____________________ Beth McCormack, Esq., is an Assistant
Professor of Law at Vermont Law School, where she teaches Legal Writing, Appel- late Advocacy, and Arbitration. Prior to joining the faculty at VLS, she practiced in the litigation department of the Boston law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
____________________ 1
1993). 2
3
In re Hawkins, 502 N.W.2d 770, 771 (Minn. Id.
Laurie M. Wasserman, Too Many Wrong Mis- takes: What Lawyers Can Learn from the “Dodg-
er’s Divorce,” THE BARRISTER (May 2012). 4
Id. 5
Bill Shaikin, Frank McCourt to Ask Boston Judge to Keep Malpractice Claim on Track, L.A. TIMES, Aug. 2, 2011, at
http://articles.latimes. com/2011/aug/02/sports/la-sp-dodgers-mal-
practice-20110803. 6
MARY BETH BEAZLEY, A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO APPEL-
LATE ADVOCACY 246 (3d ed. 2010). 7
If using a Mac, hit the “Command” key and then the “F” key, and then put the word or punc- tuation in the “search” oval on the top right of
the screen. 8
9 See BEAZLEY, supra note 6, at 248.
fessional Writers, 2 V.B.J. 16 (Summer 2013). 10
OF STYLE 18 (3d ed. 1979). 11
Brian Porto, Reluctant Literati: Lawyers as Pro- WILLIAM STRUNK, JR. & E.B. WHITE, THE ELEMENTS
There are many irregular past participles. Usu- ally you can spot the irregular forms if you just look for a past tense word after a form of the verb “to be.” For a complete list of irregular past participles, look here, http://www.englishpage.
BEAZLEY, supra note 6, at 246 citing, All Things Considered, “Magistrate Judge Jacob P. Hart Discusses His Fight to Get Lawyers to Clean Up Their Written Work” (NPR Mar. 4, 2004) (radio broadcast) (referring to an attorney sanctioned for, among other typos, spelling Magistrate Ja-
com/irregularverbs/
irregularverbs.html. 12
cob P. Hart’s name as Magistrate Jacon P. Hart). 13
on the top menu to run your writing sample). 14
15 16
Id. Id.
Ross Guberman, Five Ways to Write Like John Roberts,
at
www.legalwritingpro.com/articles/
john-roberts.pdf. 17
National Fed’s of Indep. Bus. v. Sebelius, 132
S.Ct. 2566, 2577 (2012). 18
To enable the text-to-speech function on a Mac, open “System Preferences” under the Ap- ple Menu and select “Dictation and Speech.” Check “speak selected text when the key is pressed,” then select the text in your document and hit “Option + Escape” to hear your text read back. On a PC, look for the “Narrator” ap- plication, which is located under the “Accessibil- ity” or “Ease of Access” control panel, depend-
ing on which version of Windows you have. 19
See BEAZLEY, supra note 6, at 250. 20 Id. at 245, citing Patricia M. Wald, 19 Tips
from 19 Years on the Appellate Bench, 1 J. APP. PRAC. & PROCESS 7, 22 (1999).
Dr. Helen Sword, The Writer’s Diet™ http://
www.writersdiet.com (click “WritersDiet Test”
What’s in Casemaker?
Did you know that you have access to all 50 states and the District of Co- lumbia as well as a very robust Federal Library? Casemaker is divided into federal and state libraries. Your Vermont Library contains Advisory Eth- ics Opinions, Case Law, Constitution, Environmental Court Decisions, Fed- eral Rules, General Statutes, Green Mountain Care Board Decisions, Hu- man Services Board Decisions, Labor Relations Board Decisions, Medicaid Rules, Professional Responsibility Board Decisions, Public Service Board Or- ders, Session Laws, State Court Rules, Superior Court Opinions, Title Stan- dards, Vermont Bar Journal, Vermont Digest, and Workers Compensation Decisions. The Federal Library contains items such as the United States Supreme, Circuit, District and Bankruptcy Court Opinions; Federal Court Rules; United States Code; Code of Federal Regulations; Federal Rules De- cisions, and Constitution as well as much more. Every State Library at a minimum contains Case law, Statutes, Court Rules and State Constitution. Sign up for an online webinar today to learn more of the Casemaker fea-
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32 THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • WINTER 2014
www.vtbar.org
IN MEMORIAM Sally Gail Fox
Born January 30, 1951, in Omaha, Ne- braska, Sally Gail Fox, 62, of South Burling- ton died January 10, 2014. After graduat- ing from the University of Wisconsin, Madi- son, she earned at J.D. from the State Uni- versity of New York, Buffalo. She worked as an attorney and director of the Vermont Disabilities Law Project of Vermont Legal Aid before being selected in 1986 to the Vermont House of Representatives from the town of Essex. She was re-elected six times before retiring from office in 2000. During that period, she was the chair of the Judiciary Committee, the House Majority Assistant Leader, and was the second wom- an ever to chair the House Appropriations Committee. After leaving the House, she was director of family courts for the Ver- mont Judiciary, the policy director for Ver- mont Businesses for Social Responsibility, coordinator for the City of Burlington Of- fender Re-Entry Program, and governmen- tal affairs director for Vermont State Col- leges. In 2010, she was elected to the Ver- mont Senate from Chittenden County and was re-elected in 2012. She is survived by her husband, Michael Sirotkin, two sons, a sister and two brothers and their spouses, her mother-in-law and other in-laws, and numerous nieces and nephews.
J. William O’Brien
Born eighty-seven years ago, J. William O’Brien, a lifelong resident of Winooski, died November 26, 2013. After serving in World War II and graduating from St. Mi- chael’s College in 1949, he was charter member of the Vermont State Police Acad- emy, graduating in 1949. He served in the Vermont State Police until 1951, at which point he opted to attend Boston University School of Law, from which he graduated in 1954. He served as a law clerk to U.S. Dis- trict Court Judge Ernest Gibson in 1955. In 1956, he entered private practice and was appointed Winooski City Attorney. He served in the Vermont House of Represen- tatives from Winooski from 1956 to 1960. In 1958, he was elected Chittenden Coun- ty State’s Attorney and two years later was elected Chittenden County Probate Judge, a position to which he was re-elected five times. He returned to the private practice of law in 1972, until his retirement in 2006. He was a charter member of the Nation- al Diocesan Attorneys Association in 1963 and served the legal needs of the Diocese of Burlington for many years. He was a past chairman of the Uniform Probate Commis- sion and the Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Commission. He is survived by six children, nineteen grandchildren, twen- ty-two great grandchildren, one great- great grandchild, and two sisters-in-law.
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