More than just words: Plain Language column turns 40
Joe Kimble was working as a staff analyst for the Michigan Supreme Court in the mid-1970s when he was faced with an assignment that he wasn’t quite sure how to tackle: revising Michigan court rules. He had majored in literature at Amherst College before going to law school at the University of Michigan and even earned a few student writing awards along the way, but legal writing was something he’d yet to master. So before putting pen to paper, he decided to educate himself. He went to the law library and checked out The Fundamentals of Legal Drafting by Reed Dickerson, which at the time appeared to be the one and only book on the subject. “It never quite hit me in law school, even with that kind of background, that there’s something wrong with the way lawyers write,” he said. “As many law students do, I just took it as a given that this is the way it is, and this is the way it has to be.” Dickerson showed Kimble the light. He still remembers a particularly eye-opening part of the book, laid out in two easy-to-read columns. One listed common legal and formal terms, and the other listed simpler equivalents, sometimes even just a single word. Instead of prior to, one could simply write before. Pursuant to could become under. In the event that could be shortened all the way to if. It just made sense. Why would anyone want to write in a way that wasn’t the clearest, most straightforward way possible? “It was a revelation,” Kimble said. After all that time in law school and as a lawyer becoming well-versed in the confusing and clunky world of legalese, he found it to be like discovering a secret lying in plain sight. Everyone, and particularly lawyers, should be writing in a plain — or much plainer — way. And yet, they weren’t — at least not yet. Kimble has committed his legal career to improving the clarity of legal documents. He has served on state and national committees; was a founding director of the Center for Plain Language and a president of Clarity, an international organization promoting plain legal language; was a style (drafting) consultant on the projects to completely redraft the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Bankruptcy Procedure, and Evidence; is a prolific author of articles and books; and has taught thousands of students the art of plain language. Now a distinguished professor emeritus, Kimble taught legal writing for 30 years at Cooley Law School and the school’s Center for Legal Drafting bears his name. In 2023, he won the State Bar of Michigan’s highest honor, the Roberts P. Hudson Award, for his career achievements. This year marks yet another milestone: The Michigan Bar Journal’s Plain Language column — for which he has served as editor, inspiration, and frequent author since 1988 — is celebrating its 40th year. (See more about that in this month’s column.) “It’s a labor of love,” he said.
