What is the state of the legal blogosphere?

"Is blogging dead?" Legal Blog Watch asked that question five years ago. In 2015, there's no longer a Legal Blog Watch at the National Law Journal. But law blogging appears to be flourishing. Even the slow-to-embrace-change world of BigLaw is increasingly on board with blogging, whether to draw in potential…

Dec 1, 2015 5:10 AM CST

‘Umpire’ blog is shuttered, but its judge-author is staying in the game

Blogging judge Richard Kopf says he hates the "mythology" that surrounds federal judges. "I do think that all of us put our boots on in the same fashion. There's no harm—indeed I believe that there's some good—in acknowledging that," says Kopf, a senior judge for the U.S. District Court for…

Dec 1, 2015 4:40 AM CST

Lawyer accused judges of ‘incompetence and ignorance’ in pleading, ethics complaint alleges

A North Carolina lawyer is facing disciplinary charges in part over some off-color remarks he made in his pleadings about opposing counsel and a panel of state appeals court judges. Michael J. Anderson of Wilson is accused in the complaint (PDF) of engaging in discourteous conduct that is degrading to…

Nov 3, 2015 4:26 PM CST

Is your pronunciation on point? Take this quiz to find out

Every so often a news item appears about how a particular legal term is most properly pronounced. Certiorari, for example, surfaces from time to time. Last year an article on this very point by James J. Duane, appearing in The Green Bag, went viral. Duane documented six different pronunciations of…

Nov 1, 2015 2:20 AM CST

Tips on organizing your table of contents for statutory and contractual interpretations

Oct 1, 2015 7:55 AM CDT

Lawyer’s life’s mission is to reduce racial conflict with cops

Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Akai Gurley. Tamir Rice. Walter Scott. Freddie Gray. Samuel DuBose. All names of unarmed African-American males killed during police encounters in the past 18 months. The string of high-profile fatalities stirred unrest and prompted marches and public outcries for reform.

Oct 1, 2015 7:45 AM CDT

Jonathan Zittrain: Fighting ‘link rot’ in court opinions and legal scholarship

Fighting ‘link rot’ in court opinions and legal scholarship

Sep 24, 2015 9:00 AM CDT

California state judge rules against Uber’s arbitration agreement with drivers

A state court judge in San Francisco ruled Monday that Uber Technologies Inc. cannot force a driver into arbitration because the contract contradicts itself, Bloomberg News reports. The ruling follows a similar one in June by a federal judge in San Francisco, who ruled against the arbitration provisions and permitted…

Sep 22, 2015 1:35 PM CDT

Good headings show you’ve thought out your arguments well in advance

The most important part of a brief? That depends on whom you ask. Some say the issue statements. Others say page 1 (which ought to amount to the same thing). Still others say the statement of facts. A few say the conclusion. But one of my favorite answers is the…

Sep 1, 2015 6:00 AM CDT

How trials are more like plot-driven movies than character-driven novels

Character is crucial in most popular storytelling practices. Most especially, it is at the core of the modern novel. The late literary critic and novelist John Gardner observed that at "the center of all great literature is character."

Aug 1, 2015 6:50 AM CDT

The Bluebook’s 20th edition prompts many musings from Bryan Garner

About 10 years ago, I was finishing a book for a friend of mine in London, the late Sir Robert Megarry, when in his mid-90s his health began to fail. The book was his New Miscellany-at-Law (2006)—the third in a series of humorously erudite books that he began in 1955.

Aug 1, 2015 6:45 AM CDT

Lawmakers should work toward adopting strong, standardized language in criminal statutes

American criminal statutes, both state and federal, use various wordings to prohibit certain conduct and to impose punishments. It is therefore natural for the legislative drafter to be concerned with knowing what the prevailing methods are, and which ones might be best. If a standard is possible, using it consistently…

Jul 1, 2015 6:10 AM CDT

NYC lawyer turns to zombies, werewolves and cocker spaniels for his books about case law

Jul 1, 2015 4:00 AM CDT

Savvy trial lawyers create sensory experiences to help jurors perceive witnesses’ stories

Last summer I attended an intensive, weeklong postgraduate writing workshop at Vermont College for Fine Arts given by the novelist and memoirist Andre Dubus III (House of Sand and Fog and Townie). Not surprisingly, of the six participants I was the only lawyer. We met daily to discuss our writing.…

Jun 1, 2015 6:00 AM CDT

June is busting out all over with big-time SCOTUS decisions

U.S. Supreme Court terms have ended with a bang in recent years. In 2012, a last-day-of-the-term decision upheld most of the Affordable Care Act. In 2013, the justices struck down a key provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act on their final day. And last June, the court held…

Jun 1, 2015 5:35 AM CDT