My job title is ‘lawyer,’ but the majority of my work is writing. When lawyers show up in TV or movies, the focus is usually on trials. Trials make for good drama, and, because they’re theatrical and visual, they make for a good show. Part of being a good trial attorney certainly involves good public speaking and improvisation. But even trials involve a lot of written motions, and appeals and post-conviction actions are mostly conducted in writing. An appeal often has a short oral argument before a panel of judges, but the really important part is the written brief.
I put a lot of effort into producing good briefs. I’m a good writer, and next to my desk I have well-worn copies of Strunk & White and Fowler’s Modern English Usage (the best edition is the 1965 2nd edition). I take pride in my clear, precise prose. I have never put much thought into the physical appearance of my pleadings. Motions, briefs, and legal memoranda are bound up in court rules and legal traditions and they all tend to look the same regardless of who wrote them, or for what court.
I am now convinced that I should put more effort into how my documents look. I reached that conclusion after reading Matthew Butterick’s excellent Typography for Lawyers (Jones McClure 2010). Mr. Butterick is a trained typographer of some sort (a degree in visual arts, which presumably includes typography) and a practicing lawyer in Los Angeles. After reading his work, I’ve become more aware of the visual component of my written work, and, to my totally-unbiased eye, it looks a lot better.
In a perfect world, it wouldn’t matter how my writing looked. I’m not writing fiction or organizing magazine articles, and people don’t read my work for pleasure. I’m sure that any judge would say that the visual appearance of a written motion should have no effect on the outcome. I suspect that a lot of judges would deny that any such effect exists, at least for pleadings that comply with the court rules and have no glaring visual mistakes or distractions. Finally, I suspect that, most of the time, it won’t matter.
But I write to win. Between skilled opponents, the gap between the winning effort and a losing one is subtle - there’s only a small difference between a perfectly competent professional pitcher (race-car driver, chef, shoe designer, theoretical chemist) and a world-class professional who will be idolized and copied and remembered for generations. And, although I am sure that minor changes won’t matter very often, I am equally sure that taking every little advantage I can find will add up to a significantly better chance of success. If my written work looks crisp and clear and professional, it will be a small advantage compared with the cluttered, dull work produced by many law firms.
After reading Typography for Lawyers, I am much more satisfied with how my work looks. I am sure that a lot of it comes just from paying closer attention and from understanding the rudiments of typography. Mr. Butterick has a lot of specific suggestions about text layout, font, and the like, most of which are easily applied to the sorts of pleadings I file every day. Did you ever wonder what ‘kerning’ is, or why you’d do it? Do you know the difference between a carriage return and a hard line break? (If you use Microsoft Word, you should, because you’ll spend less time fighting Word’s formatting choices if you understand what it’s doing.) Mr. Butterick explains these fine points, and, just as important, explains how to find the hidden or obscure commands in Word, WordPerfect, and Pages. His website, , reproduces much of the text from his book and adds commands for Word 2011 for Mac, which I appreciate because it’s what I use.
Most of the information in the book is also on the website. I hesitate to point that out, because Mr. Butterick deserves to be paid for his fine work. Also, I prefer reading a book than a PDF on an iPad, so I’m glad to have my paper copy, which was less than $25 at Amazon.
Anyone who wants to produce persuasive writing should pay attention to how it looks. The content is more important. But if, like me, you’ve already put a lot of time and effort into content, you should put some time into improving the appearance. Typography for Lawyers is a fine place to start.
