Set in Style

I don’t know about you, but I find it a mite odd (sophomoric) when a law firm — especially a great big one — bothers to list each and every instance of someone at the firm being quoted in a newspaper or magazine. I find it especially odd when the list includes quotes that appeared in some small-town newspaper with a circulation of several hundred, or when the most recently published quote is four or five years old.

But I find nothing odd about the importance firms place on quotes from their attorneys, especially when those quotes appear in major papers like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, or widely-circulated magazines like Business Week or Forbes. Those quotes can attract business; or they can drive it away.

And so, most big firms have guidelines and procedures for dealing with journalists. Some even offer their partners training on how to respond to questions from journalists. All well and good.

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Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck — a firm that boasts “you can rest assured that you’re being represented by a team of seasoned attorneys with the knowledge, relationships and legal skills to help you mitigate even the most complex environmental risk” — says wood is a fossil fuel.

California recently enacted a landmark global warming law, Assembly Bill 32 (AB32), whose goals were to establish state-wide programs designed to combat greenhouse gases and promote the development and use of energy-efficient technologies. Carbon dioxide is the main focus of AB32. Carbon dioxide is produced by the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, petroleum, natural gas, or wood, and is discharged primarily from exhaust pipes and industrial smokestacks. Because greenhouse gas emissions are directly related to the use of energy, measures designed to conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions are key, but surely not the entire picture.

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This is a classic example of why law firms (functioning as publishers) need editors. Having an editor review copy before it’s published is nothing less than the application of due diligence.

Note: without an editor, readers might be left with the impression that the firm’s expert attorneys think that most of the carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere comes from exhaust pipes and industrial smokestacks.

In a sense, what Brownstein, et al. is doing with its publications is demonstrating to all (including prospective clients and adversaries) that it doesn’t apply due diligence to all it does, and that’s not good, especially since the firm claims (believe it or not) that due diligence is one of its specialties.

Winstead PC — one of the largest law firms in Texas — does what so many other large law firms do. It advertises that it uses technology — including its “unique data and software applications” — to increase efficiency and to provide “[u]nsurpassed access to critical business and legal information.”

Sounds pretty good, right?

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Thanks to the Legal Writing Prof Blog for mentioning this article about how law firms are using legal writing instructors to support and train their lawyers.

Let’s see, if lawyers need help with the sort of writing they studied in law school and do every day, then they could well need help with the sort of writing they never studied and do on occasion, and that’s promotional writing: client alerts, magazine articles, blog posts, etc.

And if you don’t think client alerts and magazine articles and blog posts are promotional, then consider this: why do you suppose lawyers take the time to write such things?

The GC for a high tech firm is looking for counsel familiar with this or that. He asks around and he hears about you. Before he takes the time to call you, he asks an associate to do some research.

What does the associate do? The first thing she does is review your firm’s Web site. She looks at your bio, and then she clicks a link to some article you wrote. What she sees after she clicks that link is going to influence her report to the GC.

Suppose she clicks this link and finds a PDF version of a not-so-legible photocopy of an article you wrote. The impression she gets is that your firm is hardly high tech. That impression is reinforced when she realizes the article could have been reprinted with this level of legibility.

Suppose she clicks this link. She’s a mite perplexed because she can’t figure out what sort of file it is. She does some tinkering and finds it’s a PDF version of a not-so-legible photocopy of an article that could have been reprinted with this level of legibility.

Suppose she clicks this link. She already knows that your firm doesn’t identify PDFs as PDFs, so she opens the file in Acrobat. Once again, she finds a not-so-legible photocopy of an article that could have been reprinted with this level of legibility.

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Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good or bad your article is. The impression people get isn’t always from what you wrote, but from what your firm produced. If your firm does a lousy job of reprinting articles you wrote, it makes you look bad. It gives the impression that you’re all-too-capable of missing what’s obvious.

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Let’s look at one more example of a firm that doesn’t much care what sort of impression its publications make on prospective clients. Click this link, and you’ll discover a firm that publishes photocopies, rather than originals, of its own newsletters!

Only rarely do I find a law firm with professional-looking publications — I mean publications that appear as if they were designed and produced by pros.

Take a look at this newsletter published by Weil Gotschal. Take a good look at the page layout and the type. It may not be the slickest design in the world, but it’s solid.

The body copy is set in Stone Serif, and the heads are set in Helvetica. (I would have chosen Stone Sans for the heads to better complement the body.) Italics are used appropriately, and none of the type is underlined. Hyphenation is used to break lines (almost unheard of among law firms), so word spacing is very consistent.

And — to top if off — the newsletter (a PDF document) contains links that actually work! That’s a very rare occurrence in law firm publishing.

Unfortunately not all of the links are set correctly. For instance, if you click an attorney’s e-mail address, nothing happens. Nothing at all*.

And the newsletter contains an extra-special bonus feature — it’s written for a broad audience and it’s well written.

I give it a B⁺.

Now, compare the newsletter to this Weil Briefing. Take a look at the last two pages of the briefing. And try the links on the last page.

This one gets a C ^–.

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What should happen when an attorney’s e-mail address is clicked? For the sake of readers — including potential clients — and Weil’s attorneys, clicking an attorney’s e-mail address should open a new e-mail message with an appropriate subject line. This saves readers a bit of work, and — when one of Weil’s attorneys gets an e-mail with that subject line — he already knows what it’s about. E-mails with that subject line might be routed to a particular attorney for initial review.

Note: Any firm can claim (as many do) that it makes good use of modern technology. But when it fails to demonstrate that, the claim rings hollow.

Consider this familiar statement:

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Note the singular/plural disagreement.

And consider this: In New York, attorneys who advertise a certain way are required to suspend a rule of grammar (agreement in number) when they do (advertise a certain way, that is).

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Take a look at the statement at the very bottom of this article. Does it satisfy the New York Bar Association’s requirement (which says “Any words or statements required by this rule to appear in an advertisement must be clearly legible and capable of being read by the average person . . . “)?

And what of PDF versions of this firm’s promotional materials? Don’t they need to carry the statement as well? As best I can tell, the New York Lawyer’s Code of Professional Responsibility makes no distinction between HTML and PDF versions of attorney advertisements.

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When this rule went into effect a year ago, it got some press. The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog mentioned that attorney Eric Turkewitz discovered that most big law firms were ignoring the rule. At his blog, Turkewitz wrote:

“Despite New York’s new attorney disciplinary rules on advertising going into effect today, and despite months of discussion, most major law firms have apparently failed to comply.”

As best I can tell, Turkewitz is the only attorney in New York who gets the grammatical error in the rule. The Turkewitz Law Firm Web site includes the following:

Throughout this site you will see examples of cases we have handled. Since all cases are different, and legal authority may change from year to year, it is important to remember that prior results cannot and do not guarantee or predict similar outcomes with respect to any future matter, including yours, in which any lawyer or law firm may be retained.

Emphasis added.

A bit over a year ago, I was reviewing this piece about diversity at Wilson Sonsini’s Web site. What struck me was the reference to women “who belong to a racial, ethnic, or gender minority group.”

I wondered: “What is a gender minority group and who are women who belong to such groups? Hermaphrodites? Androgynes? Genderqueers?”

I couldn’t be sure (either what they were or why Wilson Sonsini was putting the spotlight on them), so I asked some of the good people at the firm, and guess what? Not one of them could (or would) say.

Well, by golly! I think I’ve figured it out. They’re fuzzy women, like Page Maillard.

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OK. Where did I get that picture of Ms. Maillard? I got it from this newsletter published by the firm. Take a look at it. It’s chock full of pictures of fuzzy women.

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Honestly, I don’t know what a gender minority group is or why Wilson Sonsini is so interested in their members or so reluctant to say who or what they are.

But I know this: 1) whoever produced that newsletter did a lousy job (and probably doesn’t know the difference between GIF and TIFF), and 2) the firm doesn’t seem to care (else it would hire someone who understands print production and cares about quality).

Pullman & Comley is just another firm that claims it’s got a long tradition of excellence:

Welcome to Pullman & Comley, LLC. Our firm has played an active and distinguished role in the Connecticut and New England business community since 1919. Nearly a century later, we continue the tradition of excellence instilled by our founders . . . .

But take a look at the intro to, and conclusion of, the latest client alert from Pullman & Comley:

Effective November 7, 2007, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security changed the rules on how to verify worker eligibility to work in this country.

The Department of Homeland Security plans not to assert violations against employers who use outdated forms during the first 30 days of the new form’s availability, that is, likely though December 6, 2007.

Regarding the intro, we know what the author meant to say: the changes to the rules took effect on a certain date. But the author didn’t say that at all. Rather, the author appears as one who can’t write well, and the publisher (the firm) appears as if excellence is of little concern. In fact, it doesn’t even review its attorneys’ work.

The conclusion is inaccurate. It says employers may use the (outdated) I-9 form that was published in May, 2005 until December, 2007, which is incorrect. The author appears as one who doesn’t pay close attention to detail, and the publisher (the firm) appears as if accuracy (a critical aspect of legal writing) is of little concern.

If you claim excellence in all you do, then pay close attention to what you do. Don’t portray your attorneys as careless or confused, or your firm’s founders as fools (for leaving the business to people who don’t take pride in their work).

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Does your firm claim a tradition of excellence? Then take a good look at the client alerts you publish. If they refute your claim of excellence, quit publishing them. You’re just making yourself look foolish.

Here’s a fundamental rule of grammar (the rule of agreement): every part of a sentence should agree with every other part.

Now, read the following sentences. Do you see how they all violate the rule of agreement?

CPDB prides itself on our strong client and community relationships and we are able to offer individuals, families and their businesses a full range of legal services.

For more information about Thelen, the firm’s leadership, or our attorneys, please contact us.

Diversity is an important part of the firm’s culture and essential to our success.

The diversity of the Firm’s client base is matched by the diversity of our attorneys.

What distinguishes Heller Ehrman from competitors is not only the quality and breadth of our practice and client base, but also our commitment to certain core values . . . .

Pillsbury’s continued growth and success reflects a passion for embracing change in order to meet the evolving needs of the market and our clients.

Sedgwick’s substantive areas of practice reflect the range of our clients’ legal concerns. 

Each Holland & Hart office offers the personal service you expect from a local firm, yet is backed by our nationally recognized lawyers and by today’s most advanced computer technology.

O’Melveny & Myers LLP is proud of its long-standing commitment to diversity and to promoting equal and nondiscriminatory opportunities for all of our lawyers and staff.

In every practice area, the Firm is devoted to achieving our client’s objectives.

Cooper is an equal opportunity employer, and proud of the diversity of our work force.

The violation? Each sentence shifts from one point of view to another. They all begin in third person, and end in first person. This violates a basic rule of grammar.

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Let’s look at another, very common error found in law firm marketing materials. Read the following sentences. Do you see how each violates the rule of agreement?

Each of our offices hosts recurring Women’s Forums to address the unique concerns of women attorneys and assist in their career and business development.

Our women partners have been recognized for their outstanding professional achievements.

Four of our offices are led by women managing partners.

As part if its charter, the Women’s Forum holds an annual reception and lunches where the Firm’s women attorneys share experiences with women Summer Associates.

In addition to fewer women making partner, women attorneys continue to make less money than their male counterparts.

ENGAGE was established by our women attorneys as part of our firm’s commitment to endorse and promote diversity.

The Women’s Initiatives Group has evolved with the explosion of women entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses and the increase in women attorneys.

Our goal is one of fostering an environment that is attractive to minority men and women attorneys.

The Women’s Forum provides meaningful opportunities for interaction among women attorneys.

Our Firm encourages and promotes both internal and external leadership positions for women attorneys.

Overall, our women attorneys come from more than 70 colleges, 50 law schools and 15 countries, and speak more than 20 languages.

The Women’s Forum is focused on fostering opportunities for the professional, social and personal growth of our women attorneys.

As part of our Firm’s ongoing commitment to diversity, we will introduce minority and women attorneys to key clients.

The violation? Each sentence uses a noun (women) as an adjective. This violates a basic rule of grammar. In addition, it’s sexist.

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Let’s look at another, common error found in law firm marketing materials. Read the following sentences. Do you see how each violates the rule of agreement?

The Firm is committed to advancing the role of women and diverse individuals in the workplace.

We are committed to creating an inclusive, open, and respectful culture comprised of diverse individuals from diverse backgrounds.

In addition to expanding our pool of highly qualified minority applicants, the Firm has implemented training for our attorneys who interview on campus to ensure that we successfully communicate to minority candidates that our Firm is an excellent place for diverse attorneys to grow and succeed in the legal profession.

Our dedication is prominently reflected in the firm’s values statement, in which we pledge to achieve “uncompromising excellence,” by, among other things, “identifying superior and diverse lawyers.”

The Firm is committed to optimizing this opportunity to hire outstanding individuals of diverse backgrounds.

We encourage diverse students to pursue a career in law.

Diversity at our firm does not mean that we have a certain number of diverse attorneys; true diversity means that it is no longer noteworthy to see diverse lawyers leading our practice groups or managing client relationships.

We are dedicated to improving retention by building upon our monitoring and mentoring program for all diverse associates.

We have focused our diversity initiatives on both increasing the number of diverse associates and addressing the challenges diverse attorneys face in building lasting careers and rising to senior and leadership positions.

While several of our key practice groups are led by diverse partners and female partners, the Firm endeavors to create a culture which will foster a deep pool of such attorneys who can then develop into the firm’s future leaders.

We understand that simply hiring diverse associates will not change the diversity of the firm.

The Firm is working to mentor and retain diverse associates so that our progress in racial, gender and cultural diversity is also reflected at the highest levels of leadership within the firm.

As part of our Firm’s ongoing commitment to diversity, we will enhance our recruiting efforts to promote the hiring of individuals from diverse backgrounds.

The violation? Each sentence uses ‘diverse’ to describe an individual, or an individual’s background. You can have a diverse group of individuals, but you can’t have a group of diverse individuals. An individual might have a very unique background, but a background can’t be diverse.