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

When attorneys begin their latest motion or brief, they face a predictable set of questions and concerns, including how to start, how to draft winning headings, how to tell a story when the record is dry and dense, how to neutralize bad facts, how to be persuasive when recounting the governing law, how to confront adverse authority, how to analogize cases without drowning in detail, how to distinguish authority without sounding defensive, and how to make a brief interesting without seeming corny or coy. The answers to these questions are more science than art, and the best advocates-from Thurgood Marshall to John Roberts-have far more in common with each another than with their less-adept contemporaries. In Point Made, author Ross Guberman aims to break down the work of great advocates into a step-by-step writing strategy with practical examples. Each chapter focuses on a fundamental challenge that briefwriters face, and includes an overview incorporating insight from judges, followed by specific practice pointers in checklist form and annotated examples of how prominent advocates have resolved the challenge in a variety of trial and appellate briefs.