100th Post - New Look & LW Tip #4

This is my 100th post on TLIMOH. I decided to celebrate by making some changes to the blog's layout, including a new picture on the header.

Legal Writing Tip #4 - Make sure the statements in your "Statements of Fact" section are facts.

Avoid making arguments or legal conclusions. Arguments will be developed later in the memo. Inserting arguments in the "Statement of Facts" section tends to lead the author into exaggerating. Exaggerations in the "Statement of Facts" section are unethical and diminish the credibility of the author. Similarly, your legal conclusions should be discussed later in your memo - with the arguments. Also, you should avoid adjectives, which usually indicate opinions. Lastly, avoid ascribing feelings to people discussed in the section, it is impossible to know what someone is feeling. A better alternative is to quote the person.

Memo 3

Our assignment for Memo 3 is based on a real case that will likely be filed sometime in 2009. Apparently many prisons shackle pregnant female prisoners, even those that don't have any sort of a violent history, while they are in labor. Our assignment is to research possible 8th Amendment (cruel & unusual) claims that one these women might have against a prison.

Advanced Advocates: Facebook Meets TWEN

There's a new social networking site just for law students. It's too soon to critique the site, but there's obvious potential for the site to become a staple for many law students.

The site has the social networking functions of Facebook or MySpace. Yet, it also will host sharing utilities for briefs and outlines. They already have a good selection of case briefs and course outlines available. Advanced Advocates also has discussion board forums that will be one of the best educational resources once the site really gets going.

A Few Random Thoughts

The media is covering another story of a little white girl gone missing. Anyone else wonder why boys and minorities never get any coverage when they go missing? Obviously it's a tragedy when this happens, but isn't it equally tragic when little boys or little girls of color go missing? I'm not sure if this is a commentary on our media, or their audience. Either way, it's a little troubling.



Occasionally I find myself watching garbage TV shows like Bachelor or American Idol. Inevitably the contestants make statements like, "this is the most important thing that's ever happened to me" or, "I want this more than I've ever wanted anything in the world". I hope that most people think there are better things out there than appearing on a TV show. Yea, it'd be cool to be rich or famous, but usually the American Idol contestants that say these things are crying and have no real chance of winning. They would be more likely to get rich from winning the Lotto. And, the Bachelor contestants can find other people. Like people that didn't just make out with 10 different girls in two days. Despite that I usually dislike the contestants, I still find myself watching the shows from time to time. (I'm rooting for Molly in case anyone's wondering.)



Big game for the Dawgs tomorrow @ UCLA. If they win they have a great chance to get the PAC-10 title! GO DAWGS!

Who Names Their Kid Learned Hand?

Every time I read one of his opinions I wonder what the deal is with this guy's name. I always assumed he thought highly of himself and changed his name. But, apparently he was born Billings Learned Hand. I guess I don't blame him for choosing Learned over Billings. He got his names from his Uncle and Grandfather, who were both named Billings Peck Learned. Judge Learned Hand's father was a famous New York appellate lawyer. Hand suffered from night terrors throughout his childhood and later admitted that he was a very insecure person. He studied Philosophy in his undergraduate work at Harvard and graduated from Harvard Law School. He was a federal Judge for the Southern District of NY from 1909-1924. In 1924 he was appointed to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and remained there until 1961, the year of his death.

Legal Writing Tip #3; Organizing your Arguments

Continuing with the organization theme from last week... legal writers should start their discussion section with their strongest argument. This seems fairly intuitive, but according to critics of legal writing, many bury their strongest arguments among their weaker arguments. Some corollaries to this tip are to put the broadly applicable before the narrowly applicable and the rules before the exceptions to the rules. Steven Stark quotes Justice Ginberg on this point, "Respondents or appellees do well to lead from strength, telling their case affirmitavely, instead of a series of 'not so's' keyed to appellant's presentation and provoking the court to wonder: 'Doth this appellee protest too much?'"

Legal Writing Tip #2 Lead with Your Conclusion

Lead with your conclusion. It's more convincing, it makes your memo or brief easier to understand, and easier to read. Leading with the conclusion allows for the reader to follow along with your reasoning rather than try to guess the conclusion. It lets the reader know what to expect, making your writing more comprehensible.
It also focuses the writer and provides a standard as to which parts of a document may be cut. Anything that follows, that is not relevant to the conclusion, can be eliminated. Critics of legal writing lament that many legal writers meander through their writings, boring their readers along the way, before arriving at their conclusions. One 2nd Circuit Circuit judge stated that law review articles are the genre in which the writer, "spends 30 pages describing a problem you never knew existed and 50 pages explaining why it will never be solved." Leading with your conclusions can help keep you from being that guy (or girl).

On a side note, we get our assignment for our third memo tomorrow. I'm actually excited for it. I'm eager to prove that my extra reading and work is paying off.

Some News & Notes

My girlfriend and I bought a TV this weekend. We went to Alderwood to check out Circuit City's liquidation sale. We found a great TV there, but they were sold out and wouldn't sell the floor model (what? - are they saving it for later?). But they told us there was one left at the Everett store, but they couldn't hold it for us. So, we raced up there, and were in time to pick it up. Love it so far. Its a 40" Toshiba LCD, we got it for just over $700. HD is amazing.

I called Broadstripe tonight to see what options there were to extend our HD coverage. We got a bunch more HD channels and because of some promotion we pay less now than before we upgraded to the HD package.

I also picked up some renters' insurance today. I went to the State Farm place across the street from school. $130 for a year's policy that includes $20k in coverage plus personal liability coverage and some other stuff that I didn't want but I guess comes standard with renters' insurance. No earthquake coverage though... apparently it's not offered in buildings as old as the one I live in... Hmmm... makes me want to be elsewhere if there's an earthquake.

My building's fire alarm was going off for 2 hours last night. The firemen were on scene right away and give the building an "all clear" but we had to wait for the building super to come turn off the alarm. Apparently he lives an hour and a half away - that's less than ideal.

I never liked Chris Brown anyways.

Taking a Minute to Enjoy non-Law School Things

I took this picture over Christmas break while I was spending some time with my girlfriend's family on Chuckanut Bay. You can click on the picture and the image will enlarge. There's something about this picture that I really enjoy - the way the island and the point of the bay meet in the center of the picture, coupled with the calm water and the beautiful sunset... I get lost in the picture.

Also, I have this Seattle Times article to pass along. It's one of the best news articles I've ever read. The story reminds me of a cross between Tim Burton's Big Fish and The Notebook. You should make a couple minutes to read this article. Whatever you are doing, take a break, read this and things in your life will be back in perspective... Might want to grab a tissue though.

Legal Writing

I've been making an effort lately to improve my writing. My legal writing prof recommended A book called "Writing to Win" and I've been reading some of that lately. The author, Steven Stark, is funny and has some helpful advice. I also picked up another book my prof recommended, "Legal Writing In Plain English" by Bryan A. Garner. I've also read a little bit of that and think it will be helpful as well.

I'm trying to create a Legal Writing revision checklist that includes tips from these books and my textbook. I have a very rough outline of one right now. When I get something more polished I will post it here. Most of the revision items are ones that I learned in high school (but forgot or don't always practice). Additionally, I'm thinking I will try to create some documents to help me with the different steps of research and organization.

In an effort to keep the content of the blog fresh and helpful, starting today I will make a post every Monday with a writing tip from class or one of my books that I find helpful.

Legal Writing Tip #1
Keep it simple.
Avoid legalese and jargon. Everything I have read so far has stressed this point. Bryan Garner says to make sure that writing is speakable, "The best approach in writing is to be relaxed and natural. That bespeaks confidence. It shows that you're comfortable with your written voice." Steven Stark offers the McDonald's test: "If you were to read the document you're drafting aloud in McDonald's, would people understand what you're saying? If not, your prose is too removed from ordinary language."

After reading Contracts cases from 19th century England, strange words can get dragged into our vocabulary. It's natural for writers to emulate what they read, but many of the opinions law students read are poorly drafted. On this Bryan Garner said, "However willing you might be to pierce through another writer's obscurity, you must as a writer insist on never putting your own readers to that trouble." This should be one of the first things incoming 1L's learn - your writing will be better if you don't use Latin or other legal jargon when you write.

A Few Last Thoughts on Grades

I've found out a bit more about academic honors. The top ten % of the class each year make dean's list. Graduates with a 3.6+ graduate summa cum laude; 3.4+ magna cum laude; 3.0+ cum laude. Also, for each section of each class one student is honored with the highest grade for that class. These students receive a CALI award (the awards are sponsored by the Center for Computer Assisted Learning Instruction) and have their name published on this website. One of my buddies had the best Crim Law test... He didn't realize he had received the honor until some other student, who had seen his name on the website, congratulated him.

I haven't found it anywhere on the Seattle U website, but I've heard from a number of students that the mean average grade for each class is 2.66. I've also heard that this is one of the lowest means in the nation.

Students seem to agree that there is little correlation between how they thought they did on a test and how their grades turned out. A few of my friends felt they might have made major mistakes on one test only to receive an A, but felt like they aced tests only to receive a B-. My experiences, as I noted in a previous post, are very similar.

My goals for this semester are to improve over last semester, and do more work as I go along so that finals might be less stressful.