1.28.25 - Typography for Lawyers
https://www.amazon.com/Typography-Lawyers-2nd-Matthew-Butterick/dp/159839262X
If you're in law school and are like me and you like making things pretty, buy this book.
if your legal writing class is like mine, it was really bad when it came to teaching you about the logic of formatting a brief, gave you the illusion that there are really hard and fast rules, and made the whole process feel painful (the whole ordering of heading formatting in my class was stupid as hell). The truth is when you read briefs in practice they vary quite a bit, different courts have different rules, and different firms have different internal templates, etc. I'm a big fan of having your own sense of style (e.g. I prefer shorter headings, umbrella paragraphs before jumping to subheadings, not using romanettes, etc.).
This book is good because it has some very good non-stuffy advice on how to do legal writing with style. Good advice on font and the technicalities of word processing software (like not using tab to indent, that was a revelation to me). And some good guidance on hierarchy, margins, etc.
It's pretty short, not very in depth. But its a good reference to have hanging around your desk. It's probably not super useful in law school, where you'll often have strict style guides from legal writing profs or from your jobs, but in the off instance where you have some discretion, this could be nice. I know that if I ever pursue my dream of doing my own practice, I'll reference this when building my own internal templates for briefs, motions, etc.
Also, if you just like reading bullshit on typography this is a fun book to peruse.
knxnts