Legal Writing

How to plan your post-law life

There are lawyers who love the practice of law so much that they'll only leave it feet first—and in a box. But for those who'd prefer to exit the bar before closing time, Kevin McGoff has advice on planning that next chapter.

Dec 20, 2023 8:15 AM CST

Needless complexity in the courts and 50 ways to reduce it

Just before stepping down as a judge on the Connecticut Superior Court, Thomas G. Moukawsher published The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It. Moukawsher admits his guide “gets pretty far down in the weeds.” But there’s good reason. It is the weeds, he says, “that are choking the litigation-centered humanity out of courts—with snarled complaints, tangled motion practice, choking discovery, smothering trials and stultifying legal rulings.”

Dec 1, 2023 1:10 AM CST

Ruling in double-spacing kerfuffle, federal judge observes lawyers don’t need ‘more words on a page’

A federal judge in Memphis, Tennessee, is advising law firms involved in a kerfuffle over double-spacing that they should spend less time “figuring out how many sometimes-useless words will fit on a page.”

Nov 29, 2023 11:04 AM CST

Memory of a Braid

Read the winning short story from the 2023 Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction, written by Kiren Dosanjh Zucker.

Nov 22, 2023 10:25 AM CST

Lawyers learn too late that chatbots aren’t built to be accurate; how are judges and bars responding?

At least two lawyers who apparently used artificial intelligence chatbots to write legal documents ended up losing their jobs after the output included phony case citations.

Nov 17, 2023 2:11 PM CST

Long-lost trial transcript answers many questions about ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson and baseball’s ‘Black Sox Scandal’

In Joe Jackson, Plaintiff, vs. Chicago American League Baseball Club, Defendant—Never-Before-Seen Trial Transcript, its editors promise that the unearthed testimony settles many persistent questions in baseball’s “who killed Kennedy.”

Oct 18, 2023 8:13 AM CDT

vLex releases new generative AI legal assistant

Legal technology company vLex rolled out an upgrade to its Vincent AI software Tuesday, announcing a new generative artificial intelligence chatbot that can create first-draft research memos, legal arguments and quick summaries of documents.

Oct 17, 2023 9:39 AM CDT

Justices drop ‘respectfully’ in some dissents, but SCOTUS rancor is tamer than in past

The usual phrase used by U.S. Supreme Court dissenters is “I respectfully dissent.” But some justices dropped “respectfully” in major dissents last term and in their joint dissent in the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning the right to abortion.

Oct 3, 2023 12:06 PM CDT

Bring some brio to your writing to add clarity, says Bryan Garner

There are many obstacles to clarity: fuzzy thinking, wordiness, abstractness, inept phrasing and plain dullness. It’s often said that an unclear mind cannot produce clear prose. That’s true enough. But the very techniques of good writing can reinforce clear thinking. The more lucidly you write, the more sharply your ideas will come into focus, both for your readers and yourself.

Oct 1, 2023 3:00 AM CDT

Tales of 3 generations of Black women intertwine to form ‘Memphis’

A Tennessee lawyer shares how her lawyerly research techniques prepared her to dig into her family’s history to develop characters in her novel focused on three generations of Black women and spanning seven decades.

Sep 27, 2023 8:40 AM CDT

How federal appeals judges’ opinions change as they get older

Older federal appeals judges are more likely to rely on “cognitive shortcuts” in their opinions than their younger counterparts, according to a study presented at a political science conference earlier this month.

Sep 26, 2023 9:41 AM CDT

Interested in trying AI to write? It’s as easy as opening a document

“A founding father” of bar exam software cautions that human knowledge and judgment are needed to make sure that AI-generated writing is accurate.

Sep 25, 2023 8:15 AM CDT

Grisham, other legal novelists among authors suing OpenAI for using their copyrighted work

Several legal novelists, including John Grisham and Scott Turow, are among 17 authors joining with the Authors Guild in a proposed class action lawsuit against the artificial intelligence program OpenAI.

Sep 21, 2023 2:32 PM CDT

If law schools prohibit ChatGPT in writing, can they back it up?

Using artificial intelligence to write admissions essays now comes with significant risks at the University of Michigan Law School, which recently asked applicants to certify that they did not use the technology for drafting purposes.

Aug 31, 2023 10:32 AM CDT

On Better Terms: What should we do with ‘nonlawyer’?

“Nonlawyer” means someone who isn’t a lawyer. But for years, many have found the word objectionable. And the case against “nonlawyer” isn’t as clear-cut as it might seem, says a lawyer specializing in how to say concisely whatever you want in a contract.

Aug 29, 2023 8:55 AM CDT