Tips for Persuasive Legal Writing | Luther Munford | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Legal Writing for the New Generation | Chad Baruch | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Why Lawyers Should Care About Typography | Matthew Butterick | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Leveraging Technology to Improve Legal Writing | Ross Guberman | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Psycholinguistics and Legal Writing | Judge Robert Bacharach | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Using AI to Improve the Briefing Process | Jacqueline Schafer | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Helping the Court Decide Your Case | Justice April Farris | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Lawyers are professional writers, and the ability to write persuasively is more important than ever. In this episode, Luther Munford, an appellate expert and former law professor, joins Todd Smith and Jody Sanders for an...more
You might think 50 pages or 12,300 words, in the Virginia Court of Appeals, or 30 pages or 13,000 words, in the federal courts of appeals, would be more than enough space for a lawyer to get out an argument. If you do, you’re...more
Attorneys spend a lot of time choosing the right words to use in briefs and motions. But they often neglect thinking about how their words actually look on the page. Layout and typography can impact how legal work product is...more
Most legal writers know about Ross Guberman, author and founder of Legal Writing Pro. Ross was one of the first legal writing instructors to work with law firms and practitioners across the country. Ross also developed...more
Transitioning from private practice to the bench is an adjustment even in the best of times. But First Court of Appeals Justice April Farris made the switch in the middle of a pandemic when court operations and proceedings...more
The U.S. Library of Congress is more than just printed books. Among the millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collection, it maintains a legal blawgs web archive. The Library...more
Recently, I was involved in a discussion of legal opinions regarding issues of significant legal uncertainty. The 2005 Report of the erstwhile Corporations Committee of the equally erstwhile Business Law Section of the still...more
The Appellate Court: An exciting forum of oral advocacy; a check on the process and the decisions of our trial courts; a second chance for parties to make their case; and a place where novel and important legal principles...more
Appeals happen. Maybe you won in the trial court and the other side wants to challenge, or maybe you lost (but that must have been a mistake, right?). Either way, you need to preserve your arguments and prepare for an appeal...more
Appellate advocates should write briefs that make life easier for law clerks and judges. That will increase their chances of prevailing on appeal. With that in mind, we recently conducted an informal survey of our firm’s...more
Though Statements of Jurisdiction may seem like a simple part of an appellate brief, parties often make mistakes in drafting jurisdictional statements. In fact, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently...more
On December 1, 2016, a set of rule amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure became effective. The amended rules and details of the amendments can be found on the Eighth Circuit’s webpage, available at...more
Several amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure are scheduled to take effect on December 1, and one of those amendments is causing consternation among appellate practitioners: a 1000-word reduction in the word...more
In litigation, first impressions frequently are made through the written word. Professional, coherent and accurate writing is crucial to establishing a good reputation with the court, and ultimately winning your case....more
Even lawyers don’t generate as much paper as they used to. That doesn’t mean our tendency to use too many words has diminished. It simply means that nearly everything we write and read is now done electronically. From...more
Not much went right for the plaintiffs’ lawyer in the Seventh Circuit’s decision yesterday in Pierce v. Visteon Corp., No. 14-2542 (7th Cir. July 1, 2015), but the opinion provides a few good lessons for appellate...more
A former high school teacher and NFL cheerleader sleeps with her student. She faces widespread scorn, including scathing Internet comments. Despite the scorn, she becomes engaged to the student....more
Decisions across the U.S. identify, as one example of “bad appellate advocacy,” presenting too many issues on appeal. The Seventh Circuit applied those words to a brief that presented “12 issues for review—many with...more