It’s a bold statement, I know, but one I am certain is true.  Law schools are factory farms, and law students are the cattle.  After graduation, we were turned out to the world, only to discover that law school did nothing to prepare us for the actual practice of law.

Nothing.

I know this first hand.  I graduated from a good – not great, but top 75 – law school.  This school, which otherwise was top notch, used a standardized method of teaching legal writing.  Every first year followed the same curriculum, worked on the same problems, briefed the same issues.  Every.  Single.  One.

I always fancied myself a good writer – I had a quick wit and sharp tongue, and a way with words that stood out.  I knew how to turn a phrase, I knew how to drive home a complex point in very few words.  I understood that words have a rhythm and pulse, even on the page.

I got a C in Legal Writing in my first year of law school.

Simply put, I didn’t follow the format that my school demanded.

After my graduation, and about 7 months into my professional career, I was appointed a routine probation violation.  Most of the time – and I mean MOST – there is no litigation involved; either the client missed his appointments his the probation officer, or he didn’t.  Very little lawyering.  Instead, the role of the lawyer is to stand next to the client, make the usual excuses, and then get out of the way as the judge yells at the client.

Not this time.  This guy wanted to fight.

I pored over the file and found an inconsistency.  I filed a motion, the judge ordered briefs, it went up on appeal.

And I made some precedent in the process.

Technically, it was a loss for the client.  The appellate court announced a new rule, and then created an exception that just happened to fit my client’s facts.  However, the general rule is good law, and will help somebody in the future.

I spotted an issue, made it up as I went along, and wrote a brief that stood out.  I didn’t follow the format I was taught in law school, I followed my own format.

And so should you.

This goal of this blog is to help lawyers and law students follow their own format.  I am excited about writing it.