Practicing Law
HOW DO JUDGES THINK?
What do lawyers actually do for a living? Well, we advise clients, draft documents, argue appeals, and the like—right? A part of our body burns up energy when we do those things. Not our arms, like a baseball pitcher or a farmer. We use our brains to do pretty much everything that a lawyer is…
Read MoreON COURT
Should we bill our clients for work in court? Of course. But how about on court? A recent piece in the New York Times by Matthew Futterman got me to thinking about this. Futterman is not a lawyer. Far from it. He’s the Times’ deputy sports editor. And he’s a runner—a long-distance runner. He runs…
Read MoreTHE RESPONDENT’S BRIEF
. . . I’ve given a lot of advice on how to write appellate briefs. I’ve focused mostly on the appellant’s opening brief, because it poses the greatest challenge. Appellate courts reverse less than 20% of the trial court judgments they review, so it’s an uphill battle to get them to reverse in your case. …
Read MoreSTRATEGIC READING
As I discussed in my last column, there are plenty of books about how to write better. But what about reading? Who writes about reading? Lawyers probably spend more time reading than writing, so improving that skill might be pretty useful. But I haven’t come across any books about how a lawyer might read more…
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