The Federal Judicial Center is the research and education agency of the federal judicial system. By statute, the FJC is charged with: conducting and promoting orientation and continuing education and training for federal judges, court employees, and others; developing recommendations about the operation and study of the federal courts; and conducting and promoting research on [...]

Powerful Writing Techniques to Help You Persuade Judges and Win Clients On Thursday, October 7 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. Eastern, I’ll be presenting my popular program, Powerful Writing Techniques to Help You Persuade Judges and Win Clients, as a complimentary webinar. The ability to write forcefully and effectively is critical to your success as a lawyer. [...]

On Thursday, September 23 at noon Eastern, I’ll be presenting a 1-credit CLE webinar called How to Work With Contract Lawyers to Save Your Firm Money, Increase Profits and Get Your Life Back. Outsourcing is the wave of the future. But it doesn’t necessarily mean sending work overseas, and it’s not just for big firms. [...]

Although legal writing expert Judge Mark Painter wrote an article entitled Legal Writing 201: 30 Suggestions to Improve Readability or How to Write For Judges, Not Like Judges, there’s one judge whose writing is always a pleasure to read: Hon Gerald Lebovits of the New York County Civil Court, Housing Part. Judge Lebovits isn’t your [...]

AttorneysInTransition.com is a new website from Law Bulletin Publishing Co. that focuses (not surprisingly) on issues of concern to lawyers whose careers are in a state of flux. While you’re there, check out my guest post, The Road Less Traveled: Working as a Contract Lawyer. Also, make sure you read this post for more details [...]

Joan Stewart (a/k/a The Publicity Hound) is my personal PR guru. I subscribe to her free weekly ezine, and have gotten tons of great advice from it. As a result of applying the techniques that Joan teaches about, I have had a lot of publicity success for my various businesses (including getting my pet products [...]

I first learned about Project Gutenberg a couple of years ago. According to Wikipedia (which contains a clearer description of Project Gutenberg than the organization’s own site), Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works. Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of [...]

Thanks to my membership in Scribes – The American Society of Legal Writers, I learned about a free webinar entitled Ethics and Professionalism in Legal Writing: Brief Writing and Writing for Litigation. The webinar was presented by Stetson University College of Law. The panelists are Kirsten Davis, Associate Professor of Law and Director of Legal [...]

Update: I just found out that Bryan Garner will also be attending the luncheon and signing books. This is quite exciting for legal writing nerds like me! Update: Congratulations to contest winner Kathleen St. Onge of Halloran & Sage LLP in Hartford, Connecticut. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest! As you may know, Supreme [...]

Will the grammar goodness never cease? A couple of weeks ago, I shared with you a chapter called “Dirty Words” which Grammar Girl (a/k/a Mignon Fogarty) so generously shared with the public. Now, in honor of the launch yesterday of her new book, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, Grammar Girl has [...]