E-prime equals English minus the being verbs. I recently read about this subset of the English language, “E-prime”, which some advocate for legal writing. Lawyers did not invent e-prime (see here, describing its origins in semantics and offering a taste of my grad school days–check out the relativism in the ‘improved’ sentences), but lawyers may benefit from the discipline the ‘language’ imposes. The omission of being verbs makes writing more efficient, forces writers to employ less cumbersome verb phrases, eliminates the passive voice and other ambiguities, and generally shortens and focusses communication. That said, complete elimination of being verbs creates a slavery of its own (for example, if arguing for a client’s actual innocence, should not the lawyer simply say, “the defendant is innocent”?). Sometimes we do want to make absolute identity statements, making “is” the most efficient word choice (for example, Superman is Clark Kent, Samuel Clemens is Mark Twain). Nonetheless, E-prime offers a method to disciplining one’s drafting. Although the billing attorney may not afford the luxury of “translating” a brief into e-prime, keeping the rule in mind while drafting might tighten one’s thoughts and make reading easier for the law clerks and judges who spend their days skimming briefs.