Beth Wilensky
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bethwilensky.bsky.social
Beth Wilensky
@bethwilensky.bsky.social
6.1K followers 630 following 3.7K posts
#LegalWriting Professor at University of Michigan Law School. #WilenskyOnStyle. Cardinals and cooking and kids oh my. https://michigan.law.umich.edu/faculty-and-scholarship/our-faculty/beth-h-wilensky
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bethwilensky.bsky.social
My grandfather.
Screenshot from the U.S. Holocaust Museum database of Holocaust victims and survivors showing Max Kurt Hirschfelder as having had his German citizenship revoked.
June 30, 2025 at 8:58 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
Randolph and Mortimer Duke, co-principals of Duke & Duke Commodity Brokers, have endorsed Andrew Cuomo.
Randolph and Mortimer Duke, from the movie "Trading Places," stand side-by-side looking serious.
June 24, 2025 at 12:02 AM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
The Ann Arbor weather shields are in full effect.
Radar showing dramatic storms surrounding Ann Arbor on three sides while Ann Arbor itself is clear.
June 18, 2025 at 11:41 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
Amendment: All this AND Phinease & Ferb returns AND @richardprimus.bsky.social's new book drops? It's a good week.
Cover of Richard Primus's new book, called "The Oldest Constitutional Question: Enumeration and Federal Power."
June 6, 2025 at 3:09 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
Also, did you all catch the Indiana Jones reference?
Internally, Phillip Schiller had advocated that Apple comply with the Injunction, but Tim Cook ignored Schiller and instead allowed Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri and his finance team to convince him otherwise. Cook chose poorly. [Note to Alt Text: That last line is circled in red.]
May 1, 2025 at 1:42 AM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
Everything about the Isaac Chotiner interview w/ Deborah Lipstadt is disappointing, but this part most of all. /1
But you can't, you know, you can't just ignore our laws. We're a nation of laws. It wasn't tolerance that allowed Jews to thrive here. Jews have flourished in this country because it is a nation of laws. When students feel they have no place to bring their grievances, or that when they bring their grievances, nobody cares, then you open up the door for this kind of action. So much of what is going on could have been avoided had the universities really cared and taken antisemitism seriously.
April 22, 2025 at 7:36 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
My favorite version of the trolley problem is basically the appellate lawyer's nightmare dilemma.
The trolley problem visual, with a trolley about the run over a bunch of people and a person deciding whether to throw the switch. The text says: "You can stop the trolley at any time but doing so would lead to some form of even where these people thank you and you'd have to shake hands and make small talk."
April 8, 2025 at 5:17 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
Oooh, I'm jealous that you get to read this for the first time! One of my absolute favorite reads of the last few years. A friend just lent me this, which I'm planning to start tomorrow.
Cover of book called "Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals that Brought Me Home," by Jessica Fechtor
April 5, 2025 at 2:45 AM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
Me when I'm sure I've finished cleaning for Pesach, just before I discover that a hidden bag of cheerios exploded all over the pantry floor.
Signal message from Pete Hegseth saying "We are currently clean on OPSEC."
March 26, 2025 at 3:43 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
This is a particularly impressive statement, possibly the most important part of the whole thing. Good on all of these attorneys.
The last page of the Complaint filed by Williams & Connolly on behalf of Perkins Coie, Listing 14 Williams & Connolly attorneys who filed the Complaint.
March 11, 2025 at 8:56 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
Oh, this is going right into my files of stuff to share in my Storytelling and Persuasive class. I especially love that she started by saying that the Statement of Facts should use short sentences w/ no adjectives, and then follows with this. Good legal storytelling doesn't need fancy writing!
Q: Do you expect the statement of facts to tell a story in the same way that, for example, in trial we tell a story in the opening statement? Do you expect it to be engaging in that way? A: I hope it's engaging in that way. You know, it's the drama. I think it typically is engaging in that way, in a good brief.
December 20, 2024 at 12:10 AM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
But I love all of this.
Q: They learn how to write the law in a variety of places, including the legal writing program. But the statement of facts is different. My experience has been that students tend not to recognize that arguing in the statement of facts comes at a significant cost to your credibility. A: It's a huge cost. The first thing I'm looking for in the statement of facts is no adjectives, or very few of them. I think these should really be short, choppy sentences. And you know, if I'm writing an opinion, it's going to have a record cite after every single assertion of fact. So, what am I looking for? You're going to have two or three chances to tell the story, so at the beginning of the brief there should be a statement that just tells me: What galaxy are in? How does this case come to us? I read a set of briefs this morning and I was on page 34 before I knew why we had jurisdiction and what issues were being appealed. You'd be surprised. And I think this is one of the most common mistakes lawyers make. They're working really hard, and they know that case inside out, but they have forgotten what they did not put on the page. So right up front, I need somebody to tell me why the court has jurisdiction, and what this case is about, at least at the 30,000-foot level. If I don't have that, I find it very distracting from everything else I'm reading. I suggest writers should get those things checked off the list right away.
December 20, 2024 at 12:05 AM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
This part is fascinating! I have actually never heard someone suggest that it's bad to put the conclusion first in legal writing.
Q: Some legal writing gurus say "Put your conclusion at the start of an argument, and then argue from the conclusion." Or they'll say "No, it's premise, premise, premise, and then conclusion." Is there a particular approach that you think is more helpful? A: There's certainly one that's more persuasive to me. I'm not a proponent of starting with a conclusion. For me, that reads like an unsupported assertion. It makes me immediately suspicious. I'd much rather see - to use your language - premise, premise, premise, that yields to the conclusion. That's much more persuasive and that's what I teach my clerks to do.
December 19, 2024 at 11:58 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
Your honors, I move to have my gold star entered into evidence.
A white card with the Michigan Law brand at the top. On the left side it says "Beth Wilensky. 2023-24 Perfect Faculty Meeting Attendance." On the right side is a large gold star, cut and pasted onto the card.
December 17, 2024 at 9:30 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
This is obviously going in my annual report to the dean. "What did you accomplish this year?" "Well, I came up with a clever joke that made the law school's instagram stories."
Michigan Law instragram story showing two students play-fighting with light sabers in the snowy Law Quad at night. The text says "Which final are they studying for?" Suggested answers are Torts, Blood Feuds, Sith Pro, and Other (Leave a Comment). Same picture from the Michigan Law instagram story but now the text says "Final answer: Alternative Dispute Resolution. Hat tip Professor Beth Wilensky."
December 6, 2024 at 1:54 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
I momentarily forgot that Michigan beat Ohio State on Saturday and then I remembered again.
Me holding up a mug in front of my face. The mug is yellow with blue writing that says "Michigan Football 2023 National Champions."
December 2, 2024 at 2:59 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
This paragraph from Hunter's notice to the court in California that he has been pardoned.
The text reads: "When alerted to a pardon by a defendant (or the government), courts dismiss pending indictments and adjourn future proceedings in those cases." It is then followed by citations to a bunch of cases. I have highlighted United States v. Bannon, United States v. Flynn, and United States v. Arpaio.
December 2, 2024 at 1:52 AM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
Anyone else read the Miss Pickerell books?
A cover of the book called "Miss Pickerell on the Moon." It has a picture of a woman in an astronaut suit walking on the moon.
November 27, 2024 at 7:07 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
Interesting! So here's a post that was prompted by the fact that this Tweet had a 2020 date that was preserved when it originally was migrated to Bluesky - but now it looks weird because the date was changed to the import date.
Screenshot of a Judge Dillard post reskeeting my post that says it's from 7 days ago. In response, Michael-Adams-Hurta asked "wait how does Beth Wilensky have a BlueSky post from 2020?"
November 24, 2024 at 6:56 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
Oh, wait! It looks like BlueSky might have changed how imported posts show up! They now are dated according to when they were imported (pic 1), and you have to click into them to see that they have an old date from Twitter (pic 2).
An ordinary looking Bluesky post that indicates that it was posted 7 days ago. The same post, which now has a notation that says "Archived from March 5, 2021 at 3:57pm." And below that says it was posted on November 16, 2024 at 6:19pm.
November 24, 2024 at 1:28 AM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
It's happening!
A screenshot from a snippet of my computer screen that reads "Deleting 20851 Tweets" at the top, and then "826 deleted" immediately below that, with a progress bar below that.
November 18, 2024 at 9:10 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
With 5 days until the election, we are up to 10 pieces of voter mail in today’s post. Will we have even more tomorrow? Stay tuned for updates from this swing state!
10 pieces of voter mail spread across a table.
October 31, 2024 at 6:06 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
I have no idea what the Sorkin op-ed is and am confident that I don’t want to know. But this book looks terrific. My favorite recent rec is this one.
Book cover of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.
July 21, 2024 at 3:28 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
For sale: One (1) huge tub of chametz. Kitniyot no longer included. Inquire within, preferably before sundown.
A large Tupperware storage bin filled with flour, crackers, granola bars, and various other things that aren’t kosher for Passover.
April 22, 2024 at 1:37 PM
bethwilensky.bsky.social
I am stopping right here in the grocery aisle to share this excellent news with all of my foodie friends:
My hand holding a bottle of Huy Fong Foods sriracha sauce with a grocery aisle in the background.
April 7, 2024 at 9:08 PM