Eight Tips to Improve Your Legal Writing

Some in the legal profession underestimate the power of strong writing. This article
debunks the lessened impact of strong writing in todays legal field. Keep reading to find
out how important strong, concise writing is in your legal practice.

Love or hate his political views, the writings of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
were a pleasure to read because of his skills as a writer. His work was known for its
conversational-style while maintaining enough formality to never be deemed
unprofessional. Scalia reportedly wrote for the ear, meaning he wanted his words to be
read aloud to see how they sounded, and his colleagues have stated that he will probably
be one of the most well-known justices of all time because of his legal writing.

For lawyers and others in the legal profession, they too are constantly writing. While
television shows make it appear that lawyers are usually in court, arguing their cases in
front of impartial juries; the truth is attorneys spend most of their time reading and
writing. Because of this, lawyers are on the lookout for ways to improve their craft. The
following are some tried and true tips from experts on better legal writing.

Summarize your conclusions up front - Bryan A. Garner, editor-in-chief of Blacks Law

Dictionary and one of the most notable experts in legal writing in modern history, wrote
in ABA Journal that lawyers can improve their legal writing by stacking their conclusions
in the beginning of their documents.

Whether you're writing a research memo, an opinion letter or a brief, you'll need an up-
front summary, Garner stated. That typically consists of three things: the principal
questions, the answers to those questions and the reasons for those answers. If you're
drafting a motion or brief, try to state on page one the main issue and why your client
should winand put it in a way that your friends and relatives could understand. That's
your biggest challenge.

Garner said that one common mistake attorneys make is that they put their conclusions
only at the end of their memos and/or briefs, instead of also in the beginning. The reason
for this is that readers, like any human, may get fatigued; and to optimize your
persuasiveness, you need to let them know early what you are trying to say.

If you're writing a research memo, put the question, the answer and the reason up front.
Don't delay the conclusion until the end, as unthinking writers do, naively assuming that
the reader will slog all the way through the memo as if it were a mystery novel. And
never open with a full-blown statement of factsdespite what you may have learned
elsewhere. Why? Because facts are useless to a reader who doesn't yet understand what
the issue is. Instead, integrate a few key facts into your issue statement, Garner
continued.
Write simply - Legal issues are often never simple, however writing in a convoluted way
is not going to bring anyone to your side. Attorney Casey Sullivan wrote in FindLaw that
lawyers can simplify their writing with three methods: focusing on readability, cutting out
the legalese, and keeping your writing concise.

Sullivan stated that most Americans read on average at an eighth-grade level, and he
said that lawyers should keep that in mind. Because legal documents are read by people
other than attorneys, Sullivan suggested lawyers use short sentences, active verbs,
common terms, and even bullet points when necessary. Next, Sullivan said to cut out
the lawyerly phrases that cause readers headaches. This includes unwieldy legal wording
and obscure Latinisms. Lastly, the FindLaw writer wrote that brevity is a great trait in
legal writing. When it comes to writing, keep it quick and short, Sullivan said.

Organize your writing - By the time people have graduated law school, they will have had
at least 19 years of education. In that time, they are trained in organizing their thoughts
and putting it into writing, but experts agree that adding headers, subheadings, breaks,
and other tools to make ones writing easier to read on the page is optimal.

Organization is the key to successful legal writing, The Balance advised. Create a
roadmap for your writing by using visual clues to guide the reader. Introduce your subject
in an introductory paragraph, use transitional phrases (moreover, furthermore,
however, in addition, etc.) between each paragraph, introduce each paragraph with
a topic sentence and use headings and subheadings to break up blocks of text. Limit each
paragraph to one topic and sum up your message with a concluding sentence or
paragraph. Organizational structure guides the reader through your text and promotes
readability.

Connect with your audience - Inc. reported that in 2008 Scribes awarded Justice Scalia
with a lifetime achievement award. The writing organization honored the conservative
judge because he "has done as much as anyone in the modern era to promote clear,
robust expression in a field often lacking in these qualities." When accepting this award,
Scalia said that writing well did not require a high IQ. Instead, it was a skill that was
enhanced by ones ability to connect with others.

"There is, however, a certain quality possessed by the really great writer--legal or
otherwise--that has nothing to do with brainpower and probably cannot be taught. The
same phenomenon exists in other fields of human endeavor. The ability to speak foreign
languages, for example, has nothing to do with IQ. And in the field of music--the other
principal means of human communication--there is no reason to believe that Mozart was
a genius in the ordinary sense of being brainy. He was a musical genius, Scalia said.

I think there is writing genius as well--which consists primarily, I think, of the ability to
place oneself in the shoes of one's audience; to assume only what they assume; to
anticipate what they anticipate; to explain what they need explained; to think what they
must be thinking; to feel what they must be feeling, Scalia continued.

Practice writing

At the Scribes award ceremony, Justice Scalia shared another tip: That excellence in
writing can only be obtained with practice and time. These were lessons he learned as a
student in college and as a professor of legal writing at the University of Virginia Law
School.

"I believe I was set on the road to good writing during my first year at Georgetown
College, Scalia said, according to Inc. I had a young professor for English Composition
whose name I still remember, so much angst did he bring to my freshman year. P.A. Orr
was a Canadian, and a damned hard grader; and he gave a writing assignment every
weekend. I was not accustomed to getting the B minuses that I received on my first few
assignments, and as a consequence every weekend of my first semester, I devoted many
nervous hours to writing and rewriting. I am grateful to this day."

Scalia advocated that lawyers practice writing as much as possible, which is a sentiment
shared by many other writing experts.

Read great writing - Legal briefs that are well-researched will always trump those that
are not, and researching includes reading as much legal writing as possible to not only
gain information but to suss out various styles.

Leo Babauta of Lifehack said that one practical tip to improve writing is to read others
and learn from them.

This may sound obvious, but it has to be said. This is the place to start. If you dont read
great writing, you wont know how to do it, Babauta said. Everyone starts by learning
from the masters, by emulating them, and then through them, you find your own voice.
Read a lot. As much as possible. Pay close attention to style and mechanics in addition
to content.

Lawyers should seek out landmark cases and read them to get an idea of how those
attorneys organized and defended their work. They should also read Supreme Court cases
and analyze the way the justices composed their decisions.

Regarding books about legal writing, the following are often recommended by those in
the legal industry:

Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges by Antonin Scalia & Bryan Garner
The Elements of Legal Style, by Bryan Garner
Legal Writing in Plain English: A Text with Exercises by Bryan Garner
The Winning Brief: 100 Tips for Persuasive Briefing in Trial and Appellate Courts by
Bryan Garner
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

When it comes to non-legal writing, high-quality journalism found in publications such as

The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, or The New York Times can help you with
your compositions. Stephen Kings On Writing is also a popular resource for prose writers.

Edit your work - Even the best writers are guilty of misspellings, bad grammar, or
redundancies; and unless you have a copyeditor nearby, you are going to need help
catching your errors. Microsoft Word has a built-in spellcheck, but there are also software
programs available specifically that correct grammar and spelling problems that have an
even better capability.

Four Popular Free Editing Software Programs - Grammarly: Grammarly offers a free
browser plug-in that helps you find spelling and grammar problems in your emails, blog
posts, or other online writing. The company also offers paid software that can help you
find errors that your word processors spellcheck may otherwise miss.

EditMinion: Most people tend to repeat phrases over and over again, and thats where
EditMinion comes in. EditMinions purpose is to find your frequently used words and
phrases so that you can go back in and mix it up.

Hemingway App: The Hemingway App provides a readability score of your work, and it
can inform you how long it takes to read it, how many paragraphs you have, and how
many words youve used. The online editor is free and is well-known for its colorful design
and large font sizes.

Slick Write: Slick Write is a free web-based editor that provides information about your
writing in the following categories: editing, writing, analytics, and thesaurus.

Make sure you understand what your client wants - In your legal career, the majority of
your writing will be on behalf of your clients, so it is important to know exactly what your
clients want no matter what level of attorney you are.

When given an assignment, ask plenty of questions. Read the relevant documents and
take good notes. Learn all you can about the client's situation, Bryan Garner said in ABA
Journal. If you're a junior asked to write a memo or a motion but you aren't told anything
about the client's actual problem, ask what it is in some detail. You must be adequately
briefedand that's partly your responsibility. There's almost no way to write a good
research memo in the abstract. As you're reading cases and examining statutes, you'll be
in a much better position to apply your findings if you know the relevant specifics.
Because client satisfaction is paramount to your practice, it is also advised to write your
work so that your client can understand your conclusions, not just other legal
professionals.

You must summarize in a way that every conceivable readernot just the assigning
lawyercan understand. So don't write your issue this way: "Whether Goliad can take a
tax deduction on the rent-free space granted to Davidoff under I.R.C. 170(f)(3)?" That's
incomprehensible to most readers because it's too abstract and it assumes insider
knowledge. Also, it doesn't show any mastery of the problem, Garner continued. You'd
be better off setting up the problem in separate sentences totaling no more than 75
words: "Goliad Enterprises, a for-profit corporation, has granted the Davidoff Foundation,
a tax-exempt charity, the use of office space in Goliad's building free of charge. Will the
Internal Revenue Service allow Goliad to claim a charitable deduction for the value of the
rent-free lease?"

Conclusion - Writing experts agreeto master the craft, you have to organize your work
so that its readable, and you have to make an effort and put in the time to create
documents that are suitable to your audience.

Dont ever believe that writers are born (not made), Bryan Garner said to The Student
Lawyer in 2002. It isnt true, any more than the idea that golfers or violinists or cooks
are born. The fact is that even those with talentTiger Woods or Itzhak Perlman or
Martha Stewarthave worked extraordinarily hard to develop their technique. Its no
different for writers.

See the following articles for more information:

LawCrossing Guide to Legal Writing for New Associates

Legal Writing as a Profession
Enhancing Your Writing Skills The Key to Success in the Legal World
Legal Writing