The busy-ness of law practice

A commenter writes:

The problem is that, ironically, legal practice discourages good writing. . . . [One] reason is that most lawyers take on more work than they can do well. It may be their own fault, but they don’t have enough time to edit and proofread their writing.

This is true, and the commenter is not the first to acknowledge it:

The modern practice of law does not tolerate the type of revisory process necessary to produce a polished product--the "well-managed" law firm has more work to do that it can complete in a given span of time.

Bryan A. Garner, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage 518 (2d ed., Oxford U. Press 1995).

I've quoted this on my blog before, but it is true.