Why legal writing isn't what it should be
- Our primary and secondary education system doesn't adequately emphasize writing education.
- Law schools must focus on teaching legal analysis, leaving little time to focus on finer points.
- Lawyers imbibe lots of poor writing in judicial opinions.
- Lawyers rely on precedent documents that are often poorly written.
- Many lawyers writing a legal analysis digest the authorities superficially; many doing drafting understand the transactions superficially.
- Many lawyers maintain a misguided sense of professionalism, which often leads to an unnecessarily formal writing style that ignores audience needs.
- A majority of lawyers are complacent about their writing, believing something like this: "my writing is pretty good--above average or better."
- The time pressure of law practice doesn't allow enough revising and editing to produce a quality product.
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