Brief writing

Thou shalt not use the word "shall."

Thou shalt not use the word "shall."

May 26, 2011 Brief writing

So sayeth Bryan Garner, as explained in a recent post on Johnson, the Economist’s language blog. If you think that using shall makes contracts and statutes more official and clear, forget it. What’s wrong with shall? Let me count the reasons. It’s stuffy and exclusionary. It’s not used in everyday communication among humans. Most importantly, it has a few [...]

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New and wannabe lawyers: come to Practice-Ready program tomorrow

New and wannabe lawyers: come to Practice-Ready program tomorrow

April 5, 2011 Brief writing

I’m co-presenting a new program for new lawyers tomorrow morning (early!) at the NYC Bar. We’ll cover basic strategies for law-firm success: navigating the waters, writing effectively, and speaking confidently.   We’ve organized the program around the three stages of an assignment:  Getting a “good” assignment, presented by Eve Birnbaum, Principal, Eve Birnbaum Associates  Writing the memo (that’s [...]

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