welcome

Scribes was founded in 1953 to honor legal writers and encourage a “clear, succinct, and forceful style in legal writing.” We seek to promote better writing throughout the legal community — in courthouses, law offices, publishing houses, and law schools. And we hope to spread the growing scorn for legal writing that is archaic, turgid, obscure, and needlessly dull.
 
Scribes gives three annual writing awards; publishes a quarterly newsletter, The Scrivener; and publishes a unique and highly regarded journal, The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing. To learn more about these activities, use the links at the top.
 
In addition, Scribes sponsors occasional legal-writing programs. In recent years, we have cosponsored programs at the annual meeting of the American Bar Association and with the New York City Bar’s Legal History Committee; sponsored a program on jury instructions at the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools; and sponsored writing seminars for students at Stetson University College of Law, South Texas College of Law, the University of Houston Law Center, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Saint Louis University Law School, Chicago-Kent College of Law, and The John Marshall Law School.
 
Finally, for anyone who would like to join Scribes, there’s a link to our application form under the “Membership” link at the top of this page. Please note that we also have a category of institutional membership for law schools and appellate courts; please contact Executive Director Norman E. Plate for additional information. For more about our membership categories, please click the “Constitution and Bylaws” link above and check the bylaws under article 1, section 1(a).
 

events

 2013 Scribes Annual Membership Luncheon
August 9, 2013

The 2013 Scribes Annual Membership Luncheon will be held during the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco on Friday, August 9 from Noon - 2:00 p.m. The location has not been determined. Please continue to check back for details; we will have them soon. The Brief-Writing and Book Awards will be given during the luncheon. 

news

2012-2013 Scribes Book-Award Competition
Scribes is pleased to announce its 2012-2013 Annual Book Award. The award will be presented at the Scribes Annual Meeting, held during the American Bar Association Meeting in San Francisco, on August 9, 2013. For information on how to submit a book, please click here. For the list of Committee members to whom you need to send copies of a submitted book, (or e-book information), please click here. The deadline to submit books is May 1, 2013.

2012-2013 Scribes Law-Review Award
Scribes is pleased to announce the winner of the 2012-2013 Law-Review award: Kyle La Rose from the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University. His article, The Injury-in-Fact Barrier to Initiative Proponent Standing:  How Article III Might Prevent Federal Courts from Enforcing Direct Democracy, was published in Volume 44 of the Arizona State Law Journal (Winter 2012). Mr. La Rose accepted his award at the National Conference of Law Reviews on March 21 at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. To read Mr. La Rose's article, please click here.

Volume 14 of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing
has been mailed. This volume consists of four unique articles, including a mini-casebook of decisions in which the writing style affected the result and an empirical study of the public's attitude toward legal writing.

2012-2013 Scribes Brief-Writing-Award Competition
Scribes is please to announce its 2012-2013 Brief-Writing-Award competition. The competition began in 1996 to help identify and celebrate excellent student-written briefs.The competition covers the current school year -- September 2012 to May 2013. The winning author or authors will be recognized at the 2013 Scribes Annual Meeting, which will be held during the American Bar Association's Annual Meeting in San Francisco on August 9, 2013. Plaques will be awarded to the authors and their school. Submissions are due by April 19, 2013. For information on how to submit a brief, please click here.