Jody Sanders

I’d like to take it easy
I’d like to play it cool
But girl I wanna move faster
Than the new Texas MSJ rule.

#lawyervalentines

You’re the perfect partner
You mean the world me
Our love’s more unbelievable
Than a brief from chatGPT.

#lawyervalentines

The Anders brief. No, not that one. The kind where I accidentally misspell my name in the signature block.

8. The foot fetish brief. Has all the citations in footnotes. They say it’s about readability. But we know what’s up.

7. The Duolingo brief. I should understand what they are talking about. They use words I know. But I need to run it through some kind of translator to understand what they are trying to say.

5. The creme brûlée brief. On the surface it seems supported and crisp. But dig just a little bit and…

6. The alternate reality brief. It seems to be describing a case that took place in a completely different universe than yours.

3. The Mr. Potatohead brief. Technically it has all the parts. But they’re in all sorts of weird spots.

4. The Frankenbrief. Clearly someone chopped up pieces of a bunch of other briefs and, unfortunately, brought them back to life in some weird uncomfortable form.

2. The dadbod brief. Maybe it could have been an Olympian. But it’s got some extra here there and in the middle. And honestly, with all those other little cases running around, who’s got time and energy for that?

The angry dadbod brief has a bunch of weird capitalization, bold, and italics.

I’ve been working on a helpful taxonomy to describe the types of briefs I see in cases. Here’s a 🧵

1. The Olympian brief. You see it maybe once every few years. Peak form and performance. Lean, disciplined, top of its game. May involve performance enhancing drugs.

Somehow in January I did twice as much as I expected yet only accomplished half of what I’d planned.

It should have been the B side.

Thun-der-sleet!

The weather is forecasting “Thundersleet,” which sounds like the greatest German metal band that should have existed.

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Weekend plans:

“Oh pho,” I said as I spilled soup on myself at lunch today.

Kathleen’s Art Cafe on Lovers for brunch.

I started to write today’s date as January 57th, but it turns out it’s only the 12th.

This week’s @texapplawpod.bsky.social features Justice David Gunn from Texas’s First COA talking about things he’s learned on the next about what works and doesn’t work with the appellate system. Enjoy!

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

7 days into January, people have not only circled back; they’ve also squared, triangles, rhombused, and just generally polygonned up the whole month already.

Just saw an opossum walking down the neighborhood sidewalk like it owned the place. Which I’m taking as an omen that in 2026 anything is possumble.

Instead of New Year’s resolutions I’m setting an over/under for how long it takes me to stop putting 2025 for the year. Currently I’m at 4.5 weeks.

Check out this month’s Texas Bar Journal for an article from me about attorney’s fees.

It is! Thanks!

I was way older than I should have been when I learned that it wasn’t “four collie birds” in the 12 Days of Christmas. It’s amazing what people singing in a Texas accent sound like.

a man with a mustache sits at a desk and says " i don 't know what that means ALT: a man with a mustache sits at a desk and says " i don 't know what that means

Another year where I still don’t know how to troll the ancient Yuletide carol.

Holiday survival tip: try not to bring up controversial issues, like whether Santa is an invitee, licensee, or trespasser.

“I’ll Bee Home for Christmas”

Think before contacting any lawyers the rest of the week. Your email might be what pushes them quit their job to buy a holiday-themed bakery in a small town and fall in love for Christmas.

There’s no rule saying you can’t analogize a legal issue in an argument to the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

🎶 Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
On or about the very next day, you breached the terms of our bailment 🎶