BriefCatch Blog

An easy way to make your brief-writing more appealing? Shun deadweight openers—however, additionally, consequently, accordingly. That technique has worked wonders for the Chief Justice, who Justice Ginsburg once said was the greatest appellate advocate of his generation. Back in his brief-writing days, he showed how a lighter touch—thus, so, but, also—propels the reader forward and…

Kagan and Kavanaugh disagree on a lot these days, including in their Borden v. United States face-off. These two prominent Justices do share supreme writing skills, though. Like all great stylists, they trim their respective sentences with gusto, but as I’ve explained elsewhere, follow the lead of these Justices by sparing the word that after…

A single day at the Supreme Court generated three perfect composite BriefCatch scores. What can the rest of us borrow or steal? From Justice Kagan, how to punch up your prose by starting a series of sentences with one-syllable words. From Justice Gorsuch, how to start your brief or opinion by juxtaposing what a case…

Several years ago, a Wall Street Journal legal columnist put adverbs on trial. Witnesses for the prosecution: Stephen King (“The adverb is not your friend,” says he), a host of anti-adverb judges, and legions of legal writing teachers. Witnesses for the defense: famed adverb fan Justice Scalia, an academic “legal anthropologist,” and the author of…

Craft a concise, effective, and persuasive introduction in little time by looking at your dispute through these four lenses: The Narrative Lens. Begin with a paragraph or two that covers what many attorneys never explain at all: who the parties are; when, where, and how the dispute arose; what question the dispute is over and…

“We are all textualists now,” said Justice Kagan at a speech honoring Justice Scalia. The Justices all agree on that much. But then what? In 2016, the Supreme Court had to decide whether “involving a minor” limited just the third type of crime below or the other two types as well. That case was Lockhart…

I shared two data-mined facts about briefs the other day. If you’re skittish about whether artificial intelligence threatens the lawyers of tomorrow, the reaction I got should reassure you. Here were the facts I shared: The term “Id.” appears half as often in the briefs of elite lawyers (according to published rankings) as it does…

In the legal world, debates about hyphenating “summary judgment standard” or “publicly traded company” are as cordial and restrained as arguments over proper fonts, Oxford commas, and spacing after periods. Let me try to keep the peace with just these three points: When two or more words form a unit that comes before the noun…