Brendan M. Kenny @bkbkenny - Tumblr Blog

Why Hyperbole Will Destroy Your Case and Understatement Will Save It

Hyperbole and overstatement do more harm than good. Hyperbole is exaggeration. Overstatement is an attempt to convince your audience by bludgeoning them with facts, arguments, and pleas to get them to accept your assertion. If you tell your audience what they should think, don’t be surprised if they think the opposite just to spite you. Lawyers do much better when we calmly and methodically lead…

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#legal writing #litigation

How Scare Quotes Are Saving Legal Writing

Much has been written about the poor state of lawyers’ writing, but less about their punctuation. For years, grammarians and writing gurus have bemoaned misuses of quotation marks—and these misuses are legion. But for lawyers, quotation-mark abuse may not be so bad. And using scare quotes might be the beginning of better legal writing. That’s because lawyers put scare quotes on words, terms, and…

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#legal writing

The Secret Style Guide the Supreme Court Doesn't Want You to Read

The Secret Style Guide the Supreme Court Doesn’t Want You to Read

You can’t get any higher than supreme. So when the public gets a glimpse into the inner workings of the Supreme Court, it’s a big deal. That just happened. The Supreme Court’s Style Guide, Amazon’s #1 new release in legal writing, can now be yours. The introduction to the guide says as much: What you’re holding is special. And until now, it has been secret. We have editor Jack Metzler to thank…

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#legal writing #typography

Who is Phoenix Wright? He's an improbable video game trial lawyer whose only superpower is that he's a really good lawyer... sort of. Gamemaker Capcom describes him as" the rookie defense lawyer new to the scene with the wildest cross-examination skills in town." That's one way of putting it.

What can trial lawyers learn from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. I argue that we can learn a lot.

@phoenix-wright @chiefprostitutor @textsfromthecourtroom @aceattorneydoujins @hobo-phoenix-wright @nahrmin @askaceattorney @nolaattys @bluezila

#video games #ace attorney #phoenix wright #phoenix wrong

Watch Brendan Kenny's Discussion of Episode 23 of Serial Dynasty Podcast #AdnanSyed on Livestream.com. We will be discussing Episode 23 of The Serial Dynasty podcast. The Serial Dynasty Podcast is dedicated to continuing the analysis of the Adnan Syed case in the award winning Serial Podcast.

We will be discussing Episode 23 of The Serial Dynasty podcast. The Serial Dyn...

There’s no getting around moral judgments. We all make judgments; juries are no exception. Trial consultant Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm describes how this works: …the ability to identify good people matters far more than the ability to identify good acts….[W]e often mix our views of consequences with our views of character. Even harmless actions are more likely to be worthy …

#trial practice #trial lawyer #trial law #cross examination #closing argument #oj simpson #dippolito