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The Bible of Brief Writing

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I'll be brief (no pun intended). If you are a lawyer or law student who wants to write better and more persuasive briefs - buy or borrow this book! I've completely changed my legal writing style after reading Judge Scalia and Garner's book.

Nothing New for Practitioners

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If you are a practitioner seeking insightful wisdom from a Supreme Court Justice to improve your advocacy skills, this book is not for you. Those who have taken a basic legal writing and/or moot court course will not find any new information here. Essentially, the authors have compiled highlights from a legal writing textbook, added a few quotes from famous judges and a few examples from their own experience, and billed this as a book of wisdom. It appears that most of the book was written by co-author Bryan Garner, drawing on the material from his past publications on the same subject, with Justice Scalia merely placing his name on the cover in order to sell more copies. This is evident by comparing the writing styles of the co-authors when they disagree at a few points in the book. Garner's entries read like the rest of the book; Justice Scalia's entries read like one of his court opinions. Overall, if you are a practitioner, you likely already have a legal writing book stashed away in a box from law school that will serve you just as well.

Words of Wisdom for Lawyers

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Legal education does not end with the finishing of your law degree.
The challange begins when you prepare your first brief and stand before the Judge to argue your first case. If you are not prepared well and are not confident to appear before the Judge your mind may become blank. The Skill of Advocacy is acquired slowly as time goes by and you become confident day by day. A good command over the language of the Court is a must. Absolutely essential are also the General Principals of Argumentation as lucidly described by the Hon'ble Antonin Scalia & Mr. Garner in their wonderful book on advocacy popularly known as "The Art of Persuading Judges".

A good refresher

Customer Rating:
Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of common sense, and many of the things Mr. Garner and Justice Scalia point out as being helpful and persuasive are common sense. The book is organized nicely into small bits that make it an easy read. I'd recommend this to any attorney, or even to anyone who simply wants to be more persuasive in writing or speaking.

interesting but mostly useless

Customer Rating:
As a plaintiff's lawyer who also does appeal work, this book was very interesting but little is memorable after a few days. I'm glad I signed it out from the library instead of buying it. It's just a repeat of basic (naive) advocacy principles. The image is that your judge will really conscientiuosly read things and be careful to rule properly. The book is very well-edited--so you won't read much of substance that is realistic or cynical--like about judicial intellectual dishonesty. Scalia gives no insight on how to get an honest opinion from an appellate court--how to keep appeals judges from ignoring things in the record (or making up things) just so they can come up with a very good-appearing opinion that is wrong because it has result-oriented oddities that only the parties' lawyers know about. Summary judgment (and more recently dismissal for failure to state a claim) have become procedural easy-outs that have created widespread dishonesty by judges who want to get rid of cases (usually because they are infatuated with defense counsel). Often defense counsel succeed only because they loudly and assertively repeat their propaganda--and judges (or their staff) go right along (letting perception become reality). Also, de novo judicial review is in reality deferential to the trial judge (with unwillingness to reverse--finding any way possible (dishonest) to affirm).

There were some very good points--like not being lured into making concessions during oral argument. There might be one detail that prevents the judges from (honestly) ruling a certain way--so you could get a question that so temptingly and nicely tries to get you to agree with an innocuous point, etc. There is a great example of how the judges will write about such a concession in their opinion. Another good point is Scalia's belief that whatever doesn't help your case hurts it (i.e., don't fill your briefs, etc. with unhelpful things).

There could have been some mention of realities like that most judges and staff never in their lives had to prosecute a civil case (or never had a burden-of-proof in their lives) or never had to deal with defense counsel in a contentious manner (e.g., trying to get discovery through a motion to compel)--and how to work with that in the justice system (those judges and staff).

I also didn't like Justice Scalia's pompous "dissents" on some points by Bryan Garner. They stand out in hindsight as ugly parts. It appears that Bryan Garner did the heavy lifting in writing the book.