Bryan A. Garner
Bryan Andrew Garner (born November 17, 1958) is an American legal scholar and lexicographer. He has written more than two dozen books about English usage and style[1] such as Garner's Modern English Usage for a general audience, and others for legal professionals.[2][3] Garner also wrote two books with Justice Antonin Scalia: Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges (2008) and Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts (2012). He is the founder and president of LawProse Inc.[4]
Bryan A. Garner
Bryan Andrew Garner
November 17, 1958
Lubbock, Texas, U.S.
- Lawyer
- lexicographer
- Garner's Dictionary of Legal Usage[a] (1987–2011)
- Garner's Modern English Usage[b] (1998–2016)
Garner serves as Distinguished Research Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.[5] He is also a lecturer at his alma mater, the University of Texas School of Law.[6]
He is the founder and chair of the board for the American Friends of Dr. Johnson's House,[7] a nonprofit organization supporting the house museum in London that was the former home of Samuel Johnson, the author of the first authoritative Dictionary of the English Language.
Early life and education[edit]
Garner was born on November 17, 1958, in Lubbock, Texas,[8] and raised in Canyon, Texas. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he published excerpts from his senior thesis, notably "Shakespeare's Latinate Neologisms"[9] and "Latin-Saxon Hybrids in Shakespeare and the Bible".[10][11][12][13][14][15]
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree, Garner entered the University of Texas School of Law, where he served as an associate editor of the Texas Law Review.
Career[edit]
After receiving his Juris Doctor degree in 1984, he clerked for Judge Thomas M. Reavley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit before he joined the Dallas firm of Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal. He then returned to the University of Texas School of Law and was named director of the Texas/Oxford Center for Legal Lexicography.
In 1990, he left the university to found LawProse Inc., which provides seminars on clear writing, briefing and editing for lawyers and judges.[16]
Garner has taught at the University of Texas School of Law, the UC Berkeley School of Law, Texas Tech University School of Law, and Texas A&M University School of Law. He has been awarded three honorary doctorates from Stetson, La Verne, and Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He serves on the Board of Advisers of The Green Bag.[17]
Only current editions are shown.