Helps lawyers and judges enjoy writing. Author of Point Made, Point Taken, and Deal Struck. Creator of https://t.co/ooPzOR8TZG. President, Legal Writing Pro.
Apr 29 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Someone tipped me off to a superb
@KannonShanmugam merits brief in Jackson v. United States.
Want to write even better briefs? Here are eight ways to follow that lead.
1/10
#appellatetwitter #legaltech #legalwriting #scotus
1. Craft your Table of Contents/headings so that each level of heading or subheading functions as a syllogism that proves a larger point.
2/10
Dec 6, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Four great legal-writing takeaways from the opening of Justice Barrett's unanimous Laufer opinion.
Why is it unusually clear and readable?
#legalwriting #appellatetwitter #legaltech
1/5
Lesson One: At the core of the passage are many closely paired subjects and verbs:
Laufer sued. Websites failed. The number of suits suggests. Laufer searches. Hotels settle and pay.
How about a litigation battle over . . . what "double-spacing" means?
66 pages of motions, oppositions, declarations (including one from Typography-for-Lawyers guru Matt Butterick!), & ruler-laden exhibits all over whether "double-space" means 24 points or 28.
1/5 #legalwriting
I prompted ChatGPT-4 to summarize the parties' key arguments in this pressing matter.
2/5
#AI
Dec 4, 2020 • 11 tweets • 6 min read
One way the election litigation could do good: a national moment of silence in which all 330 million of us UNCHECK THE SPELL-CHECK BOX THAT SAYS IGNORE WORDS IN UPPERCASE washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
Other inspirational reminders, in the @Atul_Gawande Checklist Manifesto style: Match the right corporate-naming-rights-for-cash venue to the right city.
Jul 25, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Justice Gorsuch manages to pack a lot of #gorsuchstyle into tonight's one-paragraph dissent. He shows personality and verve in his potshot at Vegas and hedonism and in the final sentence (the Caesars Palace/ Calvary Chapel quip brilliantly distills all three dissents). 1/
Yet even in just a single paragraph he can't resist overexplaining. "The large numbers are fine" point is redundant, and it sucks the life out of the compelling contrast between the huddling craps and roulette players and the banned religious services. "Show, don't tell." 2/