The Origins of the Yellow Legal Pad

Posted on May 17, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Legal Affairs recounts the origins of the legal pad.

Personally, while very devoted to yellow yellow pads up through law school, I discovered that I really preferred white pads some time early in law practice. I think they are easier to read.

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3 Responses to The Origins of the Yellow Legal Pad

  1. E-mart says:
    May 17, 2006 at 3:35 pm

    While I don’t have a preference, yellow sheets of handwritten notes are easier to find in files, and a yellow pad is easier to locate on a desk otherwise full of of white printer paper and manila folders.

  2. Ann Bartow says:
    May 17, 2006 at 6:05 pm

    Well this is pretty random, but when I was in high school I had a clerical job in a medical facility, and one part of the job was describing the color of certain…specimens. The two most common descriptive phrases I employed were “sunset peach” and “legal pad.” “Legal pad” tended to foreshadow a better diagnosis.

  3. peter says:
    May 18, 2006 at 11:07 am

    In practice we switched to white pads because the yellow paper could not be recycled.

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