Bryan A. Garner

Garner was born on November 17, 1958,{{cite web | url=https://lawprose.org/bryan-garner/ | title=Who is Bryan A. Garner — LawProse | date=8 December 2014 }} in Lubbock, Texas,{{cite web|url= http://www.city-data.com/city/Lubbock-Texas.html|title= Lubbock, Texas|publisher=City-Data.com|access-date= May 31, 2014}} and raised in Canyon, Texas. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he published excerpts from his senior thesis, notably "Shakespeare's Latinate Neologisms"{{Cite journal|last=Garner|first=Bryan A.|date=1982|title=Shakespeare's Latinate Neologisms|journal=Shakespeare Studies|volume=15|pages=149–70}} and "Latin-Saxon Hybrids in Shakespeare and the Bible".{{Cite journal|last=Garner|first=Bryan A.|date=June 1983|title=Latin-Saxon Hybrids in Shakespeare and the Bible|journal=Studies in the Humanities|volume=10|pages=39–44}}John W. Velz, Looking Back at Some Turns in the Road, in Burnt Orange Britannia (Wm. Roger Louis ed., 2005), at 390, 400.{{cite news|last1=Stowers|first1=Carlton|title=Courtly Language|work=Dallas Observer|date=19–25 July 2001|pages=20–21}}{{cite news|last1=Kruh|first1=Nancy|title=Bryan Garner: The Lawyer and Lexicographer Is a Man of His Words|work=Dallas Morning News|date=9 May 1999|pages=E1, 4–5}}{{cite magazine |last=Kix |first=Paul |date= November 2007|title=The English Teacher |magazine=D Magazine|pages=41–44}}{{cite journal|last1=Moore|first1=Dave|title=On a Language Quest|journal=Dallas Business Journal|date=5–11 October 2007|pages=37, 42–43}}

After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree, Garner entered the University of Texas School of Law, where he served as an associate editor of the Texas Law Review.https://texaslawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Volume-61-Masthead.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=August 2024}}

After receiving his Juris Doctor degree in 1984, he clerked for Judge Thomas M. Reavley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit before he joined the Dallas firm of Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal. He then returned to the University of Texas School of Law and was named director of the Texas/Oxford Center for Legal Lexicography.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

In 1990, he left the university to found LawProse Inc., which provides seminars on clear writing, briefing and editing for lawyers and judges.{{Cite web|url=http://www.lawprose.org/consulting/|title=Consulting|website=LawProse.org|date=2 February 2014 |access-date=2016-07-06}}

Garner has taught at the University of Texas School of Law, the UC Berkeley School of Law, Texas Tech University School of Law, and Texas A&M University School of Law. He has been awarded three honorary doctorates from Stetson, La Verne, and Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He serves on the Board of Advisers of The Green Bag.{{cite web |url=http://greenbag.org/green_bag_edsandads.html |title=Green Bag editors and advisers |website=The Green Bag |access-date=2018-06-28}}

As a student at the University of Texas School of Law in 1981, Garner began noticing odd usages in lawbooks, many of them dating back to Shakespeare. They became the source material for his first book, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (1987).{{Cite book|title=A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage|last=Garner|first=Bryan A.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1987|isbn=0195043774|location=Oxford}} Since 1990, his work has focused on teaching the legal profession clear writing techniques.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

In books, articles,{{cite journal|last1=Garner|first1=Bryan A.|title=Footnoted Citations Can Make Memos and Briefs Easier to Comprehend|journal=Student Lawyer|date=September 2003|pages=11–12}}{{cite book|last1=Garner|first1=Bryan A.|title=The Winning Brief|date=2004|pages=139–158|edition=2}}{{cite book|last1=Garner|first1=Bryan A.|title=Legal Writing in Plain English|date=2001|pages=77–83}}{{cite book|last1=Garner|first1=Bryan A.|title=A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage|date=1995|page=156|edition=2}}{{cite book|last1=Garner|first1=Bryan A.|title=The Elements of Legal Style|url=https://archive.org/details/elementsoflegals00garn_0|url-access=registration|date=2002|pages=[https://archive.org/details/elementsoflegals00garn_0/page/91 91–92]|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-514162-7 |edition=2}} and lectures, Garner has tried to reform the way bibliographic references are "interlarded" (interwoven) in the midst of textual analysis. He argues for putting citations in footnotes and notes that in-text information that is important but non-bibliographic. He opposes references such as "457 U.S. 423, 432, 102 S.Ct. 2515, 2521, 89 L.Ed.2d 744, 747" as interruptions in the middle of a line. However, such interruptions in judges' opinions and in lawyers' briefs have remained the norm. Some courts and advocates around the country have begun adopting Garner's recommended style of footnoted citations, and a degree of internal strife has resulted within some organizations. For example, one appellate judge in Louisiana refused to join in a colleague's opinions written in the new format.{{cite news|last1=Glaberson|first1=William|title=Legal Citations1 on Trial in Innovation v. Tradition|work=The New York Times|date=8 July 2001|pages=1, 16}}

Garner says that one of the main reasons for the reform is to make legal writing more comprehensible to readers who lack a legal education. That has attracted opposition, most notably from Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit,Richard A. Posner, [http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/courtrv/cr38-2/CR38-2Posner.pdf "Against Footnotes"], 38 Court Rev. 24 (Summer 2001) (answering Garner, [http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/courtrv/cr38-2/CR38-2Garner.pdf "Clearing the Cobwebs from Judicial Opinions"], 38 Court Rev. 4 (Summer 2001)). and from his co-author, Justice Antonin Scalia.{{cite book|last1=Scalia|first1=Antonin|last2=Garner|first2=Bryan A.|title=Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges|date=2008|publisher=West|pages=132–35}}

Since 1992, Garner has contributed numerous revisions to the field of procedural rules, when he began revising all amendments to the sets of Federal Rules (Civil, Appellate, Evidence, Bankruptcy, and Criminal) for the Judicial Conference of the United States.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

Garner and Justice Scalia wrote Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges (2008). Garner maintains a legal consulting practice, focusing on issues in statutory construction and contractual interpretation.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

Garner's books on English usage include Garner's Modern English Usage. This dictionary was the subject of David Foster Wallace's essay "Authority and American Usage" in Consider the Lobster and Other Essays, originally published in the April 2001 issue of Harper's Magazine. In 2003, Garner contributed a chapter on grammar and usage to the 15th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, and later editions have retained it.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

In 1995, Garner became the editor-in-chief of Black's Law Dictionary. He created a panel of international legal experts to improve the specialized vocabulary in the book. Garner and the panel rewrote and expanded the dictionary's lexicographic information.{{Cite web |last1=Ambrogi |first1=Bob |last2=William |first2=J. Craig |date=6 May 2014 |title=Bryan Garner on the Latest Edition of Black's Law Dictionary |url=https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2014/05/bryan-garner-latest-edition-blacks-law-dictionary/ |access-date=27 September 2023 |website=Legal Talk Network}}

Only current editions are shown.

• Garner's Modern English Usage (5th ed. 2022)
• Nino and Me: My Unusual Friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia (2017). Threshold Editions. {{ISBN|9781501181498}}
• The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation (2016; an expanded version of his chapter in The Chicago Manual of Style)
• The Rules of Golf in Plain English (with Jeffrey S. Kuhn, 4th ed. 2016)
• Black's Law Dictionary (12th ed. 2024; abr. 10th ed. 2015; and 6th pocket ed. 2021)
• Guidelines for Drafting and Editing Legislation (2015)
• The Winning Brief: 100 Tips for Persuasive Briefing in Trial and Appellate Courts (3rd ed. 2014)
• HBR Guide to Better Business Writing (2013)
• Legal Writing in Plain English: A Text with Exercises (2nd ed. 2013)
• Quack This Way: David Foster Wallace & Bryan A. Garner Talk Language and Writing (transcript of an interview with David Foster Wallace, 2013). RosePen Books. {{ISBN|9780991118113}}
• The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style (3rd ed. 2013)
• Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts (with Justice Antonin Scalia, 2012)
• Garner's Dictionary of Legal Usage (3rd ed. 2011)
• The Chicago Manual of Style, Ch. 5 "Grammar and Usage", (16th ed. 2010)
• Ethical Communications for Lawyers: Upholding Professional Responsibility (2009). LawProse, Inc. {{ISBN|9780979606021}}
• Garner on Language and Writing: Selected Essays and Speeches of Bryan A. Garner (foreword by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 2009). American Bar Association. {{ISBN|9781604424454}}
• The Winning Oral Argument: Enduring Principles with Supporting Comments from the Literature (2nd ed. 2009)
• Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges (with Justice Antonin Scalia, 2008)
• A New Miscellany-at-Law: Yet Another Diversion for Lawyers and Others (by Robert Megarry, Garner ed., 2005). Hart. {{ISBN|9781584776314}}
• The Elements of Legal Style (2nd ed. 2002)
• Guidelines for Drafting and Editing Court Rules (2002)
• A Handbook of Family Law Terms (2001). West Group. {{ISBN|9780314249067}}
• A Handbook of Criminal Law Terms (2000). West Group. {{ISBN|9780314243225}}
• The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style (2000; an abridged version of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, 1st ed. 1998)
• A Handbook of Basic Law Terms (1999). West Group. {{ISBN|9780314233820}}
• A Handbook of Business Law Terms (1999). West Group. {{ISBN|9780314239358}}
• Securities Disclosure in Plain English (1999). CCH Inc. {{ISBN|9780808003212}}
• Texas, Our Texas: Remembrances of The University (1984). {{ISBN|9780890154489}} (editor)

• Skunked term

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• [http://www.lawprose.org LawProse]
• Interview [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927220328/http://www.kera.org/radio/talkshow/ProgramDetails.lasso?&id=4404&program=talkshow&show=The%20Talk%20Show] with Garner on KERA 90.1. The mp3 podcast of the interview is available at: [http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/1118894Hour 1] and [http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/1118893 Hour 2].
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110604185742/http://www.texaslrev.com/about/alumni Biography at the Texas Law Review]
• [http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/courtrv/cr38-2/CR38-2Garner.pdf "Clearing the Cobwebs on Judicial Opinion", from the Summer 2001 issue of Court Review 21]
• {{C-SPAN|9266454}}

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Category:Living people

Category:1958 births

Category:People from Lubbock, Texas

Category:University of Texas at Austin alumni

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Category:University of Texas School of Law faculty

Category:Southern Methodist University faculty

Category:People from Canyon, Texas