ABA Section of Business Law

Business Law Today is the national magazine of the Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association. We publish six times a year as a membership benefit for about 55,000 Section members.

Business Law Today is a magazine, not a law review. We're looking for articles that are enjoyable to read. We publish basic articles directed to business lawyers unfamiliar with a substantive area as well as articles on technical legal issues, but the presentation has to be direct and comprehensible. Be conversational. Humor is encouraged but not required.

Our articles top out at 3,000 words. Manuscripts cannot have been published elsewhere.

• Explain why technical issues are important. Make your reader care about the outcome.
• Be concrete. Give examples of the application of legal concepts. Relate theory to practice. War stories can be educational.
• Don't just be concrete. Strings of quotations or examples aren't instructive without a general lesson. Relate practice to theory.
• Avoid convoluted prose, antique legalisms ("hereinafter referred to as...") or other gobbledygook. Use the active voice. Avoid promiscuous capitalization. Use gender-neutral language. We're lawyers, not "attorneys." Break up too-long paragraphs.
• Use of the first person is OK, but avoid self promotion. If you want to publicize your firm, call our advertising department.
• Try to place parts of your article -- such as definitions of technical terms, the text of a relevant statute or a list of sources -- in "sidebars" accompanying the main article.
• Discuss a statute or statutory scheme concept by concept, not section by section. Don't discuss a large number of cases (say, four) seriatim. Give factual background for key cases. Use parties' names - "Widgomatic claimed that..." rather than "defendant claimed that..."
• Include a sidebar with a few pertinent Web links.
• Use simple citation forms even if they're not Blue Book. Avoid string cites. Do not use footnotes or endnotes.

• Send one copy to our editor-in-chief:
  • Arthur F. Fergenson
    Ansa Assuncao LLP
    3545 Ellicott Mills Drive, Suite 201
    Ellicott City, MD 21043
    Or e-mail: arthur.fergenson@ansalaw.com
• Send another to our professional editor:
  
  • John J. Palmer
    ABA Publishing, Mail Stop 20.1
    American Bar Association
    321 N. Clark Street
    Chicago, IL 60654-4714

It's best to e-mail the article as a Word attachment to:
bltarticles-letters@abanet.org

When you e-mail your article, be sure to include all your contact information. Sorry, but we don't return manuscripts.

Our editor-in-chief reviews all manuscripts. Approved manuscripts are then reviewed by members of our editorial board. No member of the board can commit us to publish, even if he or she asked you for it.
Assuming positive reviews, it normally takes a minimum of four months between your submitting your article and our scheduling it for publication. The vast majority of articles proposed to us require sometimes extensive author revisions based on Board comments. We are straight shooters: We almost never use an article as it's sent to us. We won't publish an edited version of your article until you've seen it. (Occasionally, we have to trim to fit the finished magazine and may not have time to check back with you. If your article is accepted by another publication while we are considering it, let us know right away.)

You'll have to sign a copyright release to the ABA if we accept your article. By submitting your article, you represent that it does not include material that violates any other person's rights.

Thanks for your inquiry!