The Services Of A Legal Writing Coach

By Essie Osborn


Lawyers are always needed to write their presentations in a specialized way. Their writings need to bring out the full expression of their analysis of various problems or issues and be able to convince third parties when representing their clients. The main point is that the documents needs to be concise, clear and following the rules and regulations set by the legal profession. This is where a legal writing coach comes in.

In the legal field, there are two kinds of writings which are common to attorneys. The first kind includes those documents sent to fellow legal professionals in the office and letters addressed to the client. It is required of these writings to create a balance on the stated problem. Therefore, the background of the recipient has to be given some consideration as well as his/her interests.

These two documents mentioned above will actually be written in a different way because the office memoranda is being addressed to a legal professional and the letter to someone who may not be understanding the law. For instance, when writing to a fellow colleague in the office, he/she cannot go on defining basic law terms used in the document as it would be expected of if when addressing the client. Otherwise, he may only be annoying the other lawyer.

The other type of writing is the persuasive one. This includes writings such as negotiation letters being sent on the behalf of the client and appellate briefs. Here, the lawyer needs to put out his point straight without arousing any provocations by making the other party to feel disrespected. He should also not write unnecessary information to the individual as this would be just a waste of time. If a document is being presented to an administrative agency or a court of law, then it must be written in the right style.

Lawyers are also tasked with drafting contracts and wills. They, however, need to write them very keenly in order to ensure that the interests of the client are well presented. There is therefore a unique platform that they are supposed to follow, and this is why there are guides to help them in writing.

The uniqueness of these writings is what has led to the development of coaching lessons for lawyers. The main aim is to ensure that when an experienced reader gets hold of the document, he/she can be able to analyze the authorities sited in it as well as understand the information being presented. The coach will therefore train the lawyer into knowing the right format for citations according to court rules and also how briefs and memoranda need to be presented in court.

The process will first start with the lawyer presenting his/her coach with the legal writings he/she has done before. The coach will then review the document while checking out for the style, structure and substance in it. The legal talent of the client is therefore natured once he/she gets to learn the techniques of self-editing.

As seen, coaches use past writings of their clients to teach them. There are those who will first check out for the English used in the document before analyzing the structure, tone, logic, integrity, persuasiveness and balance of the document. They will then give their comments and go through it once again with the student.




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