Terrific legal-writing columns from the Michigan Bar Journal

For years, readers of the Michigan Bar Journal have been treated to a terrific feature: a regular column on plain language, with each installment written by a heavy hitter (e.g. Bryan Garner, Joe Kimble, Ken Oettle). Thanks to an e-mail from Joe, I’ve just learned that all those columns are collected on this web page. I’m blogrolling it immediately.

Comments

[Scott Meyer]

FWIW:

From the Oregon Bar:

http://www.osbar.org/publications/bulletin/legalwriterarchive.html

From a collection of The Legal Writer columns for the New York Bar by Gerald Lebovits:

http://works.bepress.com/gerald_lebovits/subject_areas.html#Legal Writer Column

From a collection of The Scrivener columns for the Colorado Bar (1991-2008):

http://www.law.du.edu/index.php/lawyering-process/1l-resources/the-scrivener-modern-legal-writing

A Washington lawyer, Robert C. Cumbow, has written three to five columns a year for the Washington bar, dating back to 2003. I haven't seen a column for 2010, so he may be done. You have to fish to find the columns, but here's the link to the publication's archives:

http://www.wsba.org/media/publications/barnews/archives/default.htm

A New Jersey lawyer, Kenneth Oettle, has written a legal writing column for the New Jersey Law Journal dating back to 2002. His columns (in pdf) are collected here on his firm's website, along with those of other lawyers at the firm--so you have to sift to find and download them:

http://www.sillscummis.com/newsroom/article_list.asp?id=20

[Ray]

Scott: Thanks for the links.

[Lora Fong]

Ken Oettle brings great focus and clarity to the art of legal writing. He ran the firm's writing program and was my writing mentor when I began practicing law, and 20 years later I still rely upon the techniques he taught. He has published a book which I regularly suggest to those who turn to me for advice on legal writing. It is entitled: Making Your Point: A Practical Guide to Persuasive Legal Writing.