Professional Writing For Lawyers

This book is an introduction to integrating professional ethics into legal writing. By providing an ethical context for all forms of legal writing, Johns introduces the reader to the responsibilities attached to every document a lawyer authors. The book starts the reader off in law practice, stressing the need for ethical responsibility, civility, and professionalism in the practice of law. Professional Writing for Lawyers is designed to complement Richard Wydick's Plain English for Lawyers. By using these books together, readers will learn to approach writing as a process of thinking, outlining, drafting, revising, and editing to produce a final draft. To help the reader understand this process, several examples are rewritten, integrating the principles of Plain English that teach the reader to develop a clear, concise, and readable style. A teacher's manual is available.

From a master teacher and writer, a fully revised and updated edition of the results-oriented approach to legal writing that is clear, that persuades—and that WINS. More than almost any profession, the law has a deserved reputation for opaque, jargon-clogged writing. Yet forceful writing is one of the most potent weapons of legal advocacy. In this new edition of Writing to Win, Steven D. Stark, a former lecturer on law at Harvard Law School, who has inspired thousands of aspiring and practicing lawyers, applies the universal principles of powerful, vigorous prose to the job of making a legal case—and winning it. Writing to Win focuses on the writing of lawyers, not judges, and includes dozens of examples of effective (and ineffective) real-life legal writing—as well as compelling models drawn from advertising, journalism, and fiction. It deals with the challenges lawyers face in writing, from organization to strengthening and editing prose; offers incisive ways of improving arguments; addresses litigation and technical writing in all its forms; and covers the writing attorneys must perform in their daily practice, from email memos to briefs and contracts. Each chapter opens with a succinct set of rules for easy reference. With new sections on client communication and drafting affidavits, as well as updated material throughout, Writing to Win is the most practical and efficacious legal-writing manual available.

In Point Made, Ross Guberman uses the work of great advocates as the basis of a valuable, step-by-step brief-writing and motion-writing strategy for practitioners. The author takes an empirical approach, drawing heavily on the writings of the nation's 50 most influential lawyers.

This best-selling book outlines the causes and consequences of bad legal writing and prescribes straightforward, easy-to-apply remedies that will make your writing readable. Usage notes address lawyers' most common errors, and editing exercises allow readers to test their skills, making this an invaluable tool for practicing lawyers as well as a sensible grounding for law students. New sections in this edition: - Getting to the point - Communicating digitally - Writing persuasively - Twenty-five common mistakes"--Provided by publisher.

'Legal Writing' emphasises the link between legal writing and ethics as it guides readers through phases of the writing process and helps them develop effective legal writing skills essential for both academic and professional contexts.

This eminently practical volume demystifies legal writing, outlines the causes and consequences of bad writing, and prescribes straightforward, easy-to-apply remedies that will make your writing readable. Complete with usage notes that address lawyers' most common errors, this well-organized book is both an invaluable tool for practicing lawyers and a sensible grounding for law students. This much-revised second edition contains a set of editing exercises (and a suggested revision key with explanations) to test your skill. This book is a definitive guide to becoming a better writer—and a better lawyer.