Legal Writing in English

Christopher R. Kelley
Associate Professor of Law
University of Arkansas School of Law
ckelley.christopher@gmail.com

Assignment Five
Readings

Please read the following, all of which accompany this assignment except the readings
in Plain English for Lawyers:

1. Chapter 5, Use Short Sentences in Plain English for Lawyers;

2. Pages 41-47, covering Avoid Wide Gaps Between the Subject, the Verb, and the
Object; Put Conditions and Exceptions Where They Are Clear and Easy to Read; and
When Necessary, Make a List in Chapter 6, Arrange Your Words with Care in Plain
English for Lawyers.

3. Wayne Schiess, Sentence Length, Austin Lawyer, Sept. 2007, at 15; and

4. Wayne Schiess, Sentence Problems 9–Faulty Parallelism at Legalwriting.net,

www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/wschiess/legalwriting.

Optional Readings

If you wish to read more about writing sentences, I recommend these short
monographs, both of which accompany this assignment:

1. Yale Graduate Writing Center, The Most Common Sentence Structure Problems; and

2. Syntax-The Stylistic Use of Short Sentences (author unknown).

In case you did not know you could begin sentences with “but” and can do so
effectively, I have attached Bryan A. Garner, On Beginning Sentences with But, Mich. Bar J., Oct.
2003, at 43.

If you are not familiar with parallelism or want to refresh your knowledge of parallelism,
I recommend The University of Arkansas Quality Writing Center’s monograph on Parallelism,
which also is attached to this assignment.
 And, as a short summary of much of what we have covered in this course and will cover
in this unit, I have attached 10 Strategies To Make Your Writing More Readable published by the
Writing Support Services, Student Success Centre at the University of Calgary.

Finally, I want you to read what practicing lawyers who care about writing say about
writing. So I have attached Thomas E. Spahn’s monograph, Writing Well. I encourage you to
read it. Mr. Spahn’s biographical statement as it appears on his law firm’s website follows.

Information about Thomas E. Spahn from the McGuireWoods LLP website:

Thomas E. Spahn
Partner
1750 Tysons Boulevard
Suite 1800
Tysons Corner, Virginia 22102-4215

Mr. Spahn graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received his J.D. from Yale Law
School. He has practiced as a commercial litigator with McGuireWoods since graduating from
Yale. He has tried cases involving such disparate matters as damage to James Madison's
birthplace, the experimental nature of autologous bone marrow transplants for treating breast
cancer, and easement rights over America's most popular walking and biking path.

He has represented, among other clients, a Central Asian government in proceedings before a
Special Court of Inquiry in New Delhi, India, investigating the deadliest mid-air collision in
aviation history; an automobile manufacturer in connection with America's worst drunk driving
accident; a Fortune 500 Company sued in an Alabama class action involving the redemption of
non-refundable debentures; and an equipment manufacturer in depositions in Belfast,
Northern Ireland. In March, 2009, Tom was invited to Reykjavik, Iceland, to discuss an ethics
issue on Iceland's leading news and interview show.

Mr. Spahn regularly advises a number of Fortune 500 companies on such issues as properly
creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections when
conducting corporate investigations, when hiring outside consultants, when dealing with the
government, and during other daily and extraordinary situations. He has assisted in creating
and defending privilege logs in many product liability and commercial litigation matters. He also
advises in-house counsel on ethics issues, including conflicts of interest, confidentiality, dealing
with corporate wrongdoing, and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.

Mr. Spahn has written and lectured widely on such topics as ethics, professionalism,
attorney-client privilege, work product doctrine, defamation, and legal writing. Tom has written
several editions of a book on the attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine. The
latest two volume version is 750 pages long. Tom has also written a 300 page book on Virginia
defamation law -- which is now in electronic format; a book on ethics issues facing Virginia
in-house lawyers; two other book chapters; and over 70 articles in Virginia and national
publications. The ABA's General Practice Section honored Mr. Spahn's article on Litigation
Ethics in the Modern Age as one of the "Best Articles Published by the ABA" in 2004.

Since 1988, Mr. Spahn has spoken at more than 1,000 CLE programs throughout the United
States, and in several foreign countries. After personally reading, summarizing, and categorizing
over 1,600 Virginia Bar Legal Ethics Opinions, he made his work available to the public online.

Mr. Spahn has served on the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional
Responsibility; as the Reporter for the Committee that drafted Virginia's ethics Rules; as a
member of the Virginia State Bar's Standing Committee on Legal Ethics; as Chairman of the
Virginia Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee; as Chairman of the Virginia Bar Association's
Professionalism Task Force; on the Committee that revised Virginia's lawyer discipline rules; on
the Virginia Bar's Task Force on Emergency Legal Services; and on the faculty for the
Professionalism Course that all new Virginia lawyers attend. He currently serves as Chairman of
the Virginia Bar Association Commission on Professionalism, and serves on the Virginia Judicial
Ethics Advisory Committee.

As Chairman of the Virginia State Bar Committee on Publications/Public Information, Mr. Spahn
led that Committee in developing public service announcements articulating lawyers' benefit to
society -- which were extensively published in Virginia, and purchased by the bars of six other
states and the Canadian Bar Association. As Chairman of the Virginia Bar Association
Commission on Professionalism, he acted as principal drafter of Principles of Professionalism
that have been endorsed by the Virginia Supreme Court and the Virginia Attorney General's
Office, and commended by both of Virginia's federal district courts.

Mr. Spahn has received the Virginia Law Foundation's highest award for Continuing Legal
Education efforts; a special commendation from the Virginia State Bar "in recognition of his
outstanding service to the Bar"; the Virginia Bar Association's Walker Award of Merit "in
recognition and appreciation of exceptional leadership within the Bar"; the Virginia Bar
Association's William B. Spong, Jr. Professionalism Award; and in 2002 received one of only 15
awards given to lawyers from the country's 500 largest law firms by the Burton Foundation,
which is dedicated to "refining and enriching legal writing by lawyers and law school students."

In 2008, Virginia Lawyers Weekly honored Mr. Spahn as one of Virginia's "Leaders in Law 2008."
Mr. Spahn was selected as one of the "Best Lawyers in America," Woodward/White, Inc.: 2006 -
2012 (Commercial Litigation); was named as one of Virginia's "Legal Elite," by Virginia Business:
2000 (Litigation), 2003 (Civil Litigation), 2004 - 2005 (Legal Services/Public Service), 2006 (Civil
Litigation), 2008 (Civil Litigation); and was selected as a Virginia Super Lawyer, Law & Politics:
2006 - 2011 (Business Litigation), Thomson Reuters: 2011 (Business Litigation).

He is a Fellow of both the Virginia Law Foundation and the American Bar Foundation (whose
membership is limited to one-third of one percent of America's lawyers).

Practices & Industries

 Commercial Litigation
Securities Litigation
Media & First Amendment Litigation

Honors

AV Rated, Martindale-Hubbell
Named One of the "Best Lawyers in America," Woodward/White, Inc., Commercial Litigation,
2006-2013
In 2008, Virginia Lawyers Weekly honored Mr. Spahn as one of Virginia's "Leaders in Law
2008."
Named One of Virginia's "Legal Elite," Virginia Business, 2000 (Litigation); 2003 (Civil
Litigation); 2004-2005 (Legal Services/Public Service); 2006 (Civil Litigation); 2008, 2010 (Civil
Litigation)
Named a Virginia "Super Lawyer," 2006-2012 (Business Litigation)
Named a Washington, D.C. "Super Lawyer," 2007-2012 (Business Litigation)

Publications

Virginia State Bar Legal Ethics Opinion Summaries

The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner's Guide (Virginia
Law Foundation, 2007)
View complete list of publications

Speaking Engagements

View complete list of speaking engagements

Professional Affiliations

American Bar Foundation, Fellow

American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility
(Member 2004 - 2006)
Virginia Law Foundation, Fellow
Virginia Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee
Chairman, 2005-2006
Vice Chairman, 2003-2004
Member, 2002-Present
Virginia State Bar
Standing Committee on Legal Ethics (2004 - 2010)
Task Force on Emergency Legal Services (Member, 2007-2008)
Special Committee to Review Procedural Rules Governing Bar Disciplinary Proceedings
(Member 2000-2002)
The Joint Virginia State Bar and Virginia Bar Association Commission on Multidisciplinary
Practice (Member 2000-2002)
Special Committee to Study the Virginia Code of Professional Responsibility (1994-2000,
Reporter 1996-2000)
Faculty, Course on Professionalism (1996-1999)
Chair, Committee on Publications/ Public Information (1996-2001)
Virginia Bar Association
Chair, Commission on Professionalism (2006-Present)
Chair, Professionalism Task Force (1997-2000)
Digital Archive of the Birth of the Dot Com Era, Advisory Counsel (sponsored by the Library of
Congress, and The Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland) (Member 2005 -
2009)
Boyd-Graves Conference on Virginia Procedure, Former Member
John Marshall Inn of Court, Former Member
Richmond Bar Association
Chair, Committee on Admissions (1987-1988)
Chair, Committee on Continuing Legal Education (1990-1991)
Committee on Administration of Justice (1995-1999)