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Tributes This page added 30.3.10 If you would like to submit a tribute to anyone involved in the plain language movement, please send it to Mark Adler Richard Woof retires from the committee Phil Knight retires Joe Kimble wins another award Bryan Garner wins Burton Award Peter Butt, Christine Mowat, Robert Eagleson win PLAIN Awards Barbro Ehrenberg-Sundin steps down as our Swedish representative **************************************** Richard Woof retires from the committee Richard Woof, who joined the committee when it was only 5 of us meeting on a Saturday morning every 2 or 3 months, stepped down in November, more than 10 years after he stopped practising law. Nick Lear writes: Richard Woof and I were partners at Debenham and Co. In the early 1980’s we were both interested in pioneering property contracts and leases in modern English. Setting out the main information (we called it the “Particulars”) at the beginning of a lease seems commonplace now. Then it was revolutionary and by no means met with universal approval among our peers in the world of commercial property. Richard set about educating our clients, who to their credit generally saw the advantages of clear layout and comprehensible language. We had little time for the received wisdom – that arcane language was right because it had always been that way. If our documents were incapable of being understood by the client, we had failed. Our views were not even shared by all the firm’s partners. One of the younger ones felt she had failed if the client did understand her draftmanship! Richard and I both responded enthusiastically to a letter in the Law Society’s Gazette in March 1983 seeking interest in starting an organisation to promote plain English in legal documents. Clarity was born. Each of us was to take a turn on the committee. Richard persevered. His service there must be matched by few. It was not just use of words. Richard was always ready to adopt new technology – mastering early the intricacies of the electric typewriter, the golf ball typewriter, computers and the internet. He had an eye for layout and presentation. Long before others appreciated it, he understood that the look of a document affects the way it does its job. Before the word “user-friendly” came into general use, Richard preached the value of white space, bullet points and the like. In the early days of computers, the rest of us had no idea whether a certain effect could be achieved. Richard made it his business to know what the machines could do – and always pressed the operators on to greater things. Brevity was always a holy grail. I remember once we discussed the origin of the story of a certain writer who had ended a long letter with an apology for its length, explaining that he had not had time to write a short one. Some said it was Mark Twain. Others favoured GK Chesterton. Richard set about researching the story, worrying away at it for months (it was long before internet search engines). It was typical of him to be thorough in everything he did. I believe he traced it back to Blaise Pascal, 1656. It’s almost disheartening how easy it is today, using Google, to find a version attributed to Augustin (354 – 430 AD) or even Cicero. Top Phil Knight retires from Clarity’s committee Mark Adler writes: Phil Knight retired from full-time legal practice at the end of December and at the same time stepped down from Clarity’s committee, of which he had been a member since 1997. For some of that time he was variously editor of the journal and our Canadian representative. After a judicial clerkship for the Manitoba Court of Appeal and on qualifying as a solicitor and barrister in 1983, Phil spent two years in private practice before moving into legal education. In the early 1990s, as director of the Plain Language Institute of British Columbia, he organised a memorable conference on plain legal language — then a novelty — which attracted from around the world a large number of Clarity members and others. He has remained a part-time educator, on the faculties of various universities, but for the last 15 years has specialised in legislative drafting as a private consultant. In that capacity he played a major role in drafting the South African constitution and has drafted consitutions and substantial legislation for many other nations. He is continuing this work part-time. Phil’s arguments, views, and suggestions are often original, though sometimes uncomfortable and occasionally robust. Recently, many of us disagreed with his strong belief that the proposed professional standard for plain language writers was misconceived in principle (because creative writing is not to be trammelled) and that Clarity should withdraw from the project. His thoughtful unorthodoxy have made him a unique and valuable member of the committee, and I will miss his challenges. Top Joe Kimble wins another award Professor Joseph Kimble (a past president of Clarity, has won the Association of American Law Schools 2010 award "to an individual who has made a significant lifetime contribution to the field of legal writing and research". In 2007 he won both a PLAIN award for being a "champion leader and visionary in the international plain-language field" and a Burton Award for Reform in Law for his work on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Top Bryan Garner wins Burton award Bryan Garner (with his co-author Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia) won the 2009 Burton Law Book of the Year Award for Making your Case: the art of persuading judges. Top Peter Butt, Christine Mowat, and Robert Eagleson win PLAIN Awards Emeritus Professor Peter Butt (another past president of Clarity), Christine Mowat (past chair of PLAIN), and Robert Eagleson (with Peter Butt, founding co-director of the Centre for Plain Legal Language) shared the 2009 PLAIN awards for their lifetime service to plain language. (Robert is on the right) For brief biographies of the PLAIN winners, click the conference website and scroll down the page that appears (as there's no word-search). Top Barbro Ehrenberg-Sundin retires from Swedish repery Clarity would like to thank Barbro warmly for her years of service as our Swedish representative. She worked as a language expert in the Swedish Government offices for 27 years before retiring in 2007, and she has now stepped down as our Swedish rep (but not before arranging for her colleague Helena Englund to take her place). Barbro has been for many years the outstanding figure in the official Swedish plain language movement. She sat on legislation committees, organised many projects for developing important types of texts, and has written several much-used handbooks for writers of government documents. In 1993 she founded the Plain Language Group, which was appointed by the government to encourage state authorities all over Sweden to start plain language projects, and which is still doing important work. In 2001 she played a major part in building up the EU-språkvården (a network to improve the quality of the language in EU documents). Although Barbro has retired from the government offices and as Clarity's representative, she is keeping up some plain-language work. She has been appointed a member of the Swedish Committee for Plain Language Issues, and recently took part in an extensive investigation about citizens' faith in courts. And she's still a member of Clarity's committee. Top

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