue an arrest warrant for a 9-year-old boy on gum-stealing charges, calling it “a mistake under the circumstances.” That kid must be the coolest on the playground. [ABA Journal]
* “Trying to suppress [the value of parody] with violence is a fool’s errand.” In the wake of the horror of the Charlie Hebdo shootings, it’s worth recognizing that here in the U.S., we owe much to rappers who have capitalized on free speech. [LinkedIn]
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Canada, Dewey & LeBoeuf, English Grammar and Usage, Morning Docket, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Morning Docket: 11.28.14
* John Altorelli, the finance lawyer who allegedly had an affair with sexy Russian spy Anna Chapman, is indeed screwed — he’s the second former Dewey & LeBoeuf partner to file for personal bankruptcy in the wake of the firm’s collapse. [American Lawyer]
* Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had a heart procedure on Wednesday, left the hospital yesterday and should be back on the bench on Monday. [CNN]
* Canada’s newest Supreme Court justice, Suzanne Cote, is no stranger to the spotlight; she’s worked on high-profile cases like the investigation into Justice Lori Douglas (of nude photo fame). [How Appealing]
* Michele Roberts, leading litigatrix and former Skadden partner, is settling into her new job as executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. [New York Times]
* Newly released deposition testimony from Bill Cosby will probably only worsen his PR woes. [Associated Press]
* Stuck in the office today with nothing to do? Take this fun exercise to test your punctuation and copy-editing skills, designed by Bryan A. Garner. [ABA Journal]
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English Grammar and Usage, Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners
What Is The Most Important Element Of Legal Analysis?
Did you agree with the survey or did you pick a different element?