"Here's the good news: writing isn't a talent. It's a skill. And skills respond to the same cure as every other skill: reps. Not glamorous reps. Not the kind that gets applause. The kind you do in small rooms, when no one is watching, when you're a little uncomfortable, when you want to quit halfway through because the sentence you just wrote feels like wet cardboard. That's the work."
"Stop writing to impress. Start writing to be understood. Most legal writing problems aren't "writing" problems. They're intention problems. When lawyers sit down to write, too many of them are trying to: sound smart; sound formal; sound "lawyerly"; avoid being wrong; and cover every base. That's how we end up with prose that's technically correct but emotionally dead. It reads like it was drafted by a committee that hates the reader."
"If you take nothing else from this column, take this: Your job is not to sound like a lawyer. Your job is to help a reader decide. That reader might be a judge who has 70 motions on the docket. Or an adjuster who is scanning your demand at 11:30 p.m., or a general counsel who is trying to explain your advice to a CEO who doesn't speak legal. Write to be understood. Everything else is ego."
Composition is a skill that improves through repeated, focused practice rather than innate talent. Improvement requires unglamorous, private repetitions such as drafting quickly, outlining themes, and rewriting until sentences feel strong. Legal communicators often prioritize sounding smart, formal, or lawyerly, or covering every base, which produces technically correct but emotionally dead prose. The primary goal is to help a reader decide, not to impress. Clarity is professionalism and a form of kindness that respects readers' time. Clear composition requires doing hard thinking up front so the reader can follow the reasoning easily.
Read at Above the Law
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