Lawyer Skills

A shocking number of ethics complaints stem from a very simple problem: lawyers not communicating with their clients. Clients pay for our time and effort, and they deserve to hear from us. Plus, our ethical obligations require that we be in ...

It seems excellent lawyers do not always produce excellent legal writing. Whether due to a lack of time, of mental energy, of colleagues available to proofread, or of awareness of just how bloated a legal document can get, good lawyers sometimes ...

When you’re in need of an expert to serve as a witness in your case, to consult on a special matter, or perhaps even to serve as a speaker at your bar seminar, where do you look? Your first instinct may be to use a search engine, or to search a ...

"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that ...

When young attorneys begin their career, they get loads of information thrown at them, meet a lot of “very important” people and enter a lifestyle that’s extremely different from the one they lived in law school. It can be overwhelming. In this ...

“No problem,” he said, as he emerged from the alligator-infested river. "No problem," he said, as he slaughtered half a tribe of natives. “No problem,” said the hangman, as he yanked the lever to hang the man—but not for slaughtering the tribe. ...

“When I came out of law school,” recalls Scott Westfahl, director of professional development at Boston’s Goodwin Procter, "I was told ‘Keep your head down, do good solid work and you’ll be elevated into the partnership and build a client base. ...

I’m tired of it. It’s off-putting. It hurts your professional image and undermines your marketing if you’re one of the perpetrators. I’m talking about bad grammar and spelling, the stuff that gets past spell-check. I see it in briefs. I see it ...

Lawyers, it turns out, are not so special. They have just as much difficulty writing and speaking well in their native tongue as the next person. Poor grammar. Jargon. Weird syntax. The ever-popular use of 10 words when one will do. You have ...

Every year, the American Bar Association’s Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division hosts a conference jam-packed with programs covering the latest legal trends. We asked Houston solo practitioner Ashley Hallene, known for delivering hot ...