2021 How to Construct a Complex Pleading in Microsoft Word

Originally presented at our Solo & Small Firm Conference, June 9-11, 2021 

One of the most difficult technical tasks one can undertake is formatting a complex brief in Microsoft Word that has a title page, table of contents, table of authorities, multi-level paragraph numbering, and page numbering that starts over in the middle of the document and switches formats (for example, Romanettes to Arabic). In this class, you’ll receive a finely tuned 8th Circuit US Court of Appeals brief template (in Microsoft Word), and you’ll learn how to use it, customize it to your purposes, automatically generate/update a table of contents and table of authorities, and control formatting within the document no matter where you copied and pasted it from. The heavy lifting is already done, and if you use this template as the starting point for your next brief, you’ll shave many hours off the process because the formatting will just work. Of course, we’ll also explain how the template was constructed so you can use the techniques in your other documents.
Speaker: Barron K. Henley, Esq., Partner, Affinity Consulting Group, Columbus, OH 

Note: This material qualifies for self-study credit only. Pursuant to Regulation 15.04.5, a lawyer may receive up to six hours of self-study credit in a reporting year. Self-study programs do not qualify for GAL Certification, ethics, elimination of bias or Kansas credit.