Los Angeles, California

Matthew Butterick is a civil litigation attorney in Los Angeles. He runs a law office there, Butterick Law Corporation, where he does civil litigation and also advises artists, designers and musicians. Before becoming an attorney, Matthew got a degree in art from Harvard University, focusing on graphic design and typography. After college, he worked as a digital typeface designer. Then he started and ran a website development studio. Recently, Matthew created a remarkably informative online resource—Typography for Lawyers.

He explains, “Even though the legal profession depends heavily on writing, legal typography is often poor. Some blame lies with the strict typographic constraints that control certain legal documents (e.g. court rules regarding the format of pleadings). But the rest of the blame lies with lawyers. To be fair, I assume this is for lack of information, not lack of will. This website tries to fill that void. There are numerous guides on typography for generalists available but none specifically aimed at lawyers. So as one of the few typographers-turned-attorneys in America (yes, there are others) I figure that if I don’t do it, nobody will.”

Let’s face it—a plethora of publishing tools (ergo, much of the typographic control in contemporary documents and communications) are now in the hands of the laity (designers’ clients, much as this may grate on some in our profession). Typography for Lawyers goes a long way in offering solid advice to anyone not formally trained in graphic design or versed in the finer points of typographic communication. Congratulations, Matthew!

(thanks to Oliver Oike for the link)