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Letters
Letters to the editor: The Wisconsin Lawyer publishes as many letters
in each issue as space permits. Please limit letters to 500 words; letters
may be edited for length and clarity. Letters should address the issues,
and not be a personal attack on others. Letters endorsing political candidates
cannot be accepted. Please mail letters to "Letters to
the Editor," Wisconsin Lawyer, P.O. Box 7158, Madison, WI 53707-7158, fax
them to (608) 257-4343, or email them to wislawyer@wisbar.org.
Lawyers Serve Society, Not
the Other Way Around
I don't like the way the practice has changed over the last 30 years
- and I'd go back to the old way in a heartbeat. But my research constantly
reminds me that lawyers serve society, not the other way around. More
important, the data also constantly reminds that law (and lawyers) follows
society, not vice versa.
Preaching to a congregation whose hearts are distracted and believing
our own sermons is the best way to be the only one surprised when the
pews are suddenly empty. It is interesting to listen to the argued articulation
of lawyers' duties, with no mention of the primary "duty" to listen with
an open mind.
One would think that lawyers would better apply the lessons of society
and history to their own situation. If there is such a thing as "tunnel
vision," perhaps lawyers have "tunnel blindness." A simple comparison
of the economic and social load the American legal system puts on society
with that of other similar economic societies shows that in many areas
of life, the legal profession is perceived as imposing a "tax" for which
there is no perceived value. Lawyers who clearly recognized that the NASDAQ
could not sustain its growth cannot see that the same rules apply to human
anticipation of value relative to the "legal services" lawyers provide.
I find it interesting that the personal injury plaintiff's lawyers -
a few of whom have enjoyed tremendous economic benefits from the changes
over the last decades, benefits obtained chiefly from the concentration
of profitable cases away from that segment of the bar who used the PI
"profit center" to subsidize their community-based general practices -
are now thumping the drum the loudest for preservation of "traditional
values." There must be a word for the combination of demagoguery and arrogance
that presumes that not only does the granting of a law license give its
holder the insight to understand what elements of a professional relationship
society most needs, but that only these license holders can choose those
elements for the individual members of a free society.
Gary Bakke is right in his support for recognition of the reality of
multidisciplinary practice. Right not only in the sense that he anticipates
social change that will impact the legal profession - with dire consequences
if it does not anticipate and adapt, but right in a civic moral sense.
If we are to be the "traffic cops" providing order to society, we must
maintain credibility with society as society changes. Finally, Bakke is
right, lawyers do not decide what is relevant, especially when that decision
is clouded by the preservation of the sinecure we've enjoyed for decades.
Mike Loduha
Manitowoc
Waukesha County Self-help
Center Not Yet Open
The article "Setting a Course for the Future," in the March Wisconsin
Lawyer, mistakenly states that Waukesha County opened a self-help legal
services center in January to assist divorce clients who choose to go
it alone. In January, the county, in collaboration with Wisconsin Correctional
Service, hired me as the project coordinator to plan the program. Waukesha
has not offered any additional services to clients yet, but we do hope
to open a center in the Fall of 2001 if the planning progresses as scheduled.
Tera Nehring
Waukesha County Court Self-help Program
A Blueprint for Effective
Legal Writing
Early in my career an older partner whose legal briefs were widely respected
as cogent and, most of all, easy to read, once told me how he edited his
briefs. Ever since, I have applied his technique to all my legal writing.
I recommend his technique to those readers who found George Vernon's excellent
article on a legal writing blueprint in the March Wisconsin Lawyer to
be very helpful.
First, the partner said, wait a couple days after you think you are
completely done writing your brief. Then put your bottom paragraphs on
top. And your bottom sentences on top. Simple. Initial drafts, he explained,
tend to follow the arduous process of research and deductive reasoning,
which is bottom up: minor premise up to broad conclusion. Don't make your
reader work like that, he said. This isn't fiction where the pages pull
the reader along to a dramatic denouement. In legal writing, top down
is best. "This is the law, here's why ... this is the law, here's why."
His briefs never had conclusion paragraphs to sum up everything. By that
point the reader was already convinced.
Kevin M. Connelly
La Crosse
The March Issue is a "Keeper"
The March Wisconsin Lawyer is superb, well edited, value laden, with
judicious use of links to further information. It's future-oriented, fun,
and has excellent headlines, wound around a member involvement theme.
Great job. And Gary Bakke can really write.
John J. (Jack) Sweeney
Director, Office of Justice Initiatives
American Bar Association, Chicago
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