Write Like the Best Legal Writers

Improve your practice by sharpening your legal writing skills with Justia Webinars! Write Like the Best Legal Writers discusses the craft of legal writing, how lawyers can improve their legal writing skills, and why writing matters. Attendees will examine various examples that illustrate the five main strategies for improved legal writing: writing for non-lawyers, building a story arc, using shorter sentences, words, and smaller ideas, eliminating passive voice, and reading the final draft out loud.

Topics covered include:

Legal Writing Law Practice Professional Development

Agenda:

Introduction to Improving Your Legal Writing

What are the common issues in poor or passable legal writing?
What are the characteristics of strong legal writing?

How to Write Like the Best Legal Writers

Write for a non-lawyer audience
Build a story arc
Use shorter sentences and smaller ideas
Eliminate passive voice and wordiness
Finalize by reading aloud
A study of three passages by three renowned legal writers

Legal Writing Resources

Ross Guberman, Point Made: How to Write Like the Nation's Best Advocates
Bryan A. Garner, The Winning Brief
Stephen V. Armstrong, Timothy Terrell, et al., Thinking Like a Writer: A Lawyer's Guide to Effective Writing and Editing
Using spell check, grammar check, Grammarly, and ChatGPT

ChatGPT and Legal Writing: Round Table Discussion

Can ChatGPT and AI make writing more efficient?
Are there ethical issues in using AI for legal writing?
What are some other AI tools for legal writing beyond ChatGPT?
Identifying sentences written by ChatGPT
How will AI affect law practice?

Questions & Answers

Duration of this webinar: 60 minutes

Originally broadcast: February 03, 2023 11:00 AM PT

Webinar Highlights

This webinar is divided into section summaries, which you can scan for key points and then dive into the sections that interest you the most.

00:02 Introduction

The speaker, David Kemp, has a background as an adjunct professor and managing editor. He outlines the agenda, identifying three levels of writing competence: poor, passable, and strong. David discusses the transition from passable to strong writing, emphasizing the importance of reading and emulating strong writers. He introduces three renowned legal writers: Justices Elena Kagan, Antonin Scalia, and Robert Jackson. David highlights the clarity in Justice Kagan's writing and Scalia's emphasis on knowing the audience. He stresses the importance of writing for a non-lawyer audience by avoiding jargon and using clear language.

10:32 Techniques for Effective Legal Writing

David analyzes Justice Kagan's use of short sentences and simple language to make her writing accessible. He examines Scalia's use of sentence length variation and metaphors to emphasize key points. David highlights Justice Jackson's storytelling approach, focusing on the individual's story to make a compelling argument. He advises building a story arc in writing, using repetition and clear structure to guide the reader. David emphasizes the importance of active voice and concise writing, using examples from the Justices' opinions. He discusses the benefits of reading writing aloud to identify awkward sentences and improve clarity.

27:46 Tools for Improving Legal Writing

David recommends resources like Ross Guberman's 'Point Made' and Bryan Garner's 'The Winning Brief' for improving legal writing. He introduces tools for improving writing, including Microsoft Word's spell check and Grammarly. David explains Grammarly's advanced features, such as tone adjustments and plagiarism checks, which aid in refining writing. He then discusses the recent development of ChatGPT.

33:06 The Role of AI in Legal Writing

David explains ChatGPT's capabilities in drafting documents and its limitations in factual accuracy. He highlights the potential of AI tools to assist in writing but emphasizes the need for human oversight. He mentions ethical concerns with AI, such as confidentiality and plagiarism. David suggests that AI can be a helpful tool for efficiency but is not yet a replacement for human writers. He encourages legal professionals to explore AI tools while being mindful of ethical considerations.

53:22 Concluding Thoughts

David highlights the importance of balancing traditional legal tools with emerging AI technologies. He suggests seeing AI and ChatGPT through the lens of a dialogue that helps both human writers and AI improve. David discusses the potential for AI to perpetuate bias and misinformation if not carefully monitored.

Please note this AI-generated summary provides a general overview of the webinar but may not capture all details, nuances, or the exact words of the speaker. For complete accuracy, please refer to the original webinar recording.

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Credits

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California CLE

Status: Approved

Credits: 1.00 General

Earn Credit Until: June 30, 2026

South Carolina CLE

Status: Approved

Credits: 1.00 General

Difficulty: All Levels

Earn Credit Until: December 31, 2025

North Carolina CLE

Status: Approved

Credits: 1.00 General

Earn Credit Until: February 28, 2026

Texas CLE

Status: Approved

Credits: 1.00 General

Earn Credit Until: January 31, 2026

This presentation is approved for one hour of General CLE credit in California, South Carolina (all levels), and North Carolina. This course has been approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of Texas Committee on MCLE in the amount of 1.00 credit hours.

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Speaker

David Kemp Adjunct Writing Professor at Rutgers Law School

David Kemp is an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School and former legal writing professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He teaches legal writing and professional responsibility. He is also the managing editor of Verdict, a website offering legal analysis and commentary, and The Oyez Project. He received his BA in psychology from Rice University and his JD from Berkeley Law, where he served as the Senior Executive Editor of the California Law Review and co-Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Journal of African-American Law & Policy.