Legal Ease

How you write has become as important as what you write. Complex legal issues, frustrated clients and a demanding judiciary all dictate that a lawyer’s writing skills reflect his or her mastery of the law. This seminar will help you to materially improve your writing!

Martha Faulk’s practical, enthusiastic approach to the critical subject of legal writing draws unrestrained praise from lawyers and the judiciary in every venue she appears. She demonstrates tactics to improve your writing style and revise it for clarity and impact.

Seminar exercises (optional, but highly recommended) focus on actual legal documents — letters, motions and briefs — and will help you analyze your routine legal writing. Faulk shows you how to use the tools of effective writing to present your cases in a compelling and winning style.

Flawed writing will compromise your effectiveness as an advocate. Learn how to recognize and improve both ponderous legal language and faulty organization.

Faulk is a lawyer, writer and gifted instructor, who will coach you and your colleagues toward a winning style of writing by sharing simple techniques you can use to let your mastery of the law shine through. Build your foundation for successful legal writing now.

Highlights

• Master the 10 commandments of clarity.
• Discover a practical method of sentence analysis.
• Recognize the benefits of a psychological approach to readability.
• Analyze legalese and lawyerisms vs. terms of art.
• Gain appreciation for a reader’s response to tone.
• Learn to avoid words that discourage readers.

Program Outline & Schedule (6 hours)

[Part I: 90 minutes]

Focus on Problem Areas

• Factors that discourage readers
• Avoiding density, complexity and difficulty
• Making your point effectively and efficiently

[15 minute break]

[Part II: 90 minutes]

Case Example in Legal Writing

• Determining the audience
• A delicate balance: brevity and completeness

[Lunch]

[Part III: 90 minutes]

Constructing Sentences and Paragraphs

• Logic and coherence
• Psychology of readability

Exercise in Editing

• Eliminating excess words
• Vigorous communication: using nouns and verbs

[15 minute break]

[Part IV: 90 minutes]

Rules for Clarity

• Making it easy for the reader
• Efficiency for the writer

[Adjourn]