Green Grads is looking to expand its team of helpers and it wants you!

Green Grads is built completely by volunteers and we are currently expanding our team. Obviously law students and legal graduates will fit right in, but we are also looking for people from other backgrounds. Commerce and IT students would be super useful. Others too, there is plenty of stuff to be done!

So if you are keen to join the team, you can hit us up via Twitter (@Green_Grads), Facebook or Email (greengrads dot australia at gmail dot com).

Stuff has happened, let’s recap.

• Allens Offers Redundancies

Not really great news for us, really. Though it does say in the article that they have no plans to reduce their recruitment, it potentially makes for an eery vibe.

• Succeed or Else!

Tired of sitting down to study hard only to find yourself trawling Facebook wondering where the last four hours went? Well, why not voluntarily hand over what’s left of your Rudd money to a random internet company, who will keep generously agree to keep your money unless you meet your goals?

We’d all have to be idiots NOT to do it!

• Harvard Law School Grade Reform

A while ago Harvard Law School agreed to award all of their grades on a pass / fail basis. I think that this is a great idea and I wonder which of the Australian Law Schools will have the guts to follow their lead. Perhaps once the Melbourne Model gains some more traction here we can expect some innovative changes to the way our law schools do things.

• “It’s Going to Be Teabagging Day”

Well, this is awkward.

[via Above the Law]

• Courtoons

David Mills from Courtoons is running another of his Caption Contests. Come up with a funny caption and he’ll send the original cartoon out to you, though I’m not sure if he’ll send it internationally. He seems pretty cool though so my uninformed and potentially incorrect opinion is that he definitely will, with no problems at all.

One of his funny Courtoons:

If one were to distil what we do down to the very core, one can say that, ultimately, all lawyers do is work with words.

Whether it’s drafting a contract to outline the rights of the parties concerned, or arguing about the meaning of a phrase in the Constitution before the High Court, everything in we do in the legal word comes down, essentially, to words.

And knowing about words and how to use them is one of the most basic skills a lawyer needs.  Because if rights are not outlined properly (or clearly enough) in a contract, the parties to that contract will be in big trouble. While the litigators who have clean up the mess might be glad to have more work, the lawyer responsible will have egg on his or her face.

It may seem pedantic but grammar, proofreading, writing with clarity matters, and, in some cases, may be the difference between a good lawyer and a great one; or, for grad lawyers: a promotion or a pink slip.

This applies just as much to law students as it does to young practitioners — it’s a given that a well-written essay or exam answer, which doesn’t have blatant spelling errors and outlines the relevant point clearly and succinctly, will help you get better grades than sloppy, mistake-ridden drivel even if the question is answered correctly.

And so, on that basis, Green Grads is introducing a new section on legal writing.

We aim to cover basics such as grammar and proofreading skills, but please let us know if there’s anything you want us to discuss.