Did you happen to catch the May 2008 edition of the New York State Bar Association Journal ? (It's the one with lots of dead sardines all over the front cover.)
On page 64, you'll find a column authored by distinguished Housing Court Judge Gerald Lebovits .
Judge Lebovits regularly opines in the Journal on legal writing do's and don'ts. This month, he addresses "Legal Writing Punctuation."
You can imagine our surprise when we came across a disparaging reference to our award-winning, critically acclaimed, 2000-page, two-volume treatise -- Landlord and Tenant Practice in New York -- which I co-authored with my business partner, Daniel Finkelstein.
In a section of the article, demonstrating the proper use of "em and en dashes," this is what you'll find:
In this example, the hyphen, en dash and em dash are used correctly: "Ms. Smith-Jones spent five minutes reading the Finkelstein–Ferrara text on landlord-tenant practice — and promptly fell asleep."
Finkelstein–Ferrara promptly called their respective lawyers — and have filed to have their book patented as a sleep aid!
