This book is a guide to opinion writing. It is written for every judge at every level and for all law clerks. Every trial and appellate judge, including the author of this book, can profit by learning how to improve his or her work product. This book provides a tool to do just that. Separated into four parts – Theoretical Concepts Underlying an Opinion, The Anatomy of an Opinion, Writing Style and Opinion Writing Checklists – the second edition of Opinion Writing distills the author’s nearly 50 years of experience on the bench into a handbook on the judge’s craft.

Although this book is new, its purpose is not. That purpose traces its ancestry to 1970, when Judge Aldisert first attended the Institute of Judicial Administration's Senior Appellate Judges Seminar in New York. The seminars were led by esteemed jurists including Roger J. Traynor from California, Walter V. Schaefer from Illinois, Samuel J. Roberts from Pennsylvania, Robert A. Leflar from Arkansas and Warren E. Burger from Washington, D.C. Judge Aldisert was deeply honored to be invited back to the seminar as a faculty member from 1971-1985 and accepted the task of discussion leader in “Opinion Writing.” This book is the result of twenty years of seminars and the interactions and dialogue with over 300 appellate judges including four justices of the United States Supreme Court.