Wicked Good Writing.
This month’s pop culture feature centers on Wicked the movie—slight spoilers ahead. In Wicked, we learn that stories are shaped by perspective. Much like Glinda and Elphaba’s conflicting narratives, legal writing shapes a client’s story, highlighting the importance of clarity, strategy, and empathy.
Perspective is a key component of legal writing and can really shape a story. For example, in Wicked, we see how shifting the perspective of The Wizard of Oz reveals a new layer to the narrative.
Clarity is a constant theme in our writing. Wicked embodies this through its portrayal of the land of Oz. Amid the chaos of Oz, the clearest voices—Elphaba’s and Glinda’s—stand out. So, by simplifying complex legal issues through clear, concise language, you make arguments more persuasive.
However, do not confuse clarity with simplicity. Complexity creates engagement with your reader. Elphaba is a deeply layered character, making her story compelling. Just as Elphaba’s depth adds nuance, a strong legal argument anticipates counterarguments and provides thorough reasoning.
So, no matter if you are in litigation or drafting a contract, keep these lessons from Wicked in your mind—focus on perspective, embrace complexity, and aim for clarity. By writing with purpose and precision, you can ensure that your client’s narrative is compelling and effective.
What other pop culture stories have influenced your approach to legal writing? Share your insights, and we may feature your perspective in an upcoming issue!
Demystifying the Bluebook
For lawyers and legal professionals, precision and clarity in legal writing are non-negotiable. There is a lot that goes into good legal writing. We think it’s hard to go wrong by developing a mastery of the Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. In fact, we view it as one of the cornerstones of effective legal practice. But what exactly is the Bluebook, and why do we believe that mastering it plays such an important role in effective legal writing?
What is the Bluebook?
The Bluebook is a comprehensive guide to legal citation. First published in 1926, it has become the definitive authority on how to cite legal documents, cases, statutes, administrative rules, and secondary sources.
With its detailed rules, the Bluebook covers a wide range of citation scenarios—from straightforward case citations to complex statutory references. The manual is updated periodically to reflect changes in legal norms and publishing practices, making it a living document that evolves alongside our profession.
Why is the Bluebook Crucial for Legal Writing?
- Enhances Credibility: When you know how to cite, you’re not just showing off your legal prowess; you’re building trust.
- Facilitates Research: Standardized citations make it easier for readers to locate and verify sources. Whether it’s a judge reviewing your brief or a peer examining your memorandum, clear citations save time and foster trust in your work.
- Maintains Professionalism: Inconsistent or incorrect citations can detract from the substance of your argument. And accurately following the Bluebook signals to the court and other legal professionals that you’re part of the club. It’s like wearing the right uniform to the game.
- Ensures Consistency: Following the Bluebook’s rules ensure that your citations are consistent, which is key for readability and maintaining the flow of your legal arguments.
Overcoming the Challenges of the Bluebook
While its importance is undeniable, the Bluebook’s complexity can be daunting, particularly for those new to the profession. With over 500 pages of rules and tables, mastering its intricacies requires patience and practice.
Here are some tips to navigate the Bluebook effectively:
- Start with the Basics and Go Back to the Basics: Familiarize yourself with the general citation format before diving into specialized rules. The Quick Reference guide at the beginning of the Bluebook is an excellent starting—and returning—point.
- Use Online Tools: Platforms like LexisNexis, Westlaw, and legal citation generators can help streamline the citation process, though it’s crucial to verify their accuracy. They sometimes get it wrong!
- Stay Current: Keep up with updates to the Bluebook to ensure your citations are current.
Knowing the Blue Book Makes Persuasive Writing Easier
If you’re unclear on the mechanics of how to craft persuasive arguments, it’s pretty hard to effectively present persuasive arguments. Here are three examples of how knowing the Blue Book rules will aid your legal writing substantively:
- Short Case Cites: If you’ve already cited a case in one of the preceding five footnotes, you can use a short cite. It’s like the case is giving your reader a nod, saying, “Remember me?”
- Parentheticals: These are your secret weapons for adding context to your citations. Whether it’s to clarify an alteration or to provide additional information, parentheticals can make your citations more informative and engaging.
- Quotation Marks: When dealing with direct quotes, remember to nest your quotation marks properly. It’s like Russian dolls, but with punctuation.
The Bottom Line
The Bluebook is more than just a citation manual; it’s a critical tool that underpins the clarity, credibility, and professionalism of legal writing. Whether you’re drafting a brief, a motion, or an academic article, mastering the Bluebook will make your legal writing more accurate, persuasive, and professional. So next time you’re tempted to wing it with citations, remember: the Bluebook is your friend.
Legal writing isn’t easy. But mastering the Blue Book makes it easier.
Exclusive Seminar on AI and Legal Writing Hosted by Neven and Brendan
Are you ready to take your legal writing to the next level? We’ll be the co-hosts at the seminar, “Legal Writing in the Age of AI,” where you’ll learn how to harness the power of artificial intelligence to enhance your writing process, refine your persuasion skills, and improve your legal documents.
We are thrilled to be presenting at this groundbreaking event. We’ll be leading two sessions:
- A Practitioners Guide to Selecting the Right AI Tool for the Writing Task at Hand
- Drafting Effective Legal Documents Using AI—A DIY Interactive Writing Workshop
In these sessions, we’ll explore various AI-powered legal writing tools and guide you through interactive exercises focused on creating briefs, subpoenas, agreements, and pleadings.
Seminar Highlights:
- Learn from experienced legal writers and AI experts
- Discover how to leverage AI for more effective and efficient writing
- Gain practical skills to produce higher quality documents in less time
- Network with peers and industry leaders
Event Details:
Date: Monday, January 27, 2025
Location: Minnesota CLE Conference Center, Minneapolis
Time: 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Tuition: $295 for MSBA members and paralegals, $345 standard rate
Can’t make it in person? Don’t worry! Online replays will be available on February 12 and February 25, 2025.
We want to hear from you! What specific AI-related legal writing challenges are you facing? Send us your questions or topics you’d like us to address during our sessions. Your input will help us tailor the content to your needs.
Brendan Interviewed by WordRake
Brendan shares his legal writing process with WordRake. WordRake offers software to make any document “clearer, shorter, and better.” Their mission is “to help professionals write clearly and concisely.” His interview can be found here.
Brendan and Neven’s Topical LinkedIn Posts
- Is legal writing more art or science? (Neven)
- Why is legal writing so hard? (Brendan)
- Is rewriting a chore? (Neven)
- Are headaches and eye strain inevitable for lawyers? (Neven)
Monthly AI Image Prompts
Here are some image prompts to play with. Put them in your favorite AI-image generator and modify to your heart’s content. Share your interesting images in the comments.
- Prompt: “Memento (2000)” movie reimagined as a Campy Low-Budget 1970s drama TV Show telling tragic story of doomed legal-writing attorney trying to find his missing legal brief, Impressionistic, Retro Vintage Style
- Prompt: A nature reserve/law firm hybrid showing an elephant, zebra, and lion made of origami paper that have come to life as legal writing attorneys
- Prompt: A legal-writing attorney action scene, in the style of Frank Frazetta’s paintings, with an attorney using his legal-writing tools to expertly and elegantly overcome the forces of legalese and bad legal writing by displaying the techniques, strategies, best practices, and ideas expressed by Bryan A. Garner
Monthly AI Litigation Prompt
Prompt: Please summarize the attached document, which contains statements from various individuals regarding [opposing party’s] actions. Your task is to create a comprehensive, persuasive prose-style writing that reads logically, smoothly, and chronologically where applicable. The writing will be presented to the court with the intention of persuading a judge. Specifically, the goal is to convey the message that urgent action must be taken to halt [opposing party] from [the conduct that your client objects to]. The writing should adopt the persuasive style of a statement of the facts section in a legal brief and effectively communicate the need for immediate intervention to prevent [the conduct that your client objects to].
December’s Cool (and Not Necessarily New) Tech Tool and Recommend
Briefy: AI summarizer with visual views for webpages, YouTube, PDFs
This Chrome extension has a lot to recommend it. Briefy uses LLM technology to provide concise summaries of webpages, allowing users to effortlessly digest complex content without accessing ChatGPT or OpenAI accounts. The number one thing that sets it apart from other similar tools is the ability to summarize Facebook posts, including all comments to those posts. This is valuable, because (as far as we know) there are no AI tools that will summarize or do similar work on a website by providing the tool with a link to the page you want summarized.
Podcast/Media of the Month
“The AI Revolution in Legal Writing“
This was a conversation featuring legal writing expert and BriefCatch founder Ross Guberman and industry commentator David Lat. This timely and relevant discussion delved into the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on legal writing, including:
- The evolving landscape of client expectations in the AI era;
- Innovative and effective training strategies for new lawyers in an AI-driven legal environment; and
- How law firms can strategically leverage AI technologies to ensure consistent, high-quality communication standards across teams.
The webinar had great insights from two of the legal industry’s most respected voices on the intersection of AI and legal writing. Well worth checking out!
Law Journal Article
“Artificial Intelligence & FINRA Arbitration Awards: Utilizing AI and Arbitral Analytics to Uncover FINRA Arbitration Award Patterns“ (by Ben Davies)
Abstract: This paper creates novel analytics and data on FINRA arbitration awards with novel artificial intelligence models fine-tuned and fed unsupervised FINRA awards to provide sentiment analysis on individual sentences and entire awards. This AI generated data, combined with prior FINRA arbitral analytics AI research, results in interesting analytics on which words, sentence structures, and awards (from 2008 to 2020) could increase the chances of a party winning a FINRA claim even if the claim is weak. To better understand AI and arbitral analytics, this paper will provide a brief history of these respective fields, ethical issues surrounding AI usage in the legal field, prior FINRA research, and short conclusion.
