Set in Style

A fine piece by John Browning (a partner with Gordon & Rees) in the Southeast Texas Record.

Browning writes a weekly column (Legally Speaking) for The Record, and he writes about all sorts of things: from the tragic effects of news crews going along with cops on a bust, to people suing — Not the folks who demolished their house — but the folks who made the bulldozer that was used for the demolition!

In a recent column, he spoke of the need for trained court interpreters. In this column, he advises that — in response to that earlier column — “some readers have reminded me that when they visit a lawyer, they feel the need for an interpreter just to understand their attorney or the legal documents put before them!”

He gives some examples of absurdity, and then notes, “I view legalese as an unnecessary barrier between lawyers and the rest of society. Sure, every occupation has its technical jargon — don’t ask me if I understood everything that my mechanic told me recently — but attorneys are in the business of communication.”

By and large, lawyers are stilled trained to write in hifalutin fashion — the fewer who can understand what you’ve written, the better!

Some notables on Clarity v. Obscurity:

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.
– Charles Mingus

To be simple is to be great.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
– Leonardo DaVinci

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
– Albert Einstein

Larry Bodine has a new effort that may be of particular interest to up-and-coming Big Firm associates (and others). It’s called JD Supra, and it goes like this:

Major law firms across North America are contributing articles and court filings to JD Supra, which will soon launch as the best user-generated content website for lawyers and clients.

Lawyers are not waiting for the site launch, set for later this Fall. They are signing up now to get Founding Contributor status — which means they’ll get special promotion on the site and other free benefits. It’s the latest thing in marketing — Web 2.0 meets the Law – yet follows the classic rule of marketing: do good legal work and the clients will call you. And, with JD Supra, you get to leverage the power of technology to showcase that work to more potential clients and referral sources than ever before.

I’m part of a team that is diligently working behind the scenes on JD Supra. Right now we are collecting content, and getting it from big firms, small firms, sole practitioners,law professors and public interest organizations across North America.

The prelaunch buzz around JD Supra is building, with positive responses from bloggers and news editors alike. I’ve mentioned it in presentations to marketing audiences in Seattle, Boston, Pittsburgh and Hartford – all audiences certainly took note. We expect to be featured in a number of national publications when we launch, to the benefit of our Founding Contributors.

Smart lawyers will pay a visit to http://www.jdsupra.com/preview and pre-register now.

So . . . why should up-and-coming associates at Big Firms care about this?

Well . . . maybe they shouldn’t, but it could be an opportunity.

Look . . . new associates at big firms are typically stuck doing yeoman’s work for senior associates and partners. So they go unnoticed. They may build a great reputation at their firm, but no one else (e.g., a prospective employer) gets to see what they’re doing.

But . . . if they wrote some interesting stuff and published it at JD Supra (or some widely read publication), they’d have a chance of being noticed. If their writing is top-notch, they might be pursued (by that prospective employer).

But . . . if they stay in the trenches doing the heavy lifting for others, who’s going to notice? Those very folks who have them tied down with doc review?