Thoughts on Legal Writing from Irving Younger—Part I Gerald Lebovits
Columbia Law School From the SelectedWorks of Hon. Gerald Lebovits March, 2019 Thoughts on Legal Writing from Irving Younger—Part I Gerald Lebovits Available at: https://works.bepress.com/gerald_lebovits/336/ NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION MARCH 2019 Journal VOL. 91 | NO. 2 CONNECT WITH NYSBA VISIT NYSBA.ORG/BLOG Estate Planning Special Needs Trusts LAW PRACTICE Juror Texting MANAGEMENT: for Inventors WHAT TO ASK Eileen M. Ebel The Right to Be Forgotten VENDORS ABOUT The Art of Cross-Examination AI PRODUCTS THE LEGAL WRITER GERALD LEBOVITS Thoughts on Legal Writing from the Greatest of Them All: Irving Younger – Part I rving Younger was the master of legal writing and legal Five of his columns were republished in the Best Of series Ispeaking. in the Scribes Journal of Legal Writing: Symptoms of Bad Before commencing his brilliant 30-year career, he gradu- Writing, Skimming the Fat Off Your Writing, A Good Exam- ated from Harvard University in 1953 and from New ple and a Bad, Lessons from a Bar Journal, and Culture’s the 13 York University School of Law in 1958.1 After serving Thing. Although he wrote his columns over 30 years ago, as an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Gar- judges, lawyers, and law students can benefit forever from rison and as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern his timeless insights. This two-part column features his District of New York, he established a law firm with his best insights on legal writing. wife, Judith T. Younger.2 In 1965, he began teaching full In the first of our two-part column, we focus on Professor time at NYU.3 He was then elected from Manhattan’s Silk Younger’s suggestions to improve the mechanics of legal Stocking District — the storied Ninth Municipal Court writing.
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