All Our Tips
The Importance of Editing and Proof-Reading
You’ve drafted a client piece – now what?
Heed the words of Samuel Johnson: ‘What is written without effort is generally read without pleasure.’
In other words, go back and edit; your text could always use some polishing.
Here are some specific tips.
- sleep on it – you will spot things the next morning that were not apparent the night before, especially if the midnight oil was burning (typos, spelling and grammar errors, stylistic things)
- get a second opinion – this will help with correctness, readability, errors you just aren’t seeing because you’re too familiar with your text (even after sleeping on it)
- translate – is it in plain English that a businessperson would understand or Latinate, jargon-ridden legalese? if it’s in the latter, you need to change that
- watch for repetition – is there a way to avoid using the same word or phrase excessively, but without making it look as though you are straining to find alternatives?
- check the flow – do the paragraphs or sections follow each other logically, with nice transitions? or do you need some headings to impose order?
- visual appeal – can you break up the text? (shorter paragraphs, headings, bullet points, graphics)
- wield the axe – remember Blaise Pascal’s famous line: ‘I would have made this shorter, but did not have the time’ (or as the kids now say, ‘TL; DR’)
- paranoia check – have you said anything about a client, or about an issue that a client might object to? had the piece vetted for correctness? checked names, titles, facts, quotations and citations (if any)?
- print it off – proof-reading is more effective from a hard copy than on the screen
- read it aloud – this will reveal incoherencies, overly long sentences, convoluted phrasing and clunky style in a way that reading silently to yourself will not
- read it backwards – an old proof-reading technique; effective because it counteracts your brain’s tendency to make your eyes gloss over errors
- don’t rely on spell-check – it misses things and makes silent corrections (tortuous appears in a million legal documents where tortious was intended; form for from is another frequently missed error)*
- make sure you proof-read everything – including the title, headings and author information (errors can occur where you don’t think to look for them, and it’s embarrassing to have an obvious mistake in the first things people look at (like your name))
- sleep on it again
- run it by a second pair of eyes for final review
Next time: words that don’t mean what you think they do
So Long, From David and Garry
♫ I can see a new horizon underneath the blazin’ sky
I’ll be where the eagle’s flying higher and higher
Gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels
Take me where my future’s lyin’, St. Elmo’s Fire…♫
Lyrics and Music by by David Foster and John Parr, recorded by John Parr.
……
The time has come for us, David Bilinsky and Garry Wise, to pass the baton to a new generation of leaders and writers to carry on the work of SlawTips.
This, therefore, will be our final, and farewell post.
Garry came on board back in Feb 2013 following Laura Calloway’s transition to new ventures in January 2013.
Laura and David started the PracticeTips side of SlawTips back on Jan 13, 2011.
All three of us have had a great deal of fun (and many a Wednesday evening) devoted to getting the next installment out to SlawTips. It has been a gratifying journey for us all, and we move on, content that we are leaving PracticeTips in the extremely good hands of the many exceptional contributors who have joined us as Tipsters over the last year.
Good luck and best wishes to them all: Michael McCubbin, Andrea Cannavina, Sandra Bekhor, Elizabeth Mah, Ian Hu, Stacey Gerrard and Mark Morris.
No doubt, the best has yet to come.
Our thanks, as well, to Barney Christianson, who will also be moving on, after a year of stellar contributions.
Now to be clear, you aren’t entirely rid of us yet.
David will continue to post at his blog, Thoughtful Legal Management and on the main Slaw site. Garry can still be found at Wise Law Blog and @wiselaw on Twitter – and according to the rumour mill, might make the occasional appearance at Slaw, as well.
Special thanks to Steve Matthews, of course, for running this joint and trusting us with the keys.
Finally, thank you to our readers for visiting and reading and re-tweeting and commenting on our many posts over the years. We hope we have added some value to your professional lives and provided the occasional practical tip that has helped you prosper in your legal and paralegal practices.
Our best wishes to you all.
So in the patented Bilinsky spirit, we will take our final bows, and now, leave you with a song…
Until we meet again.
-David Bilinsky and Garry Wise
Don’t Forget the Interpretation Act
Although most acts have a definitions section, usually at the beginning of the act, it is logistically impossible for an act to define all the words and terms it uses. If you are trying to find the meaning of a term that isn’t defined in an act, check that jurisdiction’s Interpretation Act. Definitions of terms that are used by multiple acts are quite often found in this act. For example, terms defined in the federal Interpretation Act include “herein”, “holiday” and “oath”. You will find Interpretation Acts in federal and all provincial legislation.
Interpretation acts are also useful when it comes to statutory interpretation. For example section 11 of the federal Interpretation Act distinguishes between the meaning of “shall” and the meaning of “may”.
Your Queries Answered
Since you asked…
Baffled on Bay Street wonders: What’s with ‘Esquire’? Does it have some special meaning in law?
In mediaeval England, an esquire was one rank above a gentleman and one below a knight; hence the variant ‘squire’ for a trainee knight.
While the precise class of chaps eligible to be an esquire is a matter of intense historical controversy, it seems that you had to be the younger son of a nobleman, the son or grandson of a knight, or an office-holder (possibly including a barrister-at-law). By the 18th century, ‘Esquire’ came to be used as a polite substitute for ‘Mister’ on an envelope (and the older use of ‘Gent.’ after a name faded away). This usage persists in the UK and more traditional parts of the Commonwealth.
Americans used to use ‘Esquire’ in the same way, but by about (your humble scribe is guessing here) the 1940s, it was replaced by just plain ‘Mister’ on envelopes, except in diplomatic and legal circles (conservative, those). By about the 1970s, only lawyers were using it. As a result, ‘Esquire’ came to be viewed as synonymous with ‘attorney’ – and second-wave feminists who entered the legal profession wanted to be able to use it, like their male peers. To someone in the UK today, however, ‘Susan Jones, Esq.’ looks as bizarre as ‘Ms Neil Guthrie’ would.
Confused in Calgary writes: Can I begin a sentence with ‘And’ or ‘But’?
Contrary to what Mrs Snelgrove told you in grade 7, yes. But do it sparingly, for effect.
You can also start a sentence with ‘Because’, in constructions like this: ‘Because I forgot to set my alarm, I was late for the client meeting at 8.30.’
Exasperated in Edmonton enquires: How many spaces after the period at the end of a sentence? One or two?
Exasperated, you’ve got time on your hands if you’re fussing about this!
In the days of the Smith-Corona manual typewriter, two spaces were de rigueur. In the digital age, one seems to be the norm.
Troubled in Toronto asks: What’s the difference between ‘farther’ and ‘further’¸ and ‘less’ and ‘fewer’?
Less and fewer are straightforward (although frequently confused). Use less for things you can measure (money, time, substances), fewer for things you can count (people, objects).
Example: There are fewer people around in the summer, so there are fewer cars downtown and less traffic.
NEVER say less people.
The precise difference between farther and further is elusive, and the two words can be (and are) used more or less interchangeably. The consensus among language mavens is that farther is best used for actual distances, further where distance is conceptual or not part of the equation at all.
Examples: Edmonton is farther from Toronto than Calgary BUT Don’t go any further – I’ve had enough of your silliness.
And as for Vexed in Vancouver: I sometimes see in e-mails that that someone is going to ‘revert’ to me. What’s up with this?
This expression appears to have originated in business and legal circles in India in the 1970s, spreading from there to the UK and Australia. It’s a bit weird, because revert normally means to return to an original shape or form (The werewolf reverted to human form once the full moon had passed).
Your humble scribe would avoid the word in business correspondence (unless you mean it in the werewolf sense), and just say reply or answer (get back to you is a bit colloquial, methinks). Revert just seems fancy for the sake of being fancy, which is never desirable.
Next: the importance of editing and proof-reading
From Wallflower to Active Participant on Social Media
I’ve noticed lawyers pop into LinkedIn or Twitter once in a blue moon and then completely disappear.
If that’s you and you’d like to figure out how to enjoy some of the benefit others have found on social media, here are a few tips to get you started:
- You need a strategy. Define your target audience, point of different and purpose for your engagement, so you’re not scratching your head wondering what to do everytime you log in at LinkedIn.
- Don’t waste your time on sites that aren’t aligned with your goals. The fastest way to get turned off social media marketing is to build in activities that don’t go anywhere. Be selective about participating where your target market is more likely to be found. Determine ideal timing and frequency to reach your readers. And get yourself started with a base of connections that are likely to share, like and comment on your posts. Do the same for them.
- You will need to form new habits. Jumping into social media in a bigger way doesn’t mean you have to set aside a day a week just for posting! What you really need is to form a new habit that aligns with your day. When you check your email in the morning, take a quick look at your LinkedIn feed, bookmark an article to read later on and post a comment when you get to it. Set email notifications for only your highest priority groups or sites. That way you’ll minimize interruptions, but you’ll be able to respond when something catches your eye.
It’s a lot of pressure to figure out how to be quick, witty and charming several times a day… especially if it’s restricted to coffee breaks from phone calls, meetings, court appearances and other day-to-day activities as a lawyer.
Doing some of this foundational work will minimize decisions you have to make about where to spend your time and what type of engagement to focus on. Those changes alone can turn the social media black box into a manageable and transparent process. More importantly, they will help drive results.
For more reading on social media marketing, see the following posts on SlawTips:
- Should You Bother With Social Media Marketing?
- Updated Version of Great Social Media Guide for Lawyers Released
Also see the following infographic on Bekhor Management’s website:
- Climbing the Social Media Tree [Infographic]
Deep Links to Paragraphs in CanLII Judgments
A short tip today to remind you that you can deep link to a specific paragraph for most judgments on CanLII. This is helpful when you want to bring a colleague’s attention to specific paragraphs in a judgment.
Each decision on CanLII has a permanent URL, which will look like this:
http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2016/2016scc18/2016scc18.html
To create a link directly to paragraph 21 of this decision, just add #par21 after this permanent URL. The link to paragraph 21 of the decision would look like this:
http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2016/2016scc18/2016scc18.html#par21
I often use this when I’m sending a list of relevant case law to a colleague and want them to be able to dive into the most relevant excerpts, as opposed to flipping back and forth to my email to double check which paragraph I mentioned. For example, if I wanted to share some recent judicial consideration of section 8 of the federal Interest Act, I might send them the following linked list.
- Krayzel Corp. v. Equitable Trust Co., 2016 SCC 18 at paras 21–23.
- Hornstein v. Orbach, 2016 ONSC 1458 at paras 37–41.
- P.A.R.C.E.L. Inc. v. Acquaviva, 2015 ONCA 331 at paras 39–97.
My thanks to Frédéric Pelletier, of Lexum, who wrote about this on the CanLII blog back in 2011. He included a caveat to his post, which I will reproduce below:
Please note that many older decisions do not have numbered paragraphs and so this tip will not work [for them]. Also, since this feature is the result of automated processing, there will always remain a small proportion of decisions which numbered paragraphs can’t be properly tagged.
— Bronwyn Guiton (@BronwynMaye)
Oscar or Felix? What Does Your Desk Say About You?
♫ Their habits, I confess
None can guess with the couple…♫
Lyrics and music by Sammy Cahn and Neal Hefti.
Look at your desk and office. Whose office does yours resemble? Oscar Madison’s or Felix Unger’s? Is your desk neat and tidy or more a hodgepodge of piles of paper, old coffee cups and files stacked everywhere with food wrappers interspersed? Of course The Odd Couple accented the extreme personal differences between Oscar, who is perhaps the world’s most famous slob and Felix, the extreme clean freak, as a way to create an underlying comedic friction as the backdrop for the show.
But according to George Rains, your desk says a lot about you and your work habits. George states that there are at least 3 reasons to keep a clean work space:
#1 A clean work space projects a Professional and Personal Image
#2 Your office reflects on the image of your firm
#3 A clean office can help maintain personal health
George is not alone in advocating for a clean and tidy workspace. Pat Heydlauff states:
According to the National Association of Professional Organizations, paper clutter is the No. 1 problem for most businesses. Studies show the average person wastes 4.3 hours per week searching for papers, which adds stress and frustration to the workplace while reducing concentration and creative thinking.
Renae Nicole states that a clean workspace reflects on the overall morale of the organization. A clean and tidy desk reflects on how someone views their job. She also reinforces that a chaotic workspace can hinder efficiency.
So look at your desk and office. Are you more like Felix or Oscar? Fortunately it isn’t too late – salvation is at hand – all of us can aspire to better habits – starting today!
(if you want to take a short online test to see if you are more Felix or Oscar, click here).
Lawyerly Compounds
By this, I don’t mean where partners spend their week-ends. Instead, I have horrors like these in mind:
herein
therein
wherein
hereinafter
thereinafter
heretofore
herewith
therewith
aforementioned [or (shudder) its bastard progeny, ‘above-referenced’]
thereof
thereto
whereas
whereof
whereupon
hitherto
inasmuch as
notwithstanding
As Richard Wydick puts it, these words ‘give writing a legal smell, but they carry little or no legal substance. When they are used in writing addressed to non-lawyers, they baffle and annoy. When used in other legal writing, they give a false sense of precision and sometimes obscure a dangerous gap in analysis’ (Plain English for Lawyers, 5th ed (2005), 58).
Avoid that bad legal smell and don’t use words like these in your client piece – and think about ways to avoid them in legal drafting too.
Next time: your queries answered
On Change, Planning and Professional Practice
Death, taxes and change.
Reputedly, these are among life’s inevitabilities. And while there is probably very little we can do about death and taxes, change is something we truly can manage.
A central theme of many of my Practice Tips posts has been the importance of planning for law firms and other professional practices. By occasionally stepping back from the demands of our day-to-day dealings and deadlines, we can gain the benefit of a longer view, think about objectives, and develop strategies and routines to meet our short and longer term goals.
There will be many changes along the way, from the day we first hang a shingle, through to the maturity phase of our practices, and the ultimate decision that may come sooner – or later – than we think to wind down, transition to retirement, plan for succession or otherwise expand or contract our professional horizons.
Throughout our careers, there will probably be more than a few office addresses, important collaborators or partners, key clients, irreplaceable staff members, and memorable cases and projects There will also be revolutions in technology, drastic changes to the substantive law, regular shifts in the economy and continuing evolution of our marketplace and our regulatory environment.
Not to mention, a few curveballs.
Things don’t generally remain static in professional practice. Opportunities, setbacks and new challenges will virtually always come our way.
There will be lessons learned and pages turned, if you will.
It would be naive to believe all of these changes can be planned for. Some changes will be thrown upon us, unexpected, sudden and even unwelcome. That’s life, I suppose.
Nonetheless, much of this inevitable change can be managed and directed, if not wholly controlled. And our professional paths and our career successes may well be defined by how we navigate these changes.
Obviously, the future can’t be fully predicted or controlled, but with careful planning, a professional practice can definitely be guided in the right direction more often than not.
Begin by identifying objectives, challenges and issues. Get input from others. Be concrete about goals. Break objectives down into their components and target small, readily achievable milestones. Speak regularly with your partners, associates, staff, accountants, life partners, practice management experts and any other trusted sounding boards. Make lists, check them twice. Always leave space in your calendar to regularly assess where you are and work on your practice and professional goaks.
The topics of discussion will likely change through the phases and life cycle of every practice, but once established, the habit and art of planning can be a majar contributor to handling change and moving our career arcs forward.
Inevitably.
Keep a List of Frequently Asked Questions
Certain questions come up time and time again. You can save time by keeping a list of the most frequently asked questions and their answers; each time one of the questions on the list gets asked you can just cut and paste the answer.
FAQs can also work as a knowledge management tool. Although you may answer certain questions frequently, other staff members may not. One solution is to have these questions and answers saved centrally so they are accessible to all library staff.
To get even more bang for your buck, put these questions and answers on your intranet or website so your end users can easily find them. For example, Courthouse Libraries BC has a list of Asked and Answered questions on its website; based on a list that was originally developed as a private tool for Courthouse Library staff.
