ABA Journal wins multiple awards in national journalism contest

The ABA Journal received an honorable mention for magazine of the year on Thursday in the national ASBPE Awards of Excellence honoring business-to-business journalism. The magazine has been a finalist for magazine of the year for three years in a row in the contest sponsored by the American Society of…

Jul 22, 2016 8:21 AM CDT

The sadistic editor and the lawyer who survived his wrath

Over the years, I've heard many lawyers tell stories of bosses—senior lawyers—who were explosively hostile, abrasive, cruel and dogmatic. They seemed to derive self-satisfaction from dominating, intimidating and humiliating their subordinates. I've not only heard others tell stories of such "mentoring" personalities but also witnessed them myself. In fact, I…

Jul 1, 2016 2:20 AM CDT

Dear Sir/Madam: How should you handle writing salutations and signatures?

I'm looking at a letter to the Department of Justice that relates to a highly sensitive antitrust matter. It's written on behalf of a major corporation that seeks to merge with another major corporation—both within an industry vital to the nation's national security. The author is a partner at a…

Jun 1, 2016 2:10 AM CDT

What Adele and Taylor Swift can teach you about finding justice

For years I was a runner/jogger. I logged 20-30 miles a week and did some of my best law work on runs. Unfortunately, my middle-aged knees and hips gave out and I had to move indoors onto the elliptical trainer at the gym. It's not quite the same thing. It's…

Jun 1, 2016 2:00 AM CDT

How to incorporate big data into your day-to-day toolkit

When in 2004 Google announced its ambitious project of scanning all books ever printed and amassing the information into a huge database, perhaps nobody understood the full ramifications of the endeavor. But lawyers may have sensed as well as any group some of the implications. After all, lawyers had been…

May 1, 2016 2:10 AM CDT

Solving Mysteries: Lawyers play detective in legal writing

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. begins his dissenting opinion from a denial of cert in Pennsylvania v. Dunlap this way:

May 1, 2016 2:00 AM CDT

Bryan Garner’s tribute to his friend and co-author Antonin Scalia

"Originalism," so called, is perhaps the single issue for which Justice Antonin Scalia, my co-author on two books, was most controversial. I'll never forget his ire—it was full-blown anger—when I suggested, while we were working on Reading Law, that we change the term "originalism" to "historicism." A scholar in England…

Apr 1, 2016 2:50 AM CDT

The Bluebook: Tell us how you really feel, readers

Judge Richard Posner’s disdain for The Bluebook has been well-documented. In a 2011 Yale Law Journal article, he admitted not having ever read it in detail. And that was an older, 511-page edition. The current 20th edition, released in May 2015, is 560 pages. “560 pages of rubbish,” is how…

Mar 30, 2016 1:00 PM CDT

How do you automate a law practice? Here are some practical tips

Lawyers have plenty of demands on their time—but repetitive everyday tasks don’t have to be one of them. That was the message of “The Automatic Law Firm,” a panel at ABA Techshow on Thursday morning. Panelists Andrew Legrand and John Mayer evangelized the benefits of templating many of the most…

Mar 17, 2016 1:20 PM CDT

A ‘conversation’ with the late, great lexicographer Samuel Johnson

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with the great Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)—or rather with his books—to see what he had to say about lawyers, their profession and their writing. I essentially interviewed him through his known sayings.

Mar 1, 2016 2:30 AM CST

How a lawyer devoted to clear writing can make a difference

The moral of the story: Statutes, ordinances and rules are largely a mess in this country—and often highly misleading. Now for the story. The year is 2012. You're a lawyer in Minneapolis. You learn that libraries everywhere are "deaccessioning" books to reduce the "clutter" on shelf space, and you're concerned.…

Feb 1, 2016 2:20 AM CST

What’s the evidentiary standard for emojis?

Feb 1, 2016 12:40 AM CST

What are some of your go-to words and phrases in your legal writing?

This week, we wrote about computer scientists who developed an algorithm to help discern the authors of unsigned U.S. Supreme Court opinions. The program analyzed signed opinions and identified words, phrases and sentence structure characteristic of each justice’s writing style. For instance, it determined that Justice Antonin Scalia likes to…

Jan 27, 2016 12:00 PM CST

Former law librarian sues Texas school, alleging racial, gender discrimination

A former law librarian at South Texas College of Law is suing the Houston school for alleged racial and gender discrimination. Joseph Kelly Plumbar, who is black, claims that three white co-workers created a hostile work environment and eventually forced him out of his job, the National Law Journal reports.…

Jan 25, 2016 3:20 PM CST

Judge waxes poetic on inmate’s pro se filing

After reading a pro se lawsuit that involved an inmate soiling his pants, an Ohio state court judge felt moved to poetry. Darek Lathan is serving a 17-month sentence for vandalism at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio, the Columbus Dispatch reports. According to Lathan’s complaint (PDF), he told…

Jan 8, 2016 4:15 PM CST