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Write This Way

[Jennifer Birn] Putting words on paper: A lawyers guide

A diligent young lawyer -- you, for example -- can spend weeks researching a client issue. The customary product of that effort is, of course, a memo or document. A concise and clear summation of your findings. The problem is, law school trained you to do the opposite -- professors wanted too much information rather than just enough, and Law Review writing was intricate and verbose. To avoid such wordiness, weve assembled this concise and clear guide to writing documents that are downright literary.

anyone else. A few other ways to simplify your work: Use monosyllabic words at least 60 percent of the time, says C. Edward Good, a counsel and writer in residence at the Reston, Virginia, offices of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow & Garrett. No need to whip out the calculator, but scan a paragraph once in a while. Good estimates that one-syllable words comprised about 70 percent of Oliver Wendell Holmess opinions. Write in short, declarative sentences. Aim for an average sentence length of 15 to 20 words. The reader will move quickly and smoothly without getting bogged down in sentences that go on and on and on and on and on. Dont lard your prose with superfluous information. People tend to think if one citation is good, 15 are better, says Cohen. Theyre not. Your argument gets lost in the padding.

the final product should be.

3 ORIGINALITY WINS The Internet has

made it tempting-and easy-to pull a document from a brief bank and model yours after it. Using a standard form as a starting point, to see how others have handled similar situations, is a fine idea. Cutting and pasting from their work is not. When crafting your final product, says Cohen, raid the recycling bin only as a reference. Not only are you treading dangerously close to plagiarism, you may be cribbing from inferior work. Just because a document is in a brief bank doesnt necessarily mean its a good document, or better than what youd come up with, Cohen says. Also, dont rely on documents written decades earlier by lawyers in your firm. Form and style often change, even within a practice. Ask your assigning lawyer if the firm has an up-to-date style guide.

1 KEEP IT SIMPLE The objective of every writing assignment is to convince the reader that your position is the correct one. So your writing needs to be, well, convincing. Keep on a single, defined path thats always going in the same direction. The classic red flag is when a memo or brief meanders, identifying issues, cases, and other tourist attractions along the way, says Peter Sloan, a partner in Kansas Citys Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin. Youre less likely to be distracted by detours if you stick to a plan (ideally one youve discussed with the assigning partner at the outset). Make an outline, and as you unearth the facts, file each one in the appropriate section. The final step: String them
all together. While most outlines end with an entry called Conclusion, yours should be revealed up front. The Sixth Sense this isnt. Its not a good idea to keep people guessing about the conclusion, says Steven Cohen, a litigation partner at New Yorks Kronish Lieb Weiner & Hellman. Read through your draft. If it fails to convince you, it probably wont sway

4 FOLLOW THE RULES The rules of 2 DONT SHOW OFF Forget legalese. Being a lawyer doesnt mean throwing around big, lawyerly words. There is no place in a sophisticated law practice for legal gobbledygook, says Sloan. Plain English is the only
kind of writing partners expect. You can always pick an associates very first brief out of the pack, says Cohen. They get into this mode where they use words that people never use, such as whereas. If its not a word youd say, then dont write it. (Unless, of course, you normally use an abundance of profanity and backwoods slang when discussing cases.) Speak your memo into a dictaphone first, then transcribe it. Chances are youll have a first draft thats near what Helpful resources abound, from reference books (see box above) to proofreaders at your firm. Take advantage. grammar, that is. Do you know when to use that instead of which? Whom instead of who? (Are you sure?) Shabby grammar shows laziness and lack of interest-qualities that probably do not appear on your resume. Aim for cleanliness in every sentence and in the document as a whole. Identify the documents structure, transition, and phrasing, says Sloan. That means not mistaking your computers spell-check and grammar monitors-those squiggly red and green linesfor editing.

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5 BE THE CLIENT Blanket rule: Assume

anything you hand in will go straight to the client. This may not be true, but it happens. Ask other people-your office mate, assistant, even the partner on the deal-to be your readers. They may spot errors youve missed, from errant semicolons to faulty logic. The painful part is that sometimes your most important work wont end up in the final draft. But sometimes you need to put down everything you know so you have a nice, thick trunk of information from which you can whittle your intricate argument. The secret to good writing is rewriting-then more rewriting, says Cohen. No matter how much time you spent putting something into a memo, you shouldnt be afraid to take it out. Once youve completed a draft, do another, and another. Theres no such thing as a first draft, second draft, third draft, and final draft, says Cohen. Its a process that only ends when you run out of time. Its a quest for perfection that is never achieved. Maybe so, but you can come damn close.

Four titles to keep on your shelf at all times ... except when youre using them:

Strunk & Whites The Elements of Style Plain English for Lawyers by Richard C. Wydick Essential English Grammar by Philip Gucker Merriam Websters Dictionary of Law

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