The Legal Writing Lounge

Every word matters when submitting a brief to the court. It’s the difference between winning and...

Each year, the world awaits Warren Buffett’s letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Investment...

Lawyers love to quibble about everything. But of all the the potential topics to debate, grammar...

Is the country’s malaise affecting our judges as well?

The Seventh Circuit has referred a lawyer...

Few things are duller than a paragraph stuffed with dates.

“Using an exact date signals to the...

Curious what top brief-writers do differently from the rest of us? This AI-powered study shares...

When I fly both here and abroad, I often spot the SmartPhone-and-Bluetooth set poring over The...

I skimmed hundreds of pages of client alerts and other publications. Here’s a distillation.

What...

Justices Scalia and Kagan once joined forces on deer-hunting trips. They share the same gift for...

Ted Olson and David Boies, opponents of California’s Prop. 8 had some unlikely allies to thank....

An elite litigation boutique filed the rejected motion for Meta (Facebook).

The apparently...

Imagine a judge digging into the next motion on her stack—your motion. Could she have written your...

Just like its sister article Just Say No, this article adds to our list of quick style fixes.

1. ...

Appellate hotshots from Hogan Lovells and Mayer Brown won a Second Circuit reversal of an order...

“Delighted to see the Supreme Court is interested in beer drinkers,” wrote Ruth Bader Ginsburg,...

Craft a concise, effective, and persuasive introduction in little time by looking at your dispute...

Looking to start a fight between two corporate attorneys? Ask whether an agreement is made between...

Touted as the “magician” of punctuation by Noah Lukeman, the colon is as potent as it is...

Would I need to forbear or forebear from receiving some future benefit to have a bargained-for...

Good legal writers form coherent paragraphs. Great legal writers like Chief Justice Roberts do far...

Split Infinitive:

• What Is a Split Infinitive? A split infinitive involves placing an adverb or...

Here are a few examples of how the Greats analogize and compare cases, facts, and contexts.

• Case...

In 2006, the Second Circuit rejected Martha Stewart’s appeal, which sought to overturn her...

Does one allude danger or allude to an implied point, or both?

Allude (verb):

• Allude is a verb...

Were there fewer (or less) patent infringement suits filed this month than the previous month?

...

In the legal world, debates about hyphenating “summary judgment standard” or “publicly traded...

A single day at the Supreme Court generated three perfect composite BriefCatch scores. What can...

Fretting over Plain English? Just pick up one of Warren Buffett’s annual reports for Berkshire...

A good editor is like Pavlov’s dog. Here are five expressions that should make you salivate—for...

Must the threat of harm be imminent or eminent for a plaintiff to have pre-enforcement standing?

...

A federal judge in Florida once “corrected” dozens of errors in a routine motion. He mainly fixed...

Originally written in March 2016

We’ve heard a lot about Merrick Garland’s sterling CV and...

In one of the greatest patent cases of all time, Apple v. Samsung, Apple won a stunning...

Can a holding imply the court’s unwillingness to consider an issue, or does it infer such an...

Which “which” vs. “that” rules make you wish that grammar evaporated? Do “which” hunts sometimes...

Impeachment language is stuffy and overwrought, and the middling BriefCatch scores for the new...

If you tend to use the phrase “as such” to avoid using another “thus” or “therefore,” then you’re...

Can you actively identify the difference between an active or passive sentence construction? Or...

Does enumerating your supporting reasons with “First . . . Second . . . Third . . .” feel too...

The Wall Street Journal put adverbs on trial some time ago.

Witnesses for the prosecution: Stephen...

Who are the best writers in Supreme Court history? Poll a hundred lawyers, and just about all of...

When Chief Justice John Roberts was a lawyer, he once wrote that determining the “best” available...

When you hear the name George Conway III, do you think “Kellyanne” or “That Twitter Guy”? My goal...

I often tell lawyers to purge their writing of Latinisms: why say “inter alia” when “among other...

For scams and urban legends, check snopes.com. But what if grammar myths are getting you down?

If...

“Judges are not like pigs, hunting for truffles buried in briefs.” Footnote-averse judges love to...

Many law firms market themselves by sending out “client alerts” about the latest hot case or...

Are you a lawyer or a judge? Or do you just seek a writing muse? Look no further than Justice...

In Justice Kagan’s debut opinion, she imagined a debtor buying an old junkyard car “for a song.”...

It’s hard to get lawyers and judges to agree on much these days, but here’s one exception: that...

While a well-placed allusion can enliven your prose, the use of trite, uninspired clichés will...

From the loftiest law firms to the grandest judicial chambers, I see the same comma errors time...

Drafting reformers hate couplets. They say, for example, that “terms and conditions” means nothing...

Several years ago, a Wall Street Journal legal columnist put adverbs on trial.

Witnesses for the...

I used to think that rhetorical questions in briefs were pompous, if not offensive. I shuddered at...

Democratic stalwarts Seth Waxman and Lloyd Cutler, along with 156 prominent lawyers, signed a...

Kagan and Kavanaugh disagree on a lot these days, including in their Borden v. United States...

The Delaware Supreme Court reprimanded a lawyer for “disruptive, disrespectful, degrading, [and]...

Looking for some writing inspiration?

Start with The New Yorker, the nation’s best-edited...

“Being a member of the Court is a little like walking through fresh concrete,” said Justice...

Many lawyers find themselves retelling—or regurgitating—testimony from fact witnesses, expert...

Ever since I created an editing app, my usual workshop feats, like engaging bleary-eyed associates...

Did you hear about the federal judge who called out the “potshots and hyperbole” in a motion and...

An easy way to make your brief-writing more appealing? Shun deadweight openers—however,...

What’s the difference between a “little used car” and a “little-used car”? Between “more critical...

Here are two passages from a recent Supreme Court case called Already LLC v. Nike. Guess which...

Want to lighten your prose? Hunt for phrases that often clutter the page. Let’s consider three...

So many are clamoring for guidance from lawyers right now. And so many lawyers are clamoring to be...

The U.S. Supreme Court’s current ideological divide may be the sharpest we’ve seen in a long time....

Complex cases often require complex lines of argument. The downside, of course, is that a tired...

With legal disputes, rarely does every fact favor the prevailing party. To present a compelling...

“Kagan May Be Dangerous,” wrote the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web” early on in her...

Although law-firm partners have too many grammar-specific issues to detail them all in one...

As the nation’s first female Solicitor General, current Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan has...

Who doesn’t need some inspiration these days?

On the writing front, consider Chief Justice...

Unsure of how to close out that brief? Conclude with aplomb by using short, light transition words...

With more stopping power than the comma and the ability to connect two independent clauses (and...

Is the American Revolution a historic or a historical event (or both)?

Historic (adjective): 

• ...

Is plaintiff’s claim farther or further attenuated than the bad precedent they cite to?

Uses of...

Are the principles of the constitutional interpretation clear? Or would that be constitutional ...

Are oral and written contracts both considered verbal contracts? If so, what’s the difference?

...

Would you forego the chance to sue for a decent settlement? Or would you be forgoing that chance?

...

Your seventh-grade English teacher told you never to split an infinitive: no adverb between “to”...

So many people yearn to understand regulations right now. If you want to help, think of yourself...