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|  THE GREAT LEGAL WRITERS JOURNEY EPISODE 1 OF 8 | EPISODE 1 · VERBS7 min read Supreme Court Justices Teach Us VerbsVerbs supply the movement, the action and the images readers remember. Here's how the Justices choose them. THE SHORT VERSION | Trade state-of-being verbs (is, are, was, were) for verbs that do something. |
| Turn nominalizations back into verbs: "made a determination" becomes "determined." |
| Save your most charged verbs for the sentences that matter most. |
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Hi there,
Welcome to the Great Legal Writers Journey. For the next eight weeks you'll get one episode a week, each built around a move the best legal writers use. Every episode has real examples from Supreme Court Justices, federal judges and top litigators, a quick practice question, and a section on using the skill when AI is drafting alongside you.
We start with a powerhouse technique, and a deceptively simple one.
Verbs.
Verbs rev up our sentences. They supply the movement, the action and (often) the imagery that readers remember. They're also the quickest way to amp up your legal writing. And best of all, good verbs add rhetorical flair without annoying readers.
Take a look at this snippet of legal writing, and notice the verbs. Most do little for you. They simply tell you that things happened and things exist.
✕ A TYPICAL DRAFT She was at trade shows and conferences, and there are pictures of her with bottles of Vicki's Vodka; she was in photographs with promotional clothes; there were negotiations with her present involving product-placement spots on the Real Housewives television show; she was present for filming of portions of the show at the vodka-manufacturing facility; and the spirit was used at her backyard parties, which were present in the show's season finale. |
Now see what happens when a great legal writer, federal judge Jennifer Dorsey, uses active verbs that target specific images:
✓ JUDGE DORSEY WROTE She attended trade shows and conferences, where she was photographed clutching bottles of Vicki's Vodka; wore promotional clothes; negotiated product-placement spots on the Real Housewives television show; filmed portions of the show at the vodka-manufacturing facility; and poured the spirit at her backyard parties, which were featured in the show's season finale. |
Let's break down how to choose verbs like these. And who better to learn from than the Justices of the Supreme Court? |
| THE TECHNIQUE 1 | Avoid state-of-being verbs |
State-of-being verbs (is, are, was, were, been, being, be, am) are overused, and they deliver little that is memorable or persuasive. They just tell readers that things exist. So reach for verbs that are concrete and visual, verbs that convey some real action.
✕ INSTEAD OF The statute has severe restrictions that only affect plaintiff. | ✓ JUSTICE HOLMES WROTE The statute bristles with severities that touch the plaintiff alone. |
Once you've cut every state-of-being verb you can, go after nominalizations. These are verbs turned into nouns (zombie nouns, some call them). They often end in -ion or -ent, and they hide simple, expressive verbs behind wordy phrases.
✕ INSTEAD OF The court made a determination on three of the counts. | ✓ WRITE The court determined three of the counts. |
✕ INSTEAD OF The cases are not in agreement on this point. | ✓ WRITE The cases do not agree on this point. |
3 | Target your verbs in key sentences |
Simply using more active, visual verbs will strengthen your writing. To take it further, get comfortable with the subtle effects of choosing a specific verb that evokes the image or emotion you want.
You can't target the verb in every sentence, or you'd spend the rest of your life perusing verbs. But you can choose carefully in the sentences that matter most to your reader.
Here are all three steps side by side. The last one is a targeted verb, a verb that carries an emotionally charged point.
✕ STATE OF BEING ConnectU is accused of an unauthorized system breach. | ● ACTIVE Facebook accused ConnectU of entering the system without authorization. | ✓ TARGETED Facebook . . . accused ConnectU . . . of infiltrating its system. |
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| WATCH A MASTER AT WORK Here's a passage from Justice Kagan's opinion in Badgerow v. Walters, except we've swapped her verbs for the stale state-of-being verbs and nominalizations that plague most legal writing.
✕ OUR STALE VERSION This case is related to an arbitration of an employment dispute. Petitioner Denise Badgerow was employed as a financial advisor for REJ Properties, a firm that is operated by respondents Greg Walters, Thomas Meyer, and Ray Trosclair. (For ease of reference, we refer from now on only to Walters.) Badgerow's contract included a requirement for claims arising out of her employment to be brought in arbitration, rather than to court. So when she was (in her view, improperly) terminated, a claim was filed in an arbitration action against Walters, including allegations of unlawful termination under both federal and state law. The arbitrators made a determination in favor of Walters, entering a dismissal of Badgerow's claims. | ✓ JUSTICE KAGAN WROTE This case grows out of the arbitration of an employment dispute. Petitioner Denise Badgerow worked as a financial advisor for REJ Properties, a firm run by respondents Greg Walters, Thomas Meyer, and Ray Trosclair. (For ease of reference, we refer from now on only to Walters.) Badgerow's contract required her to bring claims arising out of her employment to arbitration, rather than to court. So when she was (in her view, improperly) fired, she initiated an arbitration action against Walters, alleging unlawful termination under both federal and state law. The arbitrators sided with Walters, dismissing Badgerow's claims. |
Notice what you won't find in her version: empty state-of-being verbs and nominalizations. You get active, concrete verbs you can picture.
Here are a few more of her sentences, again with bland verbs swapped in.
✕ OUR STALE VERSION They do not include an instruction for a court to enter into conjecture a world without an arbitration agreement, and to consider whether it would then have jurisdiction over the parties' dispute. Those bedrock principles will not allow us to create look-through jurisdiction out of thin air—from somehow finding, without textual support, this method may be used to enter a resolution to various state-law-based, non-diverse Section 9 and 10 applications. The look-through rule is a highly unusual one: It results in jurisdiction not in the action actually before the court, but in another controversy neither there nor ever meant to be. | ✓ JUSTICE KAGAN WROTE They do not instruct a court to imagine a world without an arbitration agreement, and to ask whether it would then have jurisdiction over the parties' dispute. Those bedrock principles prevent us from pulling look-through jurisdiction out of thin air—from somehow finding, without textual support, that federal courts may use the method to resolve various state-law-based, non-diverse Section 9 and 10 applications. The look-through rule is a highly unusual one: It locates jurisdiction not in the action actually before the court, but in another controversy neither there nor ever meant to be. |
A couple of those verbs are targeted. Justice Kagan wanted you to feel the absurdity of the rule she was rejecting, so she talks about "pulling" it out of thin air.
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| YOUR TURN We've taken a set of verbs out of another opinion by Justice Kagan. Pick the set you think she actually used. Which of these were the verbs Justice Kagan used? Tap an answer to see how you did, and why. |
| IN AN AI WORLD AI drafts fall into the same habits we just fixed. They lean on "is" and "was," and they love nouns like "determination" where a verb should be. Ask a tool for "stronger verbs" and you usually get showier verbs, which isn't the same thing.
A better move: have the AI find the weak spots, and keep the choosing for yourself.
| TRY THIS PROMPT List every state-of-being verb (is, are, was, were, be, been, being) and every nominalization (a verb turned into a noun, like "made a determination") in the passage below. For each one, suggest two concrete verbs that could replace it. Don't rewrite anything else. [Paste your paragraph here] |
Then pick the verbs yourself. The right verb depends on the picture you want your reader to see, and that's a judgment call.
One rule before you paste anything into an AI tool: use one your organization has approved for client work, or take the confidential details out first.
PUT IT TO WORK Paste a prompt like this one into Prompt Pilot first and it rewrites it so the AI asks you questions and shows its reasoning before it answers. It's free and runs in your browser. |
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| NEXT WEEK Episode 2: Great Advocates Teach Us to DistillMost of a lawyer's job is turning dense material into something a reader can hold onto. Next week: how the best advocates distill at every level of a document. YOUR JOURNEY 1 | Verbs · this week
Supreme Court Justices Teach Us Verbs | 2 | Distilling
Great Advocates Teach Us to Distill | 3 | Introductions
Justice Kagan Teaches Us Introductions | 4 | Transitions
Great Legal Writers Teach Us Transitions | 5 | Storytelling
Great Writers Teach Us Storytelling | 6 | Details
Great Judges Teach Us Details | 7 | Headings
Great Lawyers Teach Us Headings | 8 | Style
Great Writers Teach Us Style |
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| Joe
Joe Regalia, Co-founder, Write.law. Reply any time: a real person reads every reply. |
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