Hi I’m Ben O’Brien. I’m a commercial litigation lawyer with 9 years post admission experience and I’m here to assist you in improving your attention to detail.  

Attention to detail is exactly what it says on the box. Broken down a little, attention to detail is focussing on details, being aware of them, assigning them meaning, retaining that meaning and utilising that information in a meaningful way.  

For lawyers, that shows itself in your drafting, grammar, the results of reviewing documents, organisation/deadline setting and the manner in which you interact with your colleagues from other firms.  

The best lawyers don’t miss things and attention to detail is initially a function of focus and effort.  

Our brains are hardwired to:  

1. make sense of the world;  

1. conserve energy.  

Those functions are, via the “lizard brain”, responsible for instinctive actions like flinching or ducking under incoming objects (like ducking a ball thrown at you).  

Naturally those instinctive movements are survival tactics. 

Relevantly, your lizard brain operates to minimize how much effort you put into focussing on a task, impeding your attention to detail. Also, the lizard brain is wired toward easy rewards, literally anything but work.  

So, we need ways to work against or around our lizard brain to maintain our attention to detail.  

I am going to teach you how to do this via 5strategies/techniques:  

1. the verbal reading technique;  

1. the red dot technique; 

1. Feynman’s technique;  

1. the proof-reading technique, which isn’t entirely what you think it is; 

1. Grammarly/tools to assist with proof reading. Chat GPT 

The Verbal Reading Technique 

The verbal reading technique is simply reading things aloud.  

Read aloud the letters you receive, the emails you receive, the contracts you receive or prepare and the disclosure you receive.  

Of course, read aloud those same things you prepare.  

By aloud, I mean muttering or softly speaking. Unless you have your own office, in which case, anything short of shouting will probably do.  

This technique is key to identifying the real meaning of what you’re reading. Both in terms of identifying easy mistakes and distinguishing between competing shades of meaning.  

Your lizard brain will want to fill in details, like predictive AI. And like predictive AI, it’ll make stuff up. Words that should be there but aren’t, removing words that are there and missing commas – all details.  

An easy example is the difference between “my client is liable” and “my client is not liable.”, “your client’s offer is accepted” and “your client’s offer is not accepted.” 

Reading aloud will highlight all of those errors and more.  

How to practice? 

Exactly as it sounds.  

Author: Ben O'Brien