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2-2011 Document Design for Lawyers: The ndE of the Typewriter Era Linda L. Berger University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- William S. Boyd School of Law

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Recommended Citation Berger, Linda L., "Document Design for Lawyers: The ndE of the Typewriter Era" (2011). Scholarly Works. Paper 676. http://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub/676

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Document Design for Lawyers: The End of the Typewriter Era by Linda Berger

Fou've written the perfect brief. The research

was thorough; the arguments are imagina-

tive and well-supported, appealing to both logic and emotion. You've revised, edited, proofread and revised again. It's the complete, persuasive product.

But it looks like it was produced on a last-century Smith Corona: the text appears in double-spaced 12-point Courier with ALL CAPS and underlining for headings. As Bryan Garner notes, the only reason to use Courier anymore is if the judge to whom you are writing requires it. Lawyers today are not only authors, but also self- publishers. Even when court rules restrict lawyers' choices, word-processing programs free lawyers to design their documents to achieve several purposes:

1. Document design can pull the reader in and keep them engaged by enhancing the accessibility and readability of your document. 2. Document design can boost your credibility by con- veying a knowledgeable and professional image of the lawyer and the lawyer's firm or company. 3. Document design can support the persuasiveness of your arguments by making your client's story easi- er to understand and your legal positions harder to choices about the key visual elements of their printed dismiss. documents. The suggestions here apply primarily to choosing and using fonts, the visual framework of The remainder of this article will discuss simple printed document design. design rules that you can follow in documents that In Painting with Print, Ruth Anne Robbins argues need not comply with court rules and some that you persuasively that the application of principles of typog- may use even in documents that must comply. Book raphy, headings and subheadings, white space and the and magazine publishers apply these tested graphic spatial relationships between them is as "critical an design principles to skillfully engage readers and element of persuasion as proper grammar and adher- amplify their publications' editorial content. As self- ence to the codes of court and citation form." Judge publishers, lawyers should make similarly thoughtful Frank Easterbrook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the

62 Georgia Bar Journal 7th Circuit has written that "[d] The rules of the Georgia courts narrow your ability to use esktop publishing does not imply a document design concepts in briefs filed with the courts, but they license to use ugly or inappropriate type and formatting," specifically appear to allow some flexibility. While both the Supreme Court criticizing the use of the common- of Georgia and the Court of Appeals require double spacing ly used default font Times New and fixed margins, rules that affect line spacing and line length Roman as "utterly inappropriate" principles, they give lawyers some leeway to choose among fonts. for long documents such as briefs. The Supreme Court specifies that the font be no smaller than Legal writing expert Bryan Garner devotes a chapter of The Redbook: A I 2-point Courier or 14-point Times New Roman, and the Court Manual on Legal Style to document of Appeals allows either 14-point Times New Roman or a font no design. Derek Kiernan-Johnson has smaller than 10 characters per inch. argued that typography might be used not only to reinforce meaning, Suggesting that rigid court rules undermine lawyers' design but also to independently create it. choices, Kendall Gray, Nerdlaw blogger, recently wrote: Choosing Typefaces I received an e-mail from a friend and superstar appellate colleague the other day. Like me he is a fan of the elegant (or Fonts) looking brief, and he was bemoaning the appearance of a brief "Typography is what language that he was filing in a jurisdiction with rule-mandated ugliness. looks like," Ellen Lupton states The jurisdiction, which shall remain nameless . . . required on the opening page of her book double spaced Times New Roman everything.... No Thinking With Type. Given typog- raphy's significant role in the com- chunking, no emphasis or de-emphasis. Nothing to help the munication of ideas, the choice of reader organize the information, wasted white space [that is] how best to visually capture our no easier to read or understand. carefully honed words should not be left to the default settings on our My modest proposal would be to eradicate all the typewriter era word processors. rules in which length and content were controlled by page count, Your choice of a typeface from double spacing, typewritten default margins and font sizes. the hundreds readily available should take into account maximum legibility (how easy is it to distin- per columns and is less desirable of the lowercase "x" or the type- guish discrete letters that make up than other serif typefaces when face's height excluding ascenders words) and readability (how easy producing lengthy single-column and descenders. In smaller sizes, is it to rapidly comprehend whole business and legal documents. typefaces with a larger x-height words and sentences). may appear larger and be easier to Typefaces fall into two major Practice Tip read than another face of the same categories: serif and sans serif. Serif m Consider one of the popular alter- point size with a smaller x-height. faces are distinguished by the deli- natives to Times New Roman. But be cautious when specifying a cate chiseled flourishes at the end These include Baskerville, Bembo, typeface with a disproportionately of each letter's main strokes. Serif Caslon, Century Schoolbook (a large x-height, especially in larger faces are easier to read in longer Century font is required by the sizes. The extreme central round- print documents than their sans- U.S. Supreme Court), Garamond, ness in certain letters may actually serif cousins, which lack the thin Jenson, Minion, Palatino, Sabon hinder readability. end strokes. Experts suggest that or one of the typefaces (such serifs help lead the eye to the next as Georgia and Constantia) Practice Tip letter or word. The text of most designed to be legible both m Choose typefaces no smaller nonfiction books and business doc- on paper and on a computer than 10 points and no larger uments (where the ability to read monitor. than 13 points, depending on quickly with comprehension is a the x-height and line length. key goal) is set in serif typefaces. Choosing Type Size Because word-processing soft- Type size describes the height Setting Line Length ware often used Times New and width of the individual char- and Justification Roman as the default typeface, it acters. Type is measured from the emerged as the predominant serif bottom of the descending stroke to When working with a single-col- typeface. But Times New Roman the top of the ascending stroke. The umn layout, choose your line length was designed for narrow newspa- so-called "x-height" is a measure carefully. If the line is too short and 63 February 20112011 63 the type too large, reading will be Practice Tips publishers, detailing in word uncomfortable, requiring many eye a Choose sans serif faces for sub- and example the accepted type- movements. A long line of small headings. This choice creates faces, page designs and logo type may force the reader to work emphasis through a pleasing usage. This guide will help hard to stay on a smooth linear contrast with the serif body build the consistency and repe- track. Long lines, too, will require text. Try Arial, Century Gothic, tition that good design requires narrow margins, causing the page Trebuchet and Corbel. and your audiences will come to appear crowded. " Avoid ALL CAPS, large and to expect and appreciate. small caps, and underlining. Practice Tips These are unattractive and slow Suggested Resources a Pick a shorter line length. down readers. m Matthew Butterick, www. Robbins suggests a line length " Align subheadings flush left TypographyforLawyers.com. of just under six inches, which with the left margin. Avoid cen- * Bryan A. Garner, "The Redbook: will mean increasing the stan- tering, which results in unbal- A Manual on Legal Style 77-88" dard one-inch margins for court anced alignment. (2d ed. West 2006). documents. Others have sug- " Insert extra space just before m Kendall Gray, http://www. gested an even shorter line. One each subheading. This links the appellaterecord.com/ articles/ standard guide for evaluating heading to the related text: the nerdlaws/. a readable line length (or mea- heading appears to move away m Derek H. Kiernan-Johnson, sure) in a specific type size is to from the previous section and "Telling Through Type: make the line 2 to 2.5 times the closer to what it introduces. Typography and Narrative in typeface's alphabet length: 52 to Legal Briefs," 7 J. ALWD 87 65 characters. Design, Test, Decide (2010) (available at www.alwd/ " Use ragged-right justification. Matthew Butterick, a lawyer and JALWD/archives.html). Ragged-right settings allow trained designer, shares his pas- m Ruth Anne Robbins, "Painting readers to smoothly move sion for effective typography at With Print: Incorporating Concepts from line to line. The saw- www.TypographyforLawyers.com. of Typographic and Layout Design tooth right edge also helps A recent post suggested a simple into the Text of Legal Writing achieve consistent and regular process for visually evaluating new Documents," 4 J.ALWD 108 (2004) word spacing and minimizes font choices. This final recommen- (available at www.alwd/JALWD/ awkward hyphenation at the dation for putting the best face on archives.html). end of the line. your documents borrows liberally m Wayne Schiess, www. " Match line spacing to line length. from his post: Legalwriting.net. For line spacing, remember that m Robin Williams, "The Non- the longer the line you choose, 1. Choose several current docu- Designer's Design Book" (3d the more spacing you will want ments as samples. ed. Peachpit Press 2008). to insert between lines to aid 2. "Publish" the samples in two or m Where to shop for fonts: adobe. the eye's movement across the three new typefaces that appear com/type/; www.fontbureau. page. Robbins suggests that you to improve overall design and com; fontshop.com; www. choose line spacing between 1 readability. linotype.com; www.fonts.com. 0 and 5 points larger than the 3. Mix in several sans-serif sub- type size-or larger than a sin- heading options. Linda Berger, guest gle-space setting but slightly 4. Produce different options using columnist, has been a less than 1.5 lines. the same typeface while vary- Professor of Law at ing line length and spacing. Mercer University Using Subheadings 5. Post the samples where your School of Law since July to Provide Guideposts colleagues and you can study, 2008; she previously review and live with them for taught at Thomas Jefferson School and Markers a week or so. Solicit opinions, of Law in San Diego. Her interest in Consider subheadings as guide- asking for the whys behind posts that let the reader know where their preferences. document design began when she she is and where she is going. These 6. Pick one or two on the basis of was a reporter for the Associated essential markers should work (a) which are the most legible Press, continued while she was writ- closely with horizontal and vertical and readable and (b) which best ing briefs for a law firm and became white space and optimal-reading convey your firm's image and serious during her eight years as line lengths and type sizes - all in identity. editor of the peer-reviewed Journal the interest of reducing the mental 7. Finally, build a straightforward of the Association of Legal Writing workload required of the reader. style guide for your firm's self- Directors (J.ALWD). Georgia Bar Journal 64 Georgia Bar Journal