Common Concerns in Legal Writing
A timely notice of appeal was filed by Perkins on April 7, 2009. (verb tense)
What is passive voice?
Organizing your thoughts
What is the first step in the legal writing process?
Forming a noun out of a verb
What is nominalization?
Adopting this mindset in your legal writing involves taking full responsibility for the clarity, accuracy, and effectiveness of your documents, as if the success of the case depends solely on your work.
What is having an ownership mentality?
According to the U.S. Department of Justice's own legal glossary website, this word is defined as "the decision of an appellate court not to reverse a lower court decision. Also called “affirm.”
What is uphold?
Hey Chuck! I hope this email finds you well. [issue with an email written to a partner named Charles with whom you have never worked]
What is lack of formality?
Every single lawyer
Who are the attorneys that should organize their thoughts before writing?
(1) subject and verb placement
(2) strength
[keys to success]
What are the keys to sentence success?
The association of your name and/or signature with the quality of your written work product.
At this age, Stephen Baccus became the youngest person ever to graduate from an American law school.
What is 16?
He invited his parents, King Charles, and Oprah Winfrey. [type of punctuation]
What is the Oxford (serial) comma?
This is excuse for not organizing your writing is "false economy" because of the additional work needed by a partner or other associate to correct issues.
What is "I don't have time?"
"Added bonus," "free gift," and "currently pending" are examples of this.
What are redundant modifiers?
Today is Wednesday and your practice group leader has a meeting next Tuesday. She asked you to research an issue and get back to her "before the meeting." You set Friday as the date to provide her with your findings. [name for this process]
What is setting an internal deadline?
This state's name was misspelled by Alexander Hamilton in the signature section of the US Constitution.
What is Pennsylvania?
Correct this sentence: "Opposing counsel sent the email to Jane and I."
What is "Opposing counsel sent the email to Jane and me?"
Writing in this voice is clearer, more concise and easier for the reader to understand.
What is active voice?
The presenter of the Legal Writing Program session "Trimming and Toning Your Writing."
Who is Ben Opipari?
Stop giving work to an associate and/or lack trust in an associate's work product.
What is a consequence of an associate not taking ownership of their work product?
What is admit women and minorities to its bar?
In Panera, LLC v. Qdoba Restaurant Corporation, the court considered whether a wrap sold by Qboda constituted a sandwich, as defined in a restrictive covenant with Panera. [error]
What is misspelling a party's name?
This writing element should appear in every paragraph.
What is a topic sentence?
FANBOYS
What is the acronym for the 7 most common conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.
Is this document ready for the final audience?
Did you answer the question(s) asked?
Did you anticipate the next steps?
Did you make the reader's job easy?
Did you proofread?
Did you proofread at least a second time?
Marbury v Madison established the principle of judicial review. This man was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and author of that opinion.
Who is John Marshall?