LawProse Lessons

Many legal briefs resemble medieval manuscripts—dense, austere, and allergic to imagery. Illustrations appear mostly in patent cases, where a circuit diagram or a sectional view can seem mandatory rather than inspired. Yet visuals shouldn’t be confined to the technocratic side of litigation. The law traffics in relationships—chronological, causal, hierarchical—that words often strain to display. A […]

A researching lawyer should refine the question to be addressed in a research memorandum. Why? The phrasing of that question determines the entire direction, clarity, and utility of the resulting analysis. Many junior lawyers mistakenly assume that the assigning lawyer has already articulated the most precise question possible. In reality, though, the initial formulation is

Will writing skills still be necessary in the age of AI? Absolutely. AI’s integration into composition shifts the focus from composing basic text (available to everyone) to higher-level human skills like reviewing, curating, and enhancing AI outputs. High-level writing tasks—including legal drafting, literary style, and persuasive argument—remain a uniquely human domain in which style, tone, and ethical

 Let’s assume you’re not hopelessly wedded to space-wasting legalistic openers—“Now comes . . . by and through . . . and respectfully states . . . ,” etc. That’s a way to start something, and a supremely bad one at that. It squanders the most precious space you have: your beginning. Perhaps lawyers resort to

Do you know how to use AI in a way that avoids the common pitfalls and instead enhances your practice? Do you know the best, most reliable AI program to use—one that cites accurate sources? Do you know how to compose effective prompts? Do you know the best types of questions to pose? Are you

 What’s the most important writing style for lawyers to learn? It’s straightforward, functional prose—a style that conveys meaning distinctly and concisely; that spares readers all unnecessary effort; that presents ideas simply, briskly, and logically; that has every word and every punctuation mark serving the ideas being expressed. True, there are many styles of writing. Some

Lawyers have gotten into trouble for using AI. Why? They’ve used it to write their briefs, and judges have discovered imaginary (“hallucinated”) cases being cited. Many, many lawyers are therefore scared to try AI at all. Others continue to rely on it unduly. For the first time ever, in this season’s CLEs, Professor Bryan A.

From the Staffers at LawProse Inc: People are often skeptical of online instruction. “Oh no, another Zoom call!” Dreadful as many such calls may be, the skeptics are dreadfully overgeneralizing. In fact, as our seminars with Professor Bryan A. Garner demonstrate, online instruction can be engaging—even scintillating. How does he do it? (1) While lecturing, he

If you’re defining a term, how do you signal throughout the rest of the document that it has been defined? If you’re like 99.9% of American lawyers, you simply capitalize it. A real-estate formbook has a provision that reads: “‘Substitution Space’ means another space in the Shopping Mall having a similar gross leasable area as

In contracts and other types of legal drafting, a “topic sentence” for a paragraph is typically a general proposition (stating a duty or a right) that is elaborated with various specifications and exceptions over the next several sentences. As in all writing, contractual paragraphs should be cohesive. Yet because we generally inherit our contracts—at least

 To improve your writing, try focusing on well-structured paragraphs that guide your reader smoothly through your ideas. Solid writing divides ideas into units, each paragraph being devoted to a single main topic or point. Paragraphing in this way helps the reader follow your argument and grasp the progression of your thoughts. Starting each paragraph with

Although be-verbs—especially is, are, was, and were—remain central to our language, good writers moderate them. They’re sluggish. Action verbs, by contrast, make writing go: they kick, jolt, jump-start, halt, fly, flash, dampen, upset, soothe, hurt, and heal. You get strength from good verbs. Want to improve a draft? Try this: on your computer, search for

Why do lawyers, whose profession is essentially literary, tend to write so poorly? (Don’t deny it.) It’s because even the most talented ones read only what other lawyers write. On the whole, lawyers aren’t big readers—except on the job. After a day of scrutinizing cases, briefs, demand letters, regulations, etc., the last thing most want

During a break at a recent in-person seminar, a lawyer came up to me and said: “I’m a lot like you. I care about language and writing—and I know a lot. But there’s one big difference between us. You say you let law students and young lawyers edit your work. I’d never do that. Frankly,

As an advocate, what are your two most important words? Can you even identify their part of speech? Verbs? Nouns? Remember: we’re asking about two particular words, not types of words. Do you give up? They’re conjunctions—and subordinating conjunctions at that. The words are because and although. These words occur often in first-rate persuasive writing. Clunky writers, naturally enough, use

It’s perhaps easy to forget that persuasion depends on a choice between competing positions—and therefore a conflict. As Aristotle taught us, there’s no reason to persuade if there’s no sense of choice. Argument is useful only if more than one course of action is possible. We argue and attempt to persuade only when people clash

Everyone is constantly bombarded by persuasive messaging—only some of which works. It’s not just advertisers who want us to buy or politicians who want us to vote or donate. It’s also friends and colleagues who want us to support their ideas. Persuaders today have found more and more sophisticated ways of reaching us, even if

What are good writers like? We might generalize from decades of experience:

People who write regularly tend to write well and to enjoy it; people who write infrequently tend to write poorly and to dread it. So how can you enhance your (ahem) regularity? We recommend seven steps: With an inward emotional commitment to write—even if it’s just personal letters—you’ll find that all your writing will improve.    

We’ve noticed a trend. Some junior lawyers get frustrated by having a boss rework everything they write. Instead of analyzing and learning from the changes and then redoubling their efforts with each new writing project, they detach themselves and begin turning in half-baked work. If asked why, they say something like this: “Harold’s just going