Typography for Lawyers - Softcover

Matthew Butterick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1598390775 ISBN 13: 9781598390773

Publisher: Jones McClure Publishing, 2010

Synopsis

"If Matthew Butterick didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him." From the Foreword by Bryan A. Garner

Based on the popular website, Typography for Lawyers is the first guide to the essentials of typography aimed specifically at lawyers. Author Matthew Butterick, an attorney and Harvard-trained typographer, dispels the myth that legal documents are incompatible with excellent typography. Butterick explains how to get professional results with the tools you already have quickly and easily. Topics include special keyboard characters, line length, point size, font choice, headings, and hyphenation. The book also includes tutorials on specific types of documents like résumés, research memos, and motions.

About this title

About the Author:

Matthew Butterick got his B.A. degree magna cum laude from Harvard University in visual & environmental studies. Butterick's work is in the permanent collection of the Houghton Library at Harvard. Butterick started his career as a font designer and engineer, working for David Berlow and Matthew Carter on projects for Apple Computer, Microsoft, Ziff-Davis, and others. Neville Brody featured his work in FUSE, Brody's journal of experimental typography. Butterick designed Herald Gothic, Wessex, and the popular sans serif family Hermes.
At the beginning of the Internet era, Butterick moved to San Francisco and founded Atomic Vision, a website design and engineering company. Butterick and his staff created award-winning websites for Internet pioneers like CNET, Netscape, Verisign, and Wired magazine. Butterick lectured in the United States and Europe on website development and user-interface design.
Atomic Vision was acquired by open-source software developer Red Hat. Butterick was part of the management team behind Red Hat's successful IPO and its transition to Internet-based distribution.
Butterick attended UCLA law school and became a member of the California bar in 2007. He practices civil and criminal law.
Butterick newest font is Equity, a text face inspired by legal typog­ra­phy and the needs of legal writ­ers (available at equityfont.com)
Butterick lives in the Hollywood Hills with his wife Jessica and Roxy the boxer.

Review:

Butterick's book is for far more than litigators. A quick, thorough guide, this text offers much to typographic novices and experts alike. The book begins with a litany of sound arguments about why typography matters, and why it should be looked at as crucial to the law profession. But needless to say, nearly all the advice presented herein is equally applicable to writers or any professional services-based small business, not to mention graphic designers, students, and type mavens. --Nick Cox, Book Review: Typography for Lawyers

Butterick's premise is that typography in legal documents should be held to the same standards as any professionally published material, because legal documents are professionally published material. There's a wealth of information that I wish I had had access to long before now. ... That's why Typography for Lawyers is such a godsend. --Ernie Svenson, Typography matters, especially for lawyers

Typography for Lawyers is filled with nuggets, rationales and mechanics to make our papers look better. No, they won't make a loser appeal into a winner, but like wearing a decent suit to court, or polishing your shoes, it's one less detriment and one more benefit. Butterick's point, and mine, is that there's no good reason not to do it as well as it can be done. The book is a quick read, and one to keep on hand for reference, kinda like the Blue Book, the Essential Chester Barnard and Strunk & White. --Scott Grennfield, Book Review: Typography for Lawyers

About this edition

• Publisher: Jones McClure Publishing
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1598390775
• ISBN 13: 9781598390773
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 220