Clear, Concise, Compelling: Elevating Your Legal Writing

Legal writing is a fundamental skill for attorneys, yet traditional legal writing instruction can be limiting. This course aims to help lawyers elevate their writing by learning from great authors outside the legal field.This program will explore valuable resources from renowned writers such as George Orwell, James Baldwin, and Virginia Woolf, each offering unique perspectives on the art of writing. For example, Orwell’s Politics and the English Language emphasizes the importance of clarity and precision in language, encouraging writers to avoid jargon and convoluted constructions. Challenges writers to consider the relationship between language, culture, and identity, offering a powerful reminder of the emotional impact that language can have on its audience. Virginia Woolf’s A Letter to a Young Poet provides timeless advice on cultivating one’s voice and developing an authentic, purposeful style. By examining these writers’ works, attorneys will gain insights into how to craft writing that is clear, concise, engaging, persuasive, and resonant with readers.Participants will learn to identify common issues in legal writing, understand the limitations of conventional legal writing instruction, and discover strategies to improve their writing by applying techniques from these influential writers.The course is designed for attorneys at all levels who use written English in their practice and want to refine their writing skills.Learning Objectives:

Production Date: 1/25/2025 | Closed captioning (CC) available