Opinion makes confidentiality exception for ‘generally known’ info

Nancy J. Moore, a professor at the Boston University School of Law, says the definition is “useful and sensible.”

“There currently is no definition of the term generally known in either the text or comment of Rule 1.9. Given that it is not obvious when information has become generally known, some definition is clearly useful,” Moore says.

Mar 1, 2018 2:10 AM CST

The incoherence of Serjeant Arabin, champion of judicial illogic

A look back at the nonsensical pronouncements from Sir Robert Megarry’s character William St. Julien Arabin, the all-time champion of judicial illogic.

Mar 1, 2018 2:05 AM CST

Learn to quiet the inner critic and its impossible demands

Who do you think you are? Stop talking. You’re making a fool of yourself. You’re not really going to wear that to court, are you? You’re screwing this up! You’re not good enough. They should just take away your bar license.

Do these thoughts sound familiar?

Mar 1, 2018 2:00 AM CST

Evoking jurors’ sympathetic imagination is key for lawyer storytellers

Stories—in books and in life—are the ax that cracks open the frozen sea inside us.

Feb 1, 2018 2:10 AM CST

Opinion warns against judges doing online research on facts related to cases

Formal Opinion 478 highlights two important justifications for the prohibition against electronic factual research.

Feb 1, 2018 2:00 AM CST

George Campbell on eloquence, analogies and how to handle a hostile audience

“Eloquence is the art or talent by which the discourse is adapted to its end. All the ends of speaking are reducible to four: every speech being intended to enlighten the understanding, to please the imagination, to move the passions, or to influence the will.”

Feb 1, 2018 1:50 AM CST

The Art of Resting: How to fit relaxation into a busy schedule

When my husband and I got married, the honeymoon was the only vacation we’d had in over three years. I recall sitting on the porch of a beautiful house in Kauai with nothing to do and full of anxiety. I had no idea how to rest.

Feb 1, 2018 1:40 AM CST

Turning the fear of lawyering into the power of advocacy

As legal educators and practice leaders, we need to do a better job of talking about the reality of fear in lawyering and how to transform it into powerful advocacy.

Jan 1, 2018 3:10 AM CST

Supervision is key to effective employment of paralegals

Ethical issues can arise from using paralegals and legal assistants. Under the ABA Model Rules, lawyers must make reasonable efforts to ensure those working under them comply with “professional obligations.”

Jan 1, 2018 3:05 AM CST

Writing vs. Good Writing: Make the languorous doldrums of reading disappear

“All styles are good,” Voltaire said, “except that which bores.” The good writer, in other words, frets a little about piquing the reader’s interest sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph—never descending into unremittingly dull stretches. The French even have a word for those dull stretches: longueurs.

Jan 1, 2018 3:00 AM CST

Mindfulness meditation: an achievable resolution for lawyer well-being

The National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being recommends mindfulness meditation. Research indicates that mindfulness can reduce rumination, stress, depression and anxiety.

Jan 1, 2018 2:55 AM CST

How serendipity, ‘Star Wars,’ Sunstein and constitutional law intersect

Justice requires great artistry. The narrative arc of our constitutional law saga is full of surprise, mystery and plot reversals.

Dec 1, 2017 1:15 AM CST

Can lawyers text potential clients?

Recently, a North Carolina ethics opinion explained that attorneys can advertise through a text message service that provides subscribers a choice of whether to initiate live telephone conversations.

Dec 1, 2017 1:10 AM CST

How to start a sentence: Consider all your alternatives, and sprinkle in some conjunctions, too

Many writers mistakenly think it’s the beginning: They begin a disproportionate number of sentences with the grammatical subject, and they rarely depart from the subject-verb-object pattern. Boring legal writers create paragraphs of sentence after sentence beginning with a client’s or litigant’s name; interesting writers, by contrast, spice their prose with syntactic variety.

Dec 1, 2017 1:05 AM CST

Of lists and tabs: Transforming transactional drafts to make sense

What’s the single most important sentence-level reform in transactional drafting? It’s a seemingly simple idea that would require massive retraining of lawyers. Here’s the proposition: With few exceptions, every list in a contract or other transactional instrument should be set off and indented (with a hanging indent, mind you).

Nov 1, 2017 1:25 AM CDT