A Lawyer Writes: A Practical Guide to Legal Analysis

by Christine Coughlin, Joan Malmud, Sandy Patrick

Whether you are starting law school or preparing to start the practice of law, you need to learn the essential skills and theory of your trade. A Lawyer Writes puts the reader in the place of a first-year attorney tasked with real life assignments. In doing so, it teaches law students not only how to succeed in law school, but also how to succeed in the practice of law. The book uses graphics and visual samples to demonstrate the variety of ways in which attorneys write effectively, showing best practices in both traditional and electronic environments. Speaking to its reader in a straightforward manner, A Lawyer Writes communicates essential skills and theories so that they will be retained for a lifetime of legal practice.

Genres: Law, Legal

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 20, 2008

Reviews

[Meredith Holley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Legal writing = lamest form of communication ever. Wait, I'll write that legally:

A court of me is very likely to find that legal writing is excessively lame. Under my law, writing is lame when it bores the reader and fails to efficiently inform. Me. Sartre defines boredom as a state where there is simultaneously too much and not enough. Being and Nothingness. Writing fails to efficiently inform when it follows a mindlessly rigid structure that requires redundancy. Me. In legal writing there are simultaneously too many words and not enough interesting things to say. Likewise, the strict rules regarding word choice in legal writing require a writer to repeat words and phrases in a manner that does not effectively communicate actual meaning. Therefore, a court of me, very likely, will find that legal writing is lame.

End legal writing.

I should say, one of the professors at the University of Oregon helped write this book, and I really like her, so I'm not against the book, just legal writing. It's so much lamer than twitter, it's not even funny. That's another point: twitter is funny, legal writing is not. Maybe they'll let me break out of writing oppression soon. If not, there's always Canada. Student loans can't get me in Canada, right? That should be the first thing they tell you in law school.

[Amy]

Not as engaging as you'd think, what with the snappy title and all.

[Ellen Heiman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very practical, will possibly reference back to this during internships !

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this cover to cover (for real) and found it super helpful during the semester's LRW class.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would not have survived writing in law school without this and plan to keep it into practice. Great examples.

[Emma Wallace · Rating 2 out of 5]

🗑️

[Ben Monks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book to learn from my writing is better now and more like a lawyer. Thumbs up go law school!

[Harrison McPherson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe this book is good for a licensed attorney. The author writes assuming the reader already knows certain aspects of law. Unfortunately, the book is usually used as a first year book for 1Ls. This means the students are still learning the concepts, they are already assumed to know, as they are reading it. This was very confusing and caused our professor to change books.