Bryan Andrew Garner (born November 17, 1958) is an American legal scholar andlexicographer. He has written more than two dozen books about Englishusage andstyle[1] such asGarner's Modern English Usage for a general audience, and others for legal professionals.[2][3] Garner also wrote two books with JusticeAntonin Scalia:Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges (2008) andReading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts (2012). He is the founder and president of LawProse Inc.[4]
He is the founder and chair of the board for the American Friends of Dr. Johnson's House,[7] a nonprofit organization supporting the house museum in London that was the former home ofSamuel Johnson, the author of the first authoritativeDictionary of the English Language.
After receiving hisJuris Doctor degree in 1984, he clerked for JudgeThomas M. Reavley of theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit before he joined the Dallas firm of Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal. He then returned to the University of Texas School of Law and was named director of the Texas/Oxford Center for Legal Lexicography.[citation needed]
In 1990, he left the university to found LawProse Inc., which provides seminars on clear writing, briefing and editing for lawyers and judges.[18]
As a student at the University of Texas School of Law in 1981, Garner began noticing odd usages in lawbooks, many of them dating back toShakespeare. They became the source material for his first book,A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (1987).[20] Since 1990, his work has focused on teaching the legal profession clear writing techniques.[citation needed]
In books, articles,[21][22][23][24][25] and lectures, Garner has tried to reform the way bibliographic references are "interlarded" (interwoven) in the midst of textual analysis. He argues for puttingcitations infootnotes and notes that in-text information that is important but non-bibliographic. He opposes references such as "457 U.S. 423, 432, 102 S.Ct. 2515, 2521, 89 L.Ed.2d 744, 747" as interruptions in the middle of a line. However, such interruptions in judges' opinions and in lawyers' briefs have remained the norm. Some courts and advocates around the country have begun adopting Garner's recommended style of footnoted citations, and a degree of internal strife has resulted within some organizations. For example, one appellate judge in Louisiana refused to join in a colleague's opinions written in the new format.[26]
Garner and Justice Scalia wroteMaking Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges (2008). Garner maintains a legal consulting practice, focusing on issues in statutory construction and contractual interpretation.[citation needed]
In 1995, Garner became the editor-in-chief ofBlack's Law Dictionary. He created a panel of international legal experts to improve the specialized vocabulary in the book. Garner and the panel rewrote and expanded the dictionary's lexicographic information.[29]
Hardly Harmless Drudgery: A 500-Year Pictorial History of the Lexicographic Geniuses, Sciolists, Plagiarists, and Obsessives Who Defined the English Language (with Jack Lynch, 2024)
Quack This Way: David Foster Wallace & Bryan A. Garner Talk Language and Writing (transcript of an interview withDavid Foster Wallace, 2013). RosePen Books.ISBN9780991118113
The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style (4th ed. 2018)
