29 Wednesday Jun 2016
Posted in Legal Technology, Microsoft Office, Word
≈ Comments Off on Word Domination.
Dear Lawyers: It’s Not Word, It’s You, by Barron Henley, Lawyerist.com Blog
Here are two important facts about Microsoft Word:
Fact 1: 100% of the formatting problems you’ve experienced when drafting new documents can be completely avoided before they occur.
Fact 2: When editing a document someone else drafted, any formatting glitches can be resolved in just a few clicks, no matter how bad of a mess it is.
Unfortunately, the foregoing facts are true only if you have mastered Word.
25 Saturday Jun 2016
Posted in Appellate Law, Constitutional Law, United States Supreme Court
≈ Comments Off on “The Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History”
The Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History, by Ken Gormley
If you are interested in constitutional law, I highly recommend this book. It was published in May, 2016, and can be found in your public library or ordered from any book store. It is an interesting discussion of presidential decisions or actions and the constitutional implications.
Here is just one example. If you grew up during the time of Watergate, you may find this particularly interesting. Like most people, I had always assumed that President Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon gave Nixon a “get out of jail free” card. My guess is that this decision caused Ford the election to his first full term as President.
When the author interviewed Gerald Ford for the book, of course Nixon’s pardon came up. Ford said that he had asked a young lawyer, Denton Decker, to research all the nuances and possible issues that might occur if Ford were to pardon Nixon. The idea of pardoning Nixon was very unpopular. Ford wanted to know what possible precedent and repercussions a pardon might mean.
Decker finds Burdick v. United States, 236 U.S. 79 (1915). Burdick holds that, if one accepts a pardon, it is an admission of guilt.
Ford sent Decker to San Clemente to Nixon’s home to present the offer of a pardon to Nixon and Nixon’s lawyer. Decker gave Nixon a Miranda warning and told him that, if Nixon accepted a pardon, it would be an admission of guilt. Nixon at first didn’t want to accept the pardon because he understood what it meant. Another issue on the table at the same time was the creation of a presidential library for Nixon’s papers, which the author says Nixon badly wanted. After first resisting, Nixon decided to take the pardon.
When Ford pardoned Nixon, he thought he had given the public exactly what it wanted. Instead, it was seen as letting Nixon off, even though Nixon was obviously guilty. When interviewed by Mr. Gormley for this book, Ford was still frustrated that the public had never seemed to understand that, by accepting a pardon, Nixon admitted his guilt.
An interesting piece of history and a good read. -CCE
19 Sunday Jun 2016
Posted in Contract Law, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, Persuasive Writing
≈ Comments Off on Tell Your Client’s Story With A Good Narrative.
Tags
Karen Sneddon, Legal Skills Prof Blog, Legal Writing, Louis J. Sirico Jr., Narrative Techniques, Oklahoma Law Review, Susan Chesler
Using Narrative in Transactional Documents, by Louis J. Sirico, Jr., Legal Skills Prof Blog
Susan Chesler and Karen Sneddon have written a very interesting article on including narrative in transactional documents. Once Upon a Transaction: Narrative Techniques and Drafting, 68 Oklahoma Law Review No. 2 (2016).
Here is the introduction: A granddaughter joins the family business as a partner. An entrepreneur licenses his newest product. Two parties decide to settle a dispute. A charitable idea materializes as a private foundation. A parent’s belief in the power of education is perpetuated by a trust agreement. Each of these events forms a narrative. A transaction is more than the scratch of pens across signature pages or the click of keys to email an executed document. A transaction is itself a story.
19 Sunday Jun 2016
Posted in Abbreviations, Contract Law, Legal Writing
≈ Comments Off on Using Abbreviations and Definitions in Legal Writing.
Don’t Use Definition-First Autonomous Definitions, by Ken Adams, Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
http://www.adamsdrafting.com/dont-use-definition-first-autonomous-definitions/
Ken Adams provides excellent examples of how to use an abbreviations and definitions. Use this for contracts, but keep in mind that it also works in pleadings, motions, discovery, etc.
When you use abbreviations and definitions for a person, a law, an event, or contract, it makes your writing tighter and more concise. It makes sense to abbreviate lengthy names, but take which definition you pick. While striving for a way to make your writing less wordy, don’t let the abbreviation or definition de-humanize your client or overly sanitize your client’s case. -CCE
12 Sunday Jun 2016
Posted in Dictionary, Glossaries, Grammar, Punctuation, Quotations, References, Research, Style Manuals, Thesaurus
≈ Comments Off on Reference, Facts, News, Search Engines, Email, and More. Easy Peasy.
Refdesk.com – Fact Checker for the Internet
Refdesk.com has been around a long time. If you have never seen it or used it, please give me the honor of making the introductions.
Go the home page: http://www.refdesk.com. There is a lot to absorb. Take your time. Scroll down the page, and check it out.
Bothered by the ads popping up on the page? There is an easy fix. Support Refdesk. Contribute $25, and Refdesk is add free for a year. No, you don’t have to contribute $25. You don’t have to contribute at all. But, if you want to use Refdesk frequently, I encourage you to contribute something.
If you are like me, you do not want to keep scrolling to find what you want to see – you simply want to get there. Go to the top of the website, and look to the right. You will see three search tools: (1) Check Email; (2) Quick Links; and (3) Reference Desk. Right away, you can see that this has potential as home page.
I want to look up grammar and punctuation rules. Go to Reference Desk, click the down arrow, and choose “Grammar/Style.” That’s a nice assortment of writing guides, but not exactly what I want. I’m looking for The Elements of Style. Click on More at the bottom of the page. There it is.
You have seen one small example of the information this site can give you. I leave it to you to seek out the rest. -CCE
09 Thursday Jun 2016
Posted in Appellate Judges, Appellate Law, Citations, Federal Judges, Judges, Legal Analysis, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, The Bluebook
≈ Comments Off on Posner Asks What is Obviously Wrong with the Federal Judiciary. Is This A Trick Question?
What Is Obviously Wrong With The Federal Judiciary, Yet Eminently Curable, Part I, by Richard Posner, 188 19 GREEN BAG 2D 187 (with hat tip to William P. Statsky) (The Green Bag is Quarterly Legal Journal dedicating to good legal writing, supported in part by the George Mason University School of Law)
http://www.greenbag.org/v19n2/v19n2_articles_posner.pdf
If you’re looking for a good Bluebook bashing, here it is. -CCE
At the level of form, the first thing to do is burn all copies of the Bluebook, in its latest edition 560 pages of rubbish, a terrible time waster for law clerks employed by judges who insist as many do that the citations in their opinions conform to the Bluebook; also for students at the Yale Law School who aspire to be selected for the staff of the Yale Law Journal – they must pass a five-hour exam on the Bluebook. Yet no serious reader pays attention to citation format; all the reader cares about is that the citation enable him or her to find the cited material. Just by reading judicial opinions law students learn how to cite cases, statutes, books, and articles; they don’t need a citation treatise. In the office manual that I give my law clerks only two pages are devoted to citation format. [Footnotes omitted; emphasis added.]
03 Friday Jun 2016
Posted in Brief Writing, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, Legalese, Persuasive Writing, Readability
≈ Comments Off on What’s It Like In Your Judge’s Shoes?
Tags
Legal Skills Prof Blog, Legal Writing, Louis J. Sirico Jr., Persuasive Writing, Sherri Lee Keene
Advice on Writing to Persuade the Court, by Louis J. Sirico, Jr., Legal Skills Prof Blog (with hat tip to William P. Statsky)
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_skills/2016/06/advice-on-writing-to-persuade-the-court.html
In her article, Standing in the Judge’s Shoes: Exploring Techniques to Help Legal Writers More Fully Address the Needs of Their Audience, Sherri Lee Keene argues that lawyers writing as advocates need to place themselves in the shoes of the judges whom they seek to persuade. Of course, this is not new advice. What is helpful here is her advice on how to do it.
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