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Audio
Telling Your Story: Effective Advocacy in Legal Writing
Produced on February 27, 2016
Course Information
Course Description
What makes legal writing good legal writing? Mr. Alimonti, a published author of children’s books and a twenty-five year litigator, would posit that the best legal writing has a decidedly “non-legal” tone. This lecture explores essentials of legal writing in various contexts, with an emphasis on how telling a good story is imperative to constructing compelling arguments. Blue booking will most emphatically not be addressed.
Learning Objectives:
I. Understand what is expected in legal analysis to client, partner, and court
II. Grasp a holistic approach to brief writing – keeping your theme and story in the forefront
III. Use old tools like “logos” and “ethos” to make and oppose arguments
This course originally appeared as a part of our February 2016 Bridge the Gap Event.
Credit Information
Faculty
Frederick Alimonti
Alimonti Law Offices, P.C.
Founder and Senior Partner Rick Alimonti brings over twenty years of aviation and insurance litigation experience to the firm. His experience includes product liability, airline law, general aviation, and aviation insurance coverage. Martindale-Hubble lists Mr. Alimonti as an “AV” peer-reviewed lawyer, the highest rating awarded by the organization.
Mr. Alimonti is a member of the Southern District of New York’s mediation panel and has been appointed to the SDNY Mediator Advisory Committee. He is a member of the Alternative Dispute Resolution section of the American Bar Association and of the Dispute Resolution Section of the New York State Bar Association. He founded Alimonti Mediation Services in 2012 to mediate disputes involving product liability, premises liability, aviation law and commercial disputes. Rick recently became affiliated with “Mediators Plus More,” a New York-based panel of private mediators that matches mediator expertise and experience to the dispute at issue. http://mediatorsplusmore.com/.
Alimonti Law Offices is a frequent provider of CLE-accredited programs in the United States and abroad. In June 2014, Mr. Alimonti was a panelist at the ABA National Institute on Aviation Litigation and presented “Trying not to Stress the Small Stuff, Tips on the Effective Handling of Non-Catastrophic Aviation Cases” and was also a panelist at the 48th Annual SMU Airlaw Symposium in Dallas, Texas, where he presented “Ethics in Negotiation and Mediation.” In June 2013, Mr. Alimonti was a panelist on ethical issues at the ABA Aviation Litigation Seminar in NYC. In June 2012, Mr. Alimonti presented “Defending and Managing Claims involving Unruly Passengers” at the ACI Conference in Boston, MA. In 2011, he presented a paper at the ABA Section of Litigation, Joint Committee Meeting in Snowmass, Colorado, and he presented “Ethics in Aviation Litigation” at the 2011 SMU Air Law Symposium and at the 2011 Aviation Litigation CLE Seminar at the NYC Bar Association.
Mr. Alimonti’s academic contributions to the field of aviation law include the formation and launch of the American Bar Association’s highly successful first Annual Seminar on Aviation Litigation in 1995. This program continues as an annual institution in New York to this day. Mr. Alimonti has twice served as chair of the ABA’s Aviation Litigation Committee. His positions include:
- Co-chair of the ABA Litigation Section’s Standing Committee on Aviation Litigation for three-year term (1995 -1998; August 2007 - 2009)
- Meeting Chair, ABA CLE on Aviation Litigation, New York (2006, 2007, 2010)
- Member, Task Force on the Public Perception of the Legal Profession (2004-2007)
- Co-chair of the ABA, Litigation Section’s Standing Committee on Solo and Small Firms (2001-2004)
- Division Co-Director for the ABA Litigation Section (2001)
- Litigation Section’s Co-Chair for the ABA Annual Meeting in New York (2000)
Mr. Alimonti is a regular speaker on aviation law, mediation and ethics. He has presented and published numerous articles including the following:
- “Trying not to Stress the Small Stuff, Tips on the Effective Handling of Non-Catastrophic Aviation Cases”, delivered at ABA National Institute on Aviation Litigation, New York, NY (2014)
- “Ethics in Negotiation and Mediation” delivered at 48th Annual SMU Airlaw Symposium in Dallas, Texas, (2014)
- “Defending and Managing Claims Involving Unruly Passengers”, delivered at ACI Conference on Defending and Managing Aviation Litigation, Boston MA (June 2012)
- “Fighting Fire with Water, Dealing with Difficult Adversaries” (Litigation, Fall 2008)
- “Ethical Hurdles Along the Way: Ethical Issues when Representing an Insured in an Aviation Case” (ABA 2007)
- Columnist: Young Lawyer’s Corner. Aviation Litigation Quarterly (ABA 2006-2008)
- “Who’s in Charge Here Anyway? Ethical Issues When Representing an Insured,” THE BRIEF, VOL 36, NO. 2 (WINTER 2007)
Mr. Alimonti received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Fordham University and his Juris Doctor from St. John’s University Law School. He is admitted to practice in the State of New York, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern, and Northern Districts of New York, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, and Eleventh Circuits. He serves as the President of the Board of Trustees for the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum at Teterboro, New Jersey and is a private pilot.
Reviews
Excellent.
Excellent course!
EXCELLENT!
In 22+ hours of courses, this was the best for straightforward expression of useful tips.
Really loved this course Loved this course
This guy is a brief writing guru.
Excellent presentation. Points illustrated very well. Good course for all levels of experience.
Wow! Most engaging and interesting course on legal writing I have ever taken!
Great CLE. Lots of good pointers on legal writing.
Good information in organizing thermal brief.
Excellent speaker.
Very well presented and helpful
Engaging style
Informative and entertaining.
Interesting
Excellent. Lively and well presented
He had a fun talking style and sounds like he has great knowledge and experience.
Extremely helpful.
Enjoyable, fascinating and enormously helpful.
Best one yet. His voice and presentation one an concentrate on!! There are other speakers where it is impossible to focus on what they are saying. Should include more of this teachers lectures!!
Excellent presentation. Fantastic speaker. Best Lawline class I have taken. This guy is great.
Excellent presentation.
This was useful
Great presentation. Thank you
Wonderful and engaging speaker. Learned a lot. I write judicially but I think I can apply some of this.
Outstanding
Excellent presentation. Learned a lot.
This lecturer was great - very informative but entertaining at the same time. I bought the book he mentioned about persuasive writing!
Superb!!!
This was one of the most useful courses I have taken. The speaker is articulate, well understood, and uses excellent examples.
Excellent presentation.
Great program.
Really good!
Most Excellent Speaker with a tremendous amount of real information giving you an effective blueprint on how to effectively write to win. Great Job! And Thank You.
This was an energetic and persuasive course. I highly recommend this course.
excellent advice
Outstanding perspective and presentation!
Very inspiring.
Excellent presentation. He kept the viewer's attention and offered useful tips.
great class; will look for more from this presenter
Most excellent!
Made it interesting
Very interesting and insightful. Some pointers I plan to use consistently in the future.
Quite outstanding. Thamk you
Speaker is articulate and entertaining. Great information.
Excellent presentation - held my interest.
wow Excellent
Outstanding.
The lecture was informative
Excellent-- one of the best on Lawline. Presenter knowledgeable, well-prepared, and a good communicator.
Most material directly applied to litigation, but I feel I learned several excellent techniques for use in my transactional practice.
GREAT.
One of the best I have participated in!
very engaging speaker; kept my attention and was informative
Excellent speaker, engaging style, very good points.
This was a superb block of instruction. Thank you.
Excellent.
Mr. Alimonti's love for writing is clear in this excellent presentation. I highly recommend this lecture to litigators and transactional attorneys.
Useful presentation.
The speaker was wonderful! Great tips for my legal writing.
Phenomenal Class. The presenter was incredibly passionate (pathos). It makes you excited to write your next legal brief or memo and argue it in front of the court. Thank you for such a though provoking course and making learning about legal writing exciting. This is the way it should be taught in law school.
Excellent presentation!
Really enjoyed this presenter
great
excellent
This was an excellent seminar.
Great lecture.
Excellent!
Spot on helpful.
great presentation
Another excellent course on legal writing. Speaker is entertaining and passionate about the subject.
Awesome! 100%+
VERY VERY GOOD!! Awesome
great job, helpful to me. i learned some things and i spend all my day writing legal documents.
Excellent program. Mr. Alimonti is informative and engaging.
Best audio program I've heard
Great presentation. Helpful tips.
Fantastic course - an excellent instructor - great refresher no matter how long you have been legal writing
well done, not just for writing but for argument. excellent
This was a great course, and I wish it would have been longer.
Excellent presentation in every respect.
excellent course
Very informative and presented well.
The presenter had lots of practical advice for all practitioners of any experience level.
Excellent!
incredibly practical and useful thank you
This course was wonderful and spot on helpful
Speaker was very personable and kept things entertaining
Good points and engaging presenter.
Very good and going along was noting some changed I wanted to make to the brief I am writing.
Excellent legal writing course. I would take more courses from this instructor.
Excellent, engrossing, entertaining, and informative.
A good summary of legal writing that focused on some general principles for an effective strategy.
Very good program.
Should be a required course in law school
excellent tips and practical advice.
Great insight.
Good presentation.
Very practical and can apply to many different practice areas of law.
excellent!
Good examples. I learned useful techniques for editing as well as writing.
Very good speaker.
Good speaker & good substance.
Excellent!
Great presentation.
excellent program
Very helpful
Excellent course.
outstanding points for powerful legal writing.
Great speaker who knows how to use story to teach in a way that is easy to learn and understand. Every level of attorney can benefit from listening to his CLE.
Important information very well presented
The best lecture I've seen on legal writing. Makes all of the proper points, addresses all of the most common pitfalls and errors and masterfully weaves in references to Abraham Lincoln and pop culture. Superb. Thank you.
I thought this one might be boring. But it was most enjoyable. Even an experienced lawyer can learn from this program. And for the most part he spoke extemporaneously.
Excellent
Wonderful course
This guy is really great.
well presented and the program touched on concepts that are discussed daily in or office.
Brilliant lawyer.
Excellent, informative lecture.
Excellent.
One of the best programs so far
Good Class!
Nicely presented
So far, one of the best of the Lawline courses I've taken.
excellent speaker and presentation.
Good presentation
excellent presentation!
Outstanding presentation
Wonderful speaker. I was quite surprised at how much useful information I picked up in such a limited time.
very thought provoking
This program is fantastic for anyone preparing a brief or a memo!!! Mr. Alimonti is truly exceptional with his ideas and in his presentation!!!
Excellent speaker, very good advice.
Really enjoyed listening to Mr. Alimonti. Very engaging and skilled attorney. Would seek out some of his other courses. Thanks!
Highly knowledgeable speaker.
Excellent Course !
A great seminar.
Very good
Very well-presented. Very informative. Excellent.
Fantastic!
Helpfull tips on writing a brief
great writing seminar
Outstanding.
Great overview and insight.
Superb presentation. Highly recommended - not just for the the younger attorney - but to more seasoned practitioners as well. (In my 35 + years of practicing law I've had to read some rather poor examples of legal writing.) Hats off to Mr. Alimont
One o the best presentations I have seen yet on Lawline! Excellent!!!!!
Excellent presentation delivered with passionate command of the subject matter.
This course was phenomenal! It should be mandatory viewing in every litigation firm. I am going to recommend that it be viewed by all associates in my firm.
Interesting, helpful presentation