Effective Written Advocacy

The first part of this presentation will explore the various goals of a piece of legal writing and how best to accomplish those goals. The topics will include things like using a Table of Contents for advocacy, effective Introductions that grab the reader’s attention, framing issues in a way that favors your position, effective storytelling in a Statement of Facts, and how best to concede a point that helps the other side. The presenters will weigh in on some debates like these: Do fonts matter? Are contractions OK in legal writing? Must a paragraph contain more than one sentence? Should citations be relegated to footnotes? Can a sentence begin with a conjunction? They will also discuss attorney Jack Metzler’s relatively new parenthetical “(cleaned up),” which has found its way into numerous judicial opinions.

The second part of the presentation will focus on common errors in legal writing and how to avoid them. Topics will include parallel structure when presenting items in a series, when to use a conjunctive adverb instead of a conjunction, and how to form plurals and possessives of names. The presenters will discuss whether “GPS”—grammar, punctuation, and style—really matters in a piece of legal writing and how grammatical errors can influence your reader.

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Learning Objectives

• Maximize the impact and effectiveness of your legal writing.
• Learn new techniques for persuading judges and other readers.
• Improve the quality of your writing by avoiding common grammatical errors and making optimal stylistic choices.

PETE NEMEROVSKI

Pete Nemerovski serves as Associate Professor of Law and High Point Law’s Director of Advocacy. In this role, he oversees the Legal Research and Writing curriculum for first-year students.

Professor Nemerovski began his law school teaching career in 2010 at the University of Miami School of Law and then transitioned in 2017 to teach at the University of North Carolina School of Law. Through his various roles at both institutions, he developed an expertise in innovative approaches to teaching legal writing. For instance, he is a leading thinker on the impact of generative AI on legal education and on teaching legal writing in particular.

Professor Nemerovski has also developed national connections through his involvement in two prominent legal writing organizations: the Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute.

Prior to joining the academy, Professor Nemerovski clerked for Judge Damon J. Keith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and then practiced civil litigation at two large law firms. He received his A.B. in politics, magna cum laude, from Princeton University and his J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan.

KIP NELSON

Kip Nelson is an Associate Professor of Law and the Assistant Director of Advocacy at HPU Law. Prior to his role at HPU Law, Professor Nelson had an active appellate practice for thirteen years at Fox Rothschild LLP, where he represented clients in state and federal appellate courts across the country on a broad array of matters, ranging from the unconstitutional conditions doctrine to land-use permits to waiver of child support. He also developed and taught a law school seminar course titled Children in the Law, which addressed the allocation of rights among children, parents, and the government.

Professor Nelson is certified by the North Carolina State Bar as an Appellate Practice Specialist.  He is active in the American Bar Association and North Carolina Bar Association. He currently serves on the NCBA’s Appellate Rules Committee and is a member of the Appellate Practice Section Council. Professor Nelson is also the Rules Committee Chair for the ABA’s Council of Appellate Lawyers.

Professor Nelson was selected to the Triad Business Journal’s 2022 list of 40 under 40 and was a member of the Leadership Greensboro Class of 2018. He is also an active contributor to the North Carolina Appellate Practice Blog. In his pro bono work, Professor Nelson takes part in the state’s appellate guardian ad litem program—serving as appellate counsel on behalf of abused and neglected children.

Professor Nelson has published on several different topics, including the admissibility of battered child syndrome evidence, the scope of North Carolina’s unfair and deceptive practices statute, bifurcation of liability and damages, the role of the United States Sentencing Commission, the federal removal statutes, and the history of amicus briefs.

Professor Nelson graduated summa cum laude and first in his class from Duke University School of Law, where he served on the Moot Court Board and was an Articles Editor for the journal Law and Contemporary Problems. He then joined the inaugural class of Duke Law’s LL.M. program in Law and Entrepreneurship. Prior to obtaining his legal degrees, he received his B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Music, magna cum laude, from Brigham Young University.