Customer Reviews

Point Made: How to Write Like the Nation's Top Advocates

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I'm an engineer and have done a lot of writing to sell my proposals and ideas. Many of us with technical backgrounds have great ideas but have trouble selling them simply because our writing is often not very persuasive. And if you can't be persuasive your ideas aren't worth anything. I've taken various technical writing seminars but this book is hands down the best tool I've come across for improving my writing. This book offers lots of help, and showed me how to write about the facts using more compelling and varied sentences. It's very practical, easy to read and offers great ideas for getting your point across. Unlike many "how to write" books, this one is enjoyable to read and educational, with a lot of stories about well-known legal disputes. It will definitely make you a better writer and enable you to sell your ideas more effectively.

As an experienced appellate advocate who has argued over a hundred cases, written several hundred briefs, edited several hundred more, and collected the literature in the field, I am always skeptical of new books on legal writing. Even the best books essentially just rehash the same advice: stay away from the passive voice, block quotations are bad, use footnotes sparingly, etc. Point Made does that too, but to his credit, the author gives these by-now hoary concepts colorful little names to make them easier to remember, for example, "Russian Doll," for nested subheadings. The real selling point, however, is the use of examples taken from briefs of the nation's top appellate litigators. And therein lies my caveat. While most of the examples are excellent, some are not, and the whole enterprise reaks of boot licking and log rolling. Several advocates who give the book glowing reviews noted on the back cover are those whom the author has selected for inclusion in the book as among the best appellate advocates in the country. (The late, beloved Spy magazine used to call this "log rolling on our time" and featured examples from the world of fiction. The Point Made examples are no less egregious.) And another troubling point for me is this: How many of these noted, brilliant, and esteemed folks actually wrote the examples? Come on now. Should we, as a profession, really continue to pretend that most, if not all, of these hot-shot lawyers or judges write their own stuff? A lot of former law reveiwers who work for noted, brilliant, and esteemed appellate lawyers and judge would quietly tell you otherwise.

But enough sermonizing by me. This is overall a good book on legal writing--not as good as books by Bryan Garner, Stephen Starks, and Judge Aldisert--but worth a look.

I'm both a lawyer and an author, so writing is my business, and I found this really useful. First of all, it's not just a set of abstract suggestions; it's packed with short, easy-to-digest examples from famous advocates. And I do mean "packed": you get examples, usually several, on pretty much every page. I think most people learn best by example, and these are good ones. Second, the book's organization is user-friendly. The subtitle should've been "Writing Like the Nation's Top Advocates--in 50 Nutshells," because that's what you get. The 50 lesson organization makes it easy to refer back to this or that point after you've read the book. In fact, I find the table of contents itself useful because you can just skim it over to remind yourself of the lessons. Third, believe it or not, this is fun to read. He makes good writing interesting (in part through good writing).

Finally, though the book's about written advocacy, I've found it useful for all types of writing, including e-mails I toss off to my clients.

Anyway, highly recommended...

Ross Guberman deconstructs the writing of America's greatest litigation advocates and, brick by brick, shows us how they build a winning argument. Organized in five parts containing fifty numbered techniques, the book flows logically and lucidly from (1) crafting a theme and a powerful introduction ("The Theme"), through (2) explaining the facts and your client's story ("The Tale"), (3) detailing your legal argument ("The Meat"), (4) punching up your style ("The Words"), and (5) creating a strong conclusion ("The Close").

Each of Guberman's fifty techniques is bestowed a pithy, memorable title followed by a clarifying explanation - for example, Technique No. 12 in "Part Three: `The Meat'" is captioned "12. Russian Doll: Nest your headings and subheadings." This enables the appendix listing the techniques to stand alone as a quick refresher course. And each technique is illustrated by several excerpts from top advocates' pleadings to illustrate the range of possibilities for using it. Many techniques are also supported by quotes from judges' writings on what helps them understand your case better vs. what irritates them or causes their eyes to glaze over.

The pointers in Part Four ("The Words") are helpful advice for all writers, not just lawyers. The 17 techniques in this section encompass everything from adopting more vivid language and imagery and using "Creative Punctuation," to creating a "Seamless Flow" from one idea to the next, to ensuring a document's "Visual Appeal" with tables, charts, bulleted lists, and even specific, eye-friendly type fonts.

This book practices what it preaches, and Guberman's lively, graceful writing and choice examples make an enjoyable excursion out of what from less skilled hands would read like a textbook.

Point Made should be required reading for every lawyer in a litigation practice. The judges will be grateful, and the clients should get better outcomes.

You've heard it since the first day of law school- research and writing, more research and writing, oh and by the way? Research and writing. With easy to remember concepts and actual, real life explanations you'll at least have one half of this all-powerful duo covered. As a third year associate, I'm happy to have a book in my office that I can actually use to make my writing better. And the best part is that Ross Guberman makes it simple; he shows you how to do it instead of telling you. The concepts are well organized and easy to follow, you can read the whole text or use it piece by piece. Guberman avoids the "legal treatise" model with juicy excerpts that make you want to read on and includes advice from judges on what they really want to see. This book is indispensable for 1L memo writers, new associates and partners, highly recommended.

As an author, I care a lot about good writing. As a lawyer, I have to endure a lot of bad writing. I'm hardly alone in wondering: why isn't legal writing better?

Nearly all lawyers think they're good writers. Most of them are mistaken. And worse, these lawyers often seek comfort in urban legends designed to protect their bad habits -- "this is how successful lawyers write," "this is what judges like to see," etc.

Ross Guberman's terrific book proves otherwise. Ross shows you that the best lawyers are truly excellent writers, and that judges truly prefer excellent writing. He makes his case with real-world evidence: hundreds of examples from actual briefs by well-known lawyers, and dozens of comments from judges.

Using this material, Ross methodically refutes many of the favorite habits of bad legal writers, including flabby sentences, vague headings, and a bęte noire of mine -- overly long block quotations.

A solid, practical guide that will give any legal writer fresh ideas about how to improve their work.

I first had the pleasure of meeting Ross a few years ago, when my law firm hired him to do a seminar on legal writing for new associates. His seminar was absolutely wonderful, and his book certainly doesn't disappoint! This book is terrific for anyone looking to improve their legal writing skills (and everyone, even the best writers, can benefit from it)! It's the perfect guide to writing, and really, the only guide to writing one would ever need.

I purchased this on recommendation for a friend before my first Moot Court Competition. Lots of great advice and tricks to use in your brief. A great law school writing tool.

This book is a point-by-point guide for writing persuasively. I'm a litigator, a year and a half out of law school, and I consult this book during every brief that I write.

More importantly, it's the first book that helped me break out of the clunky, inane formalisms that were forced upon me in my 1L writing class. For any 2Ls or 3Ls out there reading this review, do yourself a favor: retain the concepts about legal argumentation that you learned in your 1L writing class, but let this book be your guide for actually writing. Your career prospects will rapidly improve, as mine have, and your future checking account will thank you.

From as far back as middle school, we've all heard a lot of the same truisms. Use transitions. Write with sizzle. Vary sentence structure. Use active verbs. Avoid clutter. These truisms are tired and trite; of course every writer should do these things, but in the abstract they mean nothing. Guberman's book is different. If you've ever put critical thought into your headings and subheadings, his advice on them will hit you with concrete specificity. If you've ever added a parenthetical explanation to a citation, you will immediately grasp his advice on doing so, and you will immediately change the way you do it. This book actually teaches. Which is more than I can say about that book by Scalia and Garner. All they managed was to say the same old thing, but with exceptional style.)

In short, if you've ever really put thought into how you use words, sentences, and paragraphs, Guberman's book will be a revelation, and indispensable.

The best way to learn is to learn from the best, a famous person once said. Ross Guberman's "Point Made" exemplifies this truism. You don't even have to finish reading the entire book to reap the benefits that result from a dissection of choice writings of the best of the best brief writers in America. "Point Made" distinguishes itself from other legal-writing-tips books by its copious examples, by its tracking of an actual brief, and by its visual appeal. Improvement is inevitable; even instantaneous.