Ross Guberman, '98: Winner of the Legal Writing Institute's 2016 Golden Pen Award

The Board of Directors of the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) is pleased to announce that Ross Guberman is the recipient of the 2016 Golden Pen Award. The author of three books, Point Made, Deal Struck, and Point Taken, Guberman is known around the world as an expert and advocate for better legal writing. The award will be presented during the 2016 Biennial Conference of the Legal Writing Institute, July 10-13, 2016, in Portland, Oregon. `

The LWI Awards Committee recommended Guberman, '98, for the 2016 Golden Pen to recognize his significant contribution to advancing the cause of better legal writing. In addition to his books, he gives legal writing seminars around the world. Guberman’s nominator noted that his “work is . . . targeted at improving the writing of everyday lawyers. Ross’s techniques aren’t esoteric; they’re easy to understand, they can be implemented quickly and easily, and they greatly improve the quality of writing.” The members of the LWI Awards Committee have used his books in their teaching, and know many other legal writing teachers who have done the same. The LWI Board unanimously approved this recommendation.

In the ABA’s Appellate Issues on-line magazine, Wendy McGuire Coats wrote that in Point Made, “Guberman has assembled example after example of creative, clever, clear, common-sense legal writing. He’s compiled in one book the great writing that will cause a legal writer to sigh, ‘I wish I'd written that.’ But he did not stop there. Guberman has written a useable handbook that will aid the writer in crafting similar envy worthy moments of argument . . . Guberman’s techniques provide immediate ways to improve, tighten, and enliven the language and persuasive force of your prose.”

For more than a decade, Guberman was a Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University Law School, where he taught a seminar on drafting and writing strategy. He also provides seminars throughout the United States and internationally (see http://legalwritingpro.com).