The legal writing I most want employers, professors, and colleagues to read, grouped by practice area. Each piece has the same goal: explain the law accurately, in plain language.
- Writing sample
- Energy and utilities
- Health, elder, and estates
- Government and public interest
- Nonprofit and charities
- Constitutional law
- International
- Business transactions
Writing sample
Memorandum of law opposing a motion to suppress an identification (PDF)
A persuasive memorandum written for my first-year legal writing course, applying Massachusetts show-up identification doctrine (Botelho, Johnson, Austin, Meas). The parties and facts are fictional.
Energy and utility regulation
Who’s Actually Deciding Your Electric Bill? Inside a PURA Rate CaseHow Connecticut regulators, not the utility, set an electric bill through a formal rate case, and who gets to intervene.
How Connecticut Pays for Its Green BankA ratepayer charge and RGGI proceeds, not tax dollars: the statute, the 2016 and 2017 budget fights, and the leverage math.
The Green Bank Math: Why Public Climate Money Is Built to MultiplyWhat the Green Bank’s reported leverage ratio means, why it matters, and where the federal fight stands.
All energy and environmental law posts
Health, elder, and estates law
What Are the Social Determinants of Health, and Where Do Lawyers Come In?What U.S. county data show, and where lawyers come in, from housing codes to medical-legal partnerships.
The Five-Year Lookback: How Medicaid Treats Gifts Before a Nursing HomeWhy a gift made within five years of applying for long-term care starts a penalty clock.
Health Care Proxies, Living Wills, and MOLSTThree end-of-life documents that do different jobs, and which one controls when.
What HIPAA Actually Covers, PlainlyWho HIPAA applies to, what it protects, and the common myths about medical privacy.
Dying Without a Will: Who Gets What, PlainlyHow Massachusetts and Connecticut intestacy law divides an estate by default.
All estate and elder law posts · All health law posts
Government and public interest
What Legal Aid Funding Sources Cost an OrganizationHow LSC, IOLTA, state money, and philanthropy fund civil legal aid, and why each source limits the work an office can do.
Public Health Powers, Plainly: Where Quarantine Authority Actually Comes FromState police power, quarantine authority, and the limited federal role in health orders.
Green Card Categories, Explained PlainlyFamily-based and employment-based categories, priority dates, and why wait times differ so much.
Reflection: Alternative Spring Break with the Sugar Law CenterWhat a week of pro bono work in Detroit taught me about economic justice and community lawyering.
Nonprofit and charities law
Cy Pres: What Happens to a Charitable Gift When Its Purpose DiesHow courts redirect a charitable gift when its original purpose becomes impossible.
How to Read a Form 990, PlainlyWhere a nonprofit’s real finances live: program spending, executive pay, governance answers, and the red flags donors miss.
Nonprofit Board Fiduciary Duties, PlainlyWhat care, loyalty, and obedience actually require of a board, and how well-meaning boards get in trouble.
Who Oversees Nonprofits? State Attorneys General, PlainlyWhy day-to-day charity oversight belongs to state attorneys general: parens patriae, fiduciary enforcement, and the design choice behind most of nonprofit law.
Constitutional law
Why is the most famous part of Youngstown not what decided it?Everyone quotes Justice Jackson’s zone of twilight. Truman’s seizure failed in the third zone, where Congress had already said no.
Can a president fight a war that Congress never declared?Only Congress can declare war, but The Prize Cases held that a president facing invasion or rebellion must meet force with force without waiting for Congress.
International and cross-border
Written from the operator’s side of the table: I co-founded companies in Shanghai and Hong Kong and helped open a Hong Kong conglomerate’s first North American office.
Cross-Border M&A: What Changes, PlainlyHow a foreign buyer or target changes due diligence, deal approvals, CFIUS review, and closing mechanics.
CFIUS, Plainly: The Committee That Can Block a Cross-Border DealHow the United States reviews foreign investment, who has to file, and what happens next.
Doing Business in China: Five Legal Basics US Founders Get WrongCompany chops, contracts, NNN agreements, entity choice, and IP, from someone who worked there.
Does GDPR Apply to US Companies? PlainlyWhen EU privacy law reaches American businesses, and what compliance actually requires.
Business transactions
Due Diligence, Plainly: What Lawyers Actually Check Before a DealWhat lawyers check, why deals die in diligence, and what founders get wrong.
The Boilerplate Founders Skip, PlainlyIndemnification, limits of liability, assignment, choice of law, and the back-page clauses that decide disputes.
LLC vs Corporation: Which Entity, PlainlyLiability, taxes, ownership, and investors, plus the questions to ask before choosing an entity.
Benefit Corporations, Plainly: When a Company’s Purpose Is Part of Its CharterHow mission-locked companies work, what their directors owe, and how a benefit corporation differs from a B Corp.
Unfamiliar terms in any of these pieces are defined in the plain-language legal glossary. For who I am and what I am working toward, see About and Experience. Browse everything: all posts or posts by topic.