Letters: More editing guidance tools
Bryan A. Garner. (Photo by Winn Fuqua Photography)
More editing guidance tools
To Bryan Garner’s guidance on editing (“Mindful Guidance,” February-March, page 20), I suggest adding the Michigan Appellate Opinion Manual. Required for Michigan lawyers, it’s broadly useful, with entries from star paging to formatting. If for no other reason, I commend its appendix on proofreader’s marks and a quick reference chart for citations. He may be too modest to mention it, so allow me to recommend Garner’s Modern English Usage as an important addition to any writer’s desk. In addition to dealing with appropriate word choices, it contains brief essays on style and usage, such as capitalization and conjunctions, pronouns and punctuation.
—Roger H. Leemis
Southfield, Michigan
Book boost, revisited
Re your thoughtful piece “25 Books for Lawyers” (December-January 2024-2025, page 44), here are three that should be on any list: My Life in Court by Louis Nizer (famous civil trials by the great litigator); Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned by John Farrell (biography of the celebrated, notorious criminal defense attorney); and Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver (novelization of a true case by a Michigan judge whose real name was John Voelker, filmed the next year into the acclaimed, most realistic murder trial movie ever made).
—Gus B. Bauman
Washington, D.C.
The most influential book I have ever read is Francis L. Wellman’s The Art of Cross-Examination. When I speak on trial practice, I always talk about it. Wellman’s central premise is that the purpose of cross-examination is to break the force of direct. Too many lawyers go into trials and reinforce the witness’s testimony on direct examination. On top of that, there are classic war stories taken from great trials and practical suggestions as to how to deal with certain kinds of witnesses.
—G. Ware Cornell Jr.
Westin, Florida
Here are the books on my list:
• Simple Justice by Richard Kluger
• From Dawn to Dusk by Douglas Wood
• The World of Law (Vol I: The Law in Literature and Vol II: The Law as Literature) edited by Ephraim London
• Reading Law by Antonin Scalia and Bryan A. Garner
—James P. Flynn
Newark, New Jersey
What’s in a name?
“Lawyer v. Attorney: Are all titles created equal?” (ABAJournal.com, Jan. 6) is an interesting article, but it needs better support. There are no citations given to the statements that “lawyer” and “attorney” mean different things. Are we to rely on someone’s unsupported statement?
As the article points out, Black’s Law Dictionary treats the terms “lawyer” and “attorney” as synonyms. I checked the Oxford English Dictionary and did not see the distinction that the article says exists.
The distinction that all attorneys are lawyers but not all lawyers are attorneys is not reflected in authoritative legal texts, statutes or caselaw.
In practical and legal contexts, “lawyer” and “attorney” are synonymous, with “attorney at law” being a formal term often used in statutes or licensing documents.
—Hani Sarji
Rochester, New York
In Ohio, giving legal advice is the practice of law, and anyone who does so without having been admitted to the practice of law is engaging in the unlicensed practice of law.
So Mr. Nunn’s opinion is that an attorney is someone who passed the bar examination and has been admitted to practice law, but a lawyer—despite having received the same legal training as an attorney—has not been admitted to practice.
“Both may provide legal guidance, but only the attorney can appear in court, whereas a lawyer can provide advice as a consultant or an adviser, in which the advice is based on their training and education,” would be problematic in Ohio.
—Jonathan Coughlan
Cincinnati
There are different nonlawyer attorneys, such as an attorney in fact or a power of attorney. Both are created by contract, not training or education. Only lawyers are trained by education and then licensed. That’s what I have always understood.
—James Scavo
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
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