Writer Spotlight: Joseph Kimble

 

Sirens, plain style, Lincoln, Manchester, Scribes, and the Motown Funk Brothers: author Joseph Kimble 

Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI-MI. In this piece, meet author of law tomes as well as children's books: Joseph Kimble

 

[Note: the items in italics are from my research into Mr. Kimble. My questions follow the italicized items.]

Joe grew up in the small town of Linden, Michigan, where he spent many hours in the public library above the fire station.

A library on the floor above a fire station! Can you paint a picture of young Joe and his experiences with a firehouse/library?

 

The only thing between the fire station and our house was a side street. If the siren rang at night, we were jolted awake. Anyway, the library was on the second floor over fire station. I still remember the musty smell. I read lots of biographies and lots of sports books. John Tunis was a favorite sports author.

 

He had majored in literature at Amherst College before going to law school at the University of Michigan and even earned a few student writing awards along the way, but legal writing was something he’d yet to master.

What was your career plan when you chose to major in literature? How did U of M law school enter the picture?

 

I really didn’t have much of a career plan when I entered college. But law seemed like a good profession for someone with an interest in writing and speaking—and maybe an aptitude for them—so I applied to law school. Lawyers are, in a sense, paid professional writers.

 

So before putting pen to paper, he decided to educate himself. He went to the law library and checked out The Fundamentals of Legal Drafting by Reed Dickerson, which at the time appeared to be the one and only book on the subject. Dickerson showed Kimble the light.

Did you, in the course of your studies, find more books on plain legal writing? Is Dickerson still your favorite plain-spoken writer?

 

Not during law school. At the time, law schools offered very little training in legal writing and drafting, and there were only a few books on those subjects. (That began to change in the 1980s, and now most law schools have required writing courses, as well as electives.) 

I discovered the Dickerson book at the state law library in Lansing soon after I graduated, when I was working for the Michigan appellate courts. 

Now there are many books on legal writing (including five of my own). I have several favorite authors: Bryan Garner, my colleague Mark Cooney at Cooley Law School, Peter Butt and Michèle Asprey in Australia, Martin Cutts (recently deceased) from the UK. 

As for writers who advocate a plain style generally: William Zinsser, Jacques Barzun, Joseph Williams, John Trimble. 

Actually, plain style has a glorious literary heritage: Lincoln (except for the Emancipation Proclamation, which was legalistic), Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, George Orwell, E.B. White.

 

Professor Kimble was a staff attorney for the Michigan Supreme Court and the Michigan Court of Appeals. He later practiced law in Flint, Michigan, and was an adjunct professor at Cooley. He joined the full-time faculty in 1984.

You started at Cooley Law School in 1984. What was the first year of teaching like?

A different kind of school visit

 

Stressful, but exciting. Of course, I was trying hard and still learning. Writing teachers face the challenge of reading and commenting on piles of papers, drafts as well as final papers. Early on, I decided to do live critiquing and grading, with the student sitting next to me in my office. I developed ways to do it effectively—and never looked back for 30 years. I spoke on this subject—live grading—many times at conferences.

 

He is senior editor of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing and the longtime editor of the "Plain Language" column in the Michigan Bar Journal. He also writes an editing column called “Redlines” for Judicature.

You did a lot of writing in your day job. When did you find you had a talent for communicating on paper? What did young Joe write about?

 

I’ve always written. In high school, every week we had to write a paper of various kinds: autobiographical essay, short story, one-act play, poetry, even a children’s story, and others. In college, as an English-lit major, I of course wrote essays assigned by profs on literary works. 

An example might be, What does it require to be a discerning reader of Keats? For the reasons I mentioned, I did less writing in law school, except for final exams, which involved rushed—not polished—writing. 

But most of my legal career has consisted of writing: memos for the Michigan appellate courts, all kinds of legal papers while in practice, and then all the publications on legal-writing style during my teaching years.

 

He has published scores of articles on legal writing and written five popular books —Lifting the Fog of Legalese: Essays on Plain Language; Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please: The Case for Plain Language in Business, Government, and Law; Seeing Through Legalese: More Essays on Plain Language; Essentials for Drafting Clear Legal Rules (with Bryan Garner), and Gems from The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing: Volumes 1–20 (as the editor).

When you attended a Lansing Area Shop Talk meeting, I thought of you as a professional older gentleman who wanted to write a kid’s book. Little did I know that you had plenty of publications under your belt and that your admonition for “plain language” was just the thing in writing for kids.

You wrote columns for legal reviews for years. Is that where the fodder came for your professional books?

 

My first two law books were collections of essays that I had written for legal publications, including the Michigan Bar Journal. The book with Bryan Garner grew out of our work as the drafting consultants on projects to completely “restyle” (for clarity, consistency, and readability) all five sets of federal court rules, the rules for procedure in federal courts. That took 30 years! The last book, as the name implies, contains selected articles from the first 20 volumes of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing. I put that book together as the editor.

 

Some awards

In 2000, he was named a "Plain English Champion" by the Plain English Campaign, in England. He is one of the first persons to receive that award.

What was that experience like, getting nominated and then winning. Did you go to England?

 

Well, it was my first award—26 years ago—so it was gratifying, of course. Yes, I went to Manchester.

 

You worked at “Scribes” so long and fruitfully, they named a prestigious award after you—the Joseph Kimble Distinguished Service Award. What is “Scribes,” and what was your role there? Who can win the Joseph Kimble award?

 

Scribes—The American Society of Legal Writers—is the oldest organization devoted to honoring legal writers and promoting clear, concise, persuasive legal writing. I’m one of the longest-serving Board members. I was executive director from 2005 through 2009. I was chief editor of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing from 2001 through 2012, and I’ve been a senior editor since then. Anyone can win the award.

 

For fun, he collects blues and rock art.

Tell us about your music art collection.

 

I’ve been collecting for 40 years or so. After I ran out of room at home, I started taking pieces to Cooley Law School. About 275 pieces are hanging there now. I give tours in the early fall. 

It’s an eclectic collection: vintage posters (many signed—for instance, by Chuck Berry, Dr. John, Buddy Guy, the Motown Funk Brothers, Martha Reeves, and others), photos, paintings, signed album covers, a seven-foot slate guitar, all kinds of things. Here’s a link to an article in the Lansing City Pulse (page 9):

Here’s a link to a piece that the school did, although some of the numbers are now a bit out of date.

 

As noted, Joe graduated from Amherst College and the University of Michigan Law School. He taught legal writing for more than 30 years at Cooley Law School. He has won several national and international awards for his work in promoting clear, plain language in public communication.

When in your education and legal career did you encounter such rampant legalese and obfuscation that you decided your life’s work would be to promote plain language? Was there an inciting incident?

 

I encountered it from the beginning, although I didn’t react to it at first. It’s everywhere. I’m sorry to say that lawyers inherit (as one expert put it) a centuries-old history of “wretched writing.” But I’m glad to say that that is changing—slowly, incrementally, but changing. The light bulb moment for me was when, early in my career, I discovered the Reed Dickerson book, as you mentioned earlier.

 

How did you adjust your writing style when you wrote your first children’s book, Mr. Mouthful Learns his Lesson?

 

It seems almost too obvious, but I tried to put myself in the shoes of young readers. Of course, I tested drafts on a number of kids, including those in my own family. I wondered, Would they laugh, or at least smile, in the places where I tried to be funny? 

The ironic thing about the book is that even though I poke fun at Mr. Mouthful for his highfalutin vocabulary, part of the book’s fun, I think, is in learning new words. 

I have a message for readers on the book’s dedication page. “To all young readers: Having a large vocabulary is wonderful. Learn to love words, big and small, and learn which ones to use when.”

 

Your second children’s book, Mr. Mouthful and the Monkeynappers, continues the saga of Mr. Mouthful. What prompted you to revisit your character and get him involved with monkeynappers? Do you have ideas for a third book?

 

Well, the idea just popped into my head. I knew that I wanted to feature Dupree, Mr. Mouthful’s hotshot monkey. He gets loose, bursts onto the field during a soccer game and runs off with the ball, and then gets into big trouble. But kids come to the rescue in the end, as they did in the first book. 

No ideas yet for a third book. Remember that I do this on the side, sort of. It was six years between my first and second books. I tinker a lot with the drafts. The first book went through 15 or so drafts.

 

You’ve won many awards. Which one is most treasured by you?

 

Seal of Approval forMr. Mouthful

Oh boy. It’s hard to pick. I won the State Bar’s highest award, the Roberts P. Hudson Award. I’ve won lifetime-achievement awards from my colleagues in the legal-writing and plain-language fields. I’ve won three Burton Awards for legal writing, most recently for Book of the Year on Legal Writing.

 

What’s next for Joseph Kimble? Are you ready to retire yet?

 

I have retired from classroom teaching, but I’m still actively writing, editing, and speaking: regular columns for two journals, a revised edition of one of my law books, and some other things. With all that, I still manage to fit in quite a lot of pickleball.

 

Please list any social media you wish to share:

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-kimble-66130059/

 

Thanks, Charlie, for inviting me.