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With deadlines looming and work piling up, attorneys often find themselves skipping over aesthetic detail to get legal arguments to paper. While it is easy to believe that the judge, clerk, or attorney reading your documents will glaze over small errors and spacing inconsistencies, the sum effect of a document is either bolstered or weakened by the attention to detail paid by the author. As lawyers, we must remember that every detail bears upon the outcome of our work and potentially the disposition of our cases.
What Gourmet Chefs Have Mastered
A study conducted by a team based in Oxford University empirically demonstrated that a salad plated to mimic Kadinsky’s Painting #201 was perceived to be tastier than a salad made of the same ingredients either arranged geometrically (in organized lines) or traditionally. The study also found that people were willing to pay more for the artistically plated salad than for either of the other two.
The results of this study come as no surprise to gourmet chefs. The highest echelons of the dining industry have been preparing foods which appeal to all five of the senses for years. Just as the average cook concentrates his efforts solely on the taste of his food, the average attorney predominantly concentrates on the logic and arguments set forth in her papers.
The legal profession must extrapolate from the results of this study and those like it. Just as a diner’s impression of the taste of a chef’s food is altered by its presentation, an attorney’s audience is affected by things aside from the logic of her legal arguments.
Realities in Law
All attorneys are taught to present persuasive and logical arguments with the backing of legal authority. What we are not taught is the importance of attention to the aesthetic details in the documents we author. Sloppy writing often imputes sloppy arguments in the reader’s mind. Attorneys must be cognizant that writing that is pleasant to read and look at weighs more favorably on the reader than a messy and typo-ridden one.
Attention to detail includes a litany of onerous and often annoying tasks stretching from the banalities of proper Bluebooking to concentration on the proper use of em dashes as compared to en dashes and hyphens. Additional considerations include making sure that each paragraph of a brief has the same alignment, proper use of punctuation, and consistent spacing between sentences as well as paragraphs.
While these small items may seem menial and unimportant, they can make the difference between success and failure when two equally persuasive briefs are submitted. We must strive to become the gourmet chefs and avoid the pitfalls of the average cook.
Professional Benefits
Aside from the beneficial results pristine work product achieves for an attorney’s client, there are significant fringe benefits associated with producing quality papers. An attorney’s name and work product are her calling card. Every time an attorney submits a brief, her name is inextricably tied to the document she produced. Presenting a work product that is not only logically sound and persuasive, but also well put together and detail oriented will appeal to potential future employers and clients alike. Furthermore, when clients review an attorney’s work product, the same factors described above will also bolster a client’s confidence in the attorney’s skill and ability.