What’s the lawyer’s single best source for typography and document design?
ANSWER: All the most important points of typography are covered in LawProse’s Advanced Legal Writing & Editing course. Professor Garner has also written a good deal about the subject in Garner’s Modern American Usage, The Winning Brief, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style, and Legal Writing in Plain English.
But the very best in-depth treatment is to be found in Matthew Butterick’s Typography for Lawyers (2010).
Traditionally, lawyers haven’t been greatly concerned about the look of their documents. Typewriters limited writing to monospaced fonts (such as Courier), using underlining for emphasis, and single or double spacing. But with the advent of word processing and all its options, document design has become an invaluable tool for persuading your reader — think judge — from the first glance.
In his superb Typography for Lawyers, Matthew Butterick sets the standard for designing legal documents. From fonts to nonbreaking spaces to block quotations to the one-forward-space rule, Butterick gives clear, sensible instruction.
If you don’t have it, get it. If you have it, follow it. You and your readers will be glad you did.
LawProse Lesson #103
Live seminars this year with Professor Bryan A. Garner: Advanced Legal Writing & Editing
Attend the most popular CLE seminar of all time. More than 215,000 people—including lawyers, judges, law clerks, and paralegals—have benefited since the early 1990s. You'll learn the keys to professional writing and acquire no-nonsense techniques to make your letters, memos, and briefs more powerful.
You'll also learn what doesn't work and why—know-how gathered through Professor Garner's unique experience in training lawyers at the country's top law firms, state and federal courts, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies.
Professor Garner gives you the keys to make the most of your writing aptitude—in letters, memos, briefs, and more. The seminar covers five essential skills for persuasive writing:
- framing issues that arrest the readers' attention;
- cutting wordiness that wastes readers' time;
- using transitions deftly to make your argument flow;
- quoting authority more effectively; and
- tackling your writing projects more efficiently.
He teaches dozens of techniques that make a big difference. Most important, he shows you what doesn't work—and why—and how to cultivate skillfulness.
Register to reserve your spot today.
Have you wanted to bring Professor Garner to teach your group? Contact us at info@lawprose.org for more information about in-house seminars.