Set in StyleA skilled and experienced editor offers advice to those who could use one (an editor, that is).The Web According to Thrope- (Found September 28, 2008 ) Here&8217; s an interesting article by Jonathan Thrope, aspiring writer for The American Lawyer. Titled &8220;Still Loading: Law Firms Lag Behind the Rest of Corporate America on the Web,&8221; the article compares the sites of the Fortune 500 to those of the Am Law 200 (which is a bit like comparing bowling balls to golf balls). Here&8217;s ...http://misterthorne.org/set_in_style/2008/09/08/the-web-according-to-thrope/ What Can an Editor Do for an Attorney- (Found September 28, 2008 ) Once again, why should an attorney consult an editor when writing a white paper, or a client alert, or an article for the Daily Journal Here&8217;s a good example. It&8217;s from a white paper written by two lawyers &8212; both heavy hitters, one the former general counsel of a large federal agency. Here&8217;s the intro: A growing number ...http://misterthorne.org/set_in_style/2008/09/09/what-can-an-editor-do-for-an-attorney-2/ RE Dysfuntional Drafting- (Found September 28, 2008 ) Contract drafting guru Kenneth Adams has this interesting piece in The National Law Journal about dysfunctional drafting. Once again, he bemoans the use of legalese. Here&8217;s a snippet: Legalese renders a contract a chore to read, negotiate, interpret and use as a model. As a result, companies waste vast amounts of time and money that, increasingly, they can ...http://misterthorne.org/set_in_style/2008/09/09/re-dysfuntional-drafting/ Has Anyone Seen Brian Kennan- (Found September 28, 2008 ) Consider this post from Davis Wright Tremaine&8217;s Digital Media Law Blog, orthis post from the firm&8217;s Privacy and Security Law Blog. Now, suppose a prospective client reads either post and decides to contact the author. He clicks the link to Brian Kennan, but, rather than Kennan&8217;s contact info, the prospective client sees this: OK. So Kennan left ...http://misterthorne.org/set_in_style/2008/09/10/has-anyone-seen-brian-kennan/ The Attorney Who Represents Himself . . . .- (Found September 28, 2008 ) You know the old saying &8212; the attorney who represents himself has got a fool for a client. Ditto for the attorney who serves as his own editor (or figures he&8217;s such a terrific writer, he doesn&8217;t need one).http://misterthorne.org/set_in_style/2008/09/12/the-attorney-who-represents-himself/ David Beats Goliath (Again)- (Found September 28, 2008 ) For some companies (think Amazon), Web site rankings are absolutely critical. For others (think a Great Big Law Firm), they don&8217;t matter at all (they say). So, why wonder why a site run by an artist at an ad agency &8212; Puppies and Flowers &8212; gets more traffic than Weil Gotshal, a firm that claims it&8217;s ...http://misterthorne.org/set_in_style/2008/09/17/david-beats-goliath-again/ Sieze the Moment- (Found September 28, 2008 ) News isn&8217;t usually news for all that long. One week, it&8217;s Sarah Palin. The next, it&8217;s a huge storm. After that, it&8217;s the woes on Wall Street. Next week, it&8217;ll be something else. Who knows what News organizations move fast. They can&8217;t wait until next week to present the events of this week. Next week, they&8217;ll ...http://misterthorne.org/set_in_style/2008/09/18/sieze-the-moment/ Target the Right Audience- (Found September 28, 2008 ) What happens is this &8212; most attorneys write most client alerts for an audience of other attorneys (esp. corporate counselors). Fine &8212; so long as their alerts are well written, informative, and published promptly. (As I mentioned in a recent post, a survey of GCs shows that &8212; when they&8217;re really interested in something, they ...http://misterthorne.org/set_in_style/2008/09/18/target-the-right-audience/ On the Value of Being Timely- September 28, 2008 Yesterday, I wrote about the value of publishing a client alert promptly &8212; while the subject of the alert is still news. While I was writing, CFO.com was publishing this article about the risks of credit-default swaps. And guess what That article discussed and quotedthis client alertabout risks and opportunities in the credit-default swap market. The ...http://misterthorne.org/set_in_style/2008/09/19/on-the-value-of-being-timely/ Caution Pseudo-editors at Work!- (Found September 28, 2008 ) Here&8217;s the opening to this alert published by Farella Braun + Martel, a firm that claims it is &8220;known for our imaginative legal solutions and the dynamism and intellectual creativity of our lawyers.&8221; It&8217;s a good read &8212; far better than the usual &8220;on Date, some Court ruled that such-and-such is prohibited by this-or-that.&8221; But it&8217;s ...http://misterthorne.org/set_in_style/2008/09/24/caution-pseudo-editors-at-work/ |