Los Angeles Lawyer 
The Magazine of the Los Angeles County Bar Association

Closing Argument Style Guide 

LENGTH

• Articles should be at least 750 words long and must not exceed 900 words. 

SUBJECT MATTER

Articles should:

• Address a matter of direct concern to the legal profession and judicial system.
• Address a subject or express a point of view unlikely to appear in the nonlegal press.
• Adopt a point of view in the form of an argument, observation, or personal experience of interest to other lawyers. Authors may write in the first person when appropriate.
• Address a subject that will be of interest to a broad spectrum of the legal profession; however, well-executed manuscripts concerning narrower matters or affecting particular practice areas will be given careful consideration.

Articles should not:

• Address matters of general public policy, except as they have a direct bearing on the legal profession.
• Respond directly to a previously published Closing Argument. The appropriate response to previously published articles is a letter to the editor.
• Include endnotes. Citations, when absolutely necessary, will be included in the text without commentary or may become endnotes at the discretion of the editors.
• Endorse or oppose candidates or ballot initiatives.

• Articles should be submitted on floppy disk, either in Apple Macintosh or IBM PC-compatible format. WordPerfect and Microsoft Word are preferred word-processing software
• Articles may be e-mailed to the staff. Our e-mail address is: lalawyer@lacba.org.
• Two hard copies should accompany each disk or follow an e-mail.
• Authors should include a brief description of their appropriate professional background and complete contact information.
• Articles should be addressed to: Closing Argument, c/o Los Angeles Lawyer magazine 

ACCEPTANCE AND REJECTION 

• All submissions will be given careful consideration by the editors of the magazine. 
• The authors of articles not selected for publication will receive written notice. 
• The authors of articles accepted for publication will be contacted by the magazine's staff for further consultation.
• Authors will be required to submit a signed rights and permissions Release Form and to provide the magazine with a suitable photograph or "headshot" for publication.
• There may be considerable lead time before publication.