My first-year law students are beginning to learn about legal citation.  Today we discussed a question that sometimes causes confusion:  whether to abbreviate the first word of a case name.  The answer requires a student to synthesize a few rules from the Bluebook.

Bluebook Rule 10.2.2 states that all words listed in Table 6 (the table of abbreviations) must be abbreviated, even the first word in a party name.  Table 6 notes that a word of eight letters (or more) may be abbreviated at the author’s discretion if substantial space is saved.  Abbreviated words are punctuated by a period, unless the abbreviation is formed with an apostrophe (Corp., but Ass’n).

As I finalize preparing for my fall Appellate Writing and Advocacy course, and I think about our new moot court teams this year, I have been considering what makes for a top-notch oral argument.

One basic, and sometimes overlooked, concept is how to breathe when presenting an argument. This is something I think about, because I have spent a lot of time over the years singing in choirs. Anyone who has sung in a choir or done any voice training has heard about “diaphragmatic breathing.” This type of breathing supports the vocal cords fully. It’s also pretty close to the type of breathing taught in yoga classes.