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ca The lawyers weekly May 6, 2011  |  21

BUSINESS CAREERS

Conforming to type
W ords matter. Lawyers
know that clear or
clumsy wording can
By the book
make all the difference in the
world. But do fonts and layout Michael
matter too? Typography for Law-
yers by Matthew Butterick argues
Rappaport
that good typography is part of
good lawyering.
“Typography won’t make the
difference between winning and
losing a case,” Butterick says in an
interview. But just as lawyers take
care with their dress in court and
office décor, Butterick says they
should also take care with the
look and layout of their pleadings,
submissions, correspondences and
other legal documents.
Based in Los Angeles, Butter-
ick, is both a graphic designer and
a practising attorney. He earned a
BA in visual and environmental
studies from Harvard University
and worked at a studio designing
fonts for Apple Inc. and Microsoft
Corp., before attending the Uni-
versity of California, Los Angeles’
(UCLA) law school and becom-
ing a member of the California Title:
Bar in 2007. If you’ve ever used Typography for
Herald Gothic, Wessex or Her- Lawyers
mes Sans Serif, you’ve used But- Essential tools
terick’s handiwork. for polished
Lawyers are often reluctant to & persuasive
fiddle with the layout of legal documents
documents, since the vast major-
ity lack professional graphic AUTHOR:
design experience. But Butterick Matthew Butterick
says that making documents look
Chezlov / Dreamstime.com

polished and persuasive isn’t that Publisher:


difficult. “Lawyers got through law Jones McClure
school, passed Bar exams and deal Publishing
with complicated subjects every
day. They should be able to handle Price:
basic typography.” US$25

See Typography Page 22

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22  |  May 6, 2011 The lawyers weekly www.lawyersweekly.ca

business careers

All caps ‘horrible plague’ in legal world


Typography typewriter era. Take underlining for 145 per cent of the point size.
Continued From Page 21 instance. “Typewriters didn’t have Butterick calls Times New Roman,
bold or italic fonts. So underlining which dates back to 1932, “the official Formatting rules
Many lawyers also operate under became the norm for highlighting font of lawyer land.” While he says it’s
the misconception that every detail important text. a fine font, Baskerville, Cambria and
concerning fonts and layout is pre- Garamond are all perfectly good Matthew Butterick, author
scribed by the Rules of Civil Proced- alternatives. Avoid goofy fonts, of Typography for Lawyers,
ure. In actuality, the rules provide though. “Microsoft Word has 200 says that the most
considerable leeway and only apply to “Double spacing, fonts and half of them like Giddyup important lessons from his
court documents, which constitute a are too goofy to ever use.” book, other than to pay
small fraction of all the documents one inch margins, As for the age old debate between attention to body text, are
produced by lawyers. fonts with serifs such as Times New to learn how to use page
“Most lawyers don’t look at the 12 point font are Roman and fonts sans serifs like Arial, breaks and tables to
rules. They just look at what the last Butterick is a traditionalist and recom- maintain professional
lawyer did and assume that it’s cor- all derived from mends using fonts sans serifs for head- looking formatting. He lists
rect,” Butterick says. He adds, “Fol- lines and fonts with serifs for body text. nine maxims for page
low the rules. Don’t be different for standard type Typography for Lawyers provides layout in his book:
the sake of being different. Court easy to follow guidelines for type com-
rules, though, aren’t designed for writing practices.” position, text formatting, page layout
good typography, they just set out and copy style. It showcases samples
basic parameters.”

By far the biggest blunder law-


of good layout for everything from
research memos, to letterhead, to
business cards. It even has tips on
1 Decide first how the
body text will look.

yers commit when laying out docu- printing, paper and PDF files.
ments is capitalizing whole sentences Does typography matter? No one
and paragraphs. “The use of ALL knows which snowflake will trigger an

2
CAPS is a horrible plague on the legal avalanche — just as lawyers do not Divide the page into
profession,” Butterick bemoans. know for certain which line of argu- foreground and
“CAPITALIZED TEXT is harder to ment, piece of evidence or part of testi- background.
read than lower case text. Lawyers Indeed, almost all layout defaults mony will swing a judge or jury their
capitalize entire paragraphs to owe a debt to the now discarded type- way. Good typography might not tip
emphasize to readers the importance writer. “Double spacing, one inch mar- the scales of justice in your favour, but
of the text, but it is self-defeating, gins, 12 point font are all derived from it can’t hurt to have pleadings which

3
since many readers skip over it standard type writing practices,” But- look polished and professional.n Make adjustments with
because it is hard to read.” terick says. He recommends wider the smallest visible
Most other major typographical margins, smaller type — 10 or 11 We want to hear from you! increments.
mistakes are holdovers from the point — and line spacing between 120-  Email us at: tlw@lexisnexis.ca

fonts by Butterick
Samples of fonts designed by Matthew Butterick:
4 When in doubt, try it
both ways.

Alix
Canada’s legal champion for a healthy environment.

5
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uOttawa-Ecojustice Environmental Law Clinic. Applicants must Be consistent.

Herald Gothic
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Hermes
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legal responsibilities will be supplemented by communications,
fundraising and pedagogical roles. Bilingualism is an asset. 6 Relate each new element
to existing elements.

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Canada’s environment. Since its inception in 1990, Ecojustice
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Wessex
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7 Keep it simple.

Alberta.
Font for thought
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Matthew Butterick says Times New Roman is a

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fine font, below are some good alternatives: Imitate what you like.

Baskerville
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Now accepting ad bookings 9 Don’t fear white space.

Call for details 905-415-5805 or 1-800-668-6481 Ext. 805 Garamond


Illustration courtesy of Jones McClure Publishing

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