Seminar teaches the opposite of what you learned in law school
The ad for a legal-writing CLE seminar makes this claim:
In this seminar, appellate attorney [instructor] advocates brevity,
simplicity and clarity - the opposite of what lawyers learn in law school.
This is offensive--deeply and painfully offensive.
Just kidding. I'm pretty hard to offend. It's just funny. It's just marketing. Selling.
Not a single legal-writing teacher in the nation teaches anything remotely close to "the opposite of brevity, simplicity, and clarity." Come on.
The practicing bar and judges "teach" (perpetuate) length, complexity, and obscurity much more than legal-writing teachers do. The legal-writing teachers swim endlessly against that tide.
I feel better now.
Hat tip to Set in Style by Mister Thorne.
5 Comments:
Perhaps you're a bit touchy here, Wayne. The ad says that the seminar "teaches the opposite of what you learned in law school", not the opposite of what your legal writing professor tried to teach you.
Unfortunately, law students learn legal writing from sources other than their legal writing professors: case books, law reviews, other professors, each other, etc. It's hard to convince students not to write like many of the judges and law professors they read.
Yes, I'm definitely touchy. Sorry.
You're right though. It's a sure bet that most bad writing habits learned in law school weren't learned in legal-writing class. Good point.
What I find more disturbing is the suggestion that "lawyers" learn legal writing in law school. Last I checked, law students--not lawyers--attended law school.
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Law students learn legal writing not by copying the style they read, which actually is a lot better than their own. They learn by doing, in producing their main output, course exam answers. They are graded for the number of correct points they include, with no penalty for irrelevance and often none for error. From this experience arises their conviction that inclusiveness is the key to success.
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