Superior Legal Writing

Under Dan White’s guidance, your lawyers will learn to produce concise, forceful, professional documents that you’ll be proud to say came out of your office.

You and your entire firm are judged by every piece of writing that goes out the door. Superior Legal Writing & Editing— innovative, interactive and even entertaining — provides the tools, coaching and practical insights to carry every one of your lawyers’ writing to the next level. This will translate into bottom-line impact for your firm — with judges, clients and even opposing counsel. Good writing wins motions, cases, clients and respect.

Your associates aren’t lacking in intelligence. Far from it. But most lawyers have never been taught to write well. What they were taught in law school was to spot every argument, discuss every case, and throw in everything even remotely related. Also, of course, to "sound like a lawyer." Conciseness was never mentioned. Loose, flaccid prose was never penalized. The danger of boring a judge to the point of not reading your brief never came up.

White grasps the problem. He understands the critical difference between what law schools reward and what law firms require. And, in three short hours, he can start the process of turning under-performing writers into more successful, articulate and persuasive attorneys.

With a lifetime of experience — as a successful practitioner, writer, editor and speaker — Dan helps lawyers master the skills critical for effective prose like:

• rigorous overall organization;
• effective use of leads and headings;
• construction of taut, rigorous sentences and paragraphs;
• proper word usage; and
• self-editing.

Mastery of the written word — the ability to produce clear, direct, persuasive writing — is one of the undisputed hallmarks of legal excellence and professional success. Add this critical tool to your practice, and enhance your reputation (and your firm’s reputation) for skill and excellence.

Program Outline & Schedule (3 hours*)

I. Understanding the Task (20 minutes)

a. What are you preparing? Brief, memorandum, letter?
b. Who is your audience? Partner, senior associate, client, judge?
c. Why are you preparing it? Persuade, inform, preserve research?
d. When is it due? Time-related issues: deadline, editing, “draft.”

II. Fundamental Principles of Composition (30 minutes)

a. Brevity
b. Clarity
c. Obstacles to overcome
    (i) law school v. law firm (ii) OCD (iii) “word processor trap” (iv) ignorance

III. Organization (40 minutes)

a. Problem-solving, finding themes
b. Steps of writing
(i) brainstorm (ii) research (iii) outline (iv) reevaluate (v) compose (vi) edit
c. Structural Issues
(i) Openings (ii) Sections, subsections (iii) Headings (iv) Paragraphs

15 Minute Break

IV. Sentence construction (30 minutes)

a. Syntax and Word Choice
b. Consistency of nouns and verbs
c. Location of modifiers
d. Parallelism
e. Punctuation

V. Word Choice, Usage Issues (15 minutes)

VI. Editing & Review (15 mintues)