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Legal Writing Tips

If you are interested in learning more about legal writing tips, we've gathered some wonderful resources about it on this page.

If you are interested in learning more about legal writing tips, we’ve gathered some resources on it below. Check back here for more comprehensive resources in the not-too-distant future.

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Typography for Lawyers and Law Firms

Plain English Legal Writing

Persuasive Legal Writing

Contract Drafting

How to Write a Legal Brief

Page edited by the Lawyerist editorial team. Last updated January 6th, 2019.

Posts About Legal Writing Tips

Write Better Legal Documents with an Editing Checklist

By Evan Schaeffer on April 14th, 2017

How to Turn Lawyers into Better Writers

By Cari Twitchell on August 12th, 2016 13 comments

First Look: WordRake Proofreading Software

By Lisa Needham on May 12th, 2016

ClearText: Write with Words People Can Actually Understand

By Sam Glover on April 7th, 2016

One Day, This Legal Thesaurus Will Help You Pick The Right Words

By Lisa Needham on March 23rd, 2016

Spell-Checkers Won’t Catch These Usage Bungles

By Matthew Salzwedel on January 8th, 2016

We Tried to Create the Worst Legal Writing Possible

By Sam Harden on October 19th, 2015

Want To Destroy Your Case? Throw In The Kitchen Sink.

By Brendan Kenny on September 23rd, 2015

Why Creativity is Important to Good Lawyering

By Kate Mangan on June 29th, 2015

Do NOT Let Your Client Write Your Petition for a Writ of Certiorari

By Sam Glover on February 27th, 2015

How to Write More Effective Opening Paragraphs

By Sam Glover on August 26th, 2014

How Laws Are Written So You Ignore the Important Parts

By Lisa Needham on June 13th, 2014

Argle-Bargle, Mumbo Jumbo, and Other Legal Gobbledygook

By Guest on January 26th, 2014

Astroturfing to Technethics, the New Vocabulary of Ethics

By Megan Zavieh on September 25th, 2013

Faux Words of Precision—Part 1

By Matthew Salzwedel on September 4th, 2013

Judge: “Never send me something unless someone less dumb than you has read it first.”

By Sam Glover on June 24th, 2013

Legal Writing Wars: Seeking Precision

By Andy Mergendahl on June 22nd, 2013

Origins of the Legal Writing Wars: Constructing Sentences

By Andy Mergendahl on June 15th, 2013

Origins of the Legal Writing Wars, Part Three

By Andy Mergendahl on June 8th, 2013

Origins of the Legal Writing Wars, Part Two

By Andy Mergendahl on June 1st, 2013

Origins of the Legal Writing Wars, Part One

By Andy Mergendahl on May 25th, 2013

Judges Want You to Add Links to Your Pleadings

By Sam Glover on May 8th, 2013 15 comments

Use 5-Cent Words for 10-Dollar Ideas

By Matthew Salzwedel on April 24th, 2013

Storytime: How Lawyers Can Use Narrative Techniques in Brief Writing

By Guest on April 16th, 2013

Let’s Consider “Deem” Dead

By Andy Mergendahl on April 11th, 2013

Effective Writing is Efficient Writing

By Matthew Salzwedel on March 27th, 2013

Correct People’s Writing, Not Their Speech

By Andy Mergendahl on March 14th, 2013

When Writing, Don’t Fear Absurd Arguments

By Andy Mergendahl on February 21st, 2013 21 comments

Face It — Bad Legal Writing Wastes Money

By Matthew Salzwedel on February 20th, 2013

Don’t Miss These Marks in Your Legal Writing

By Matthew Salzwedel on February 6th, 2013

Building Your Vocabulary Can Hurt Your Writing

By Andy Mergendahl on January 24th, 2013

More Than One Way to Skin the Legal Writing Cat

By Chris Bradley on January 14th, 2013

The Pitfalls of Sentence Adverbs in Legal Writing

By Matthew Salzwedel on January 9th, 2013 11 comments

Be Safe When Using Flat Adverbs

By Andy Mergendahl on January 3rd, 2013

Hone Your Writing Skills with Point Made: How to Write Like the Nation’s Top Advocates

By Josh Camson on December 26th, 2012

Legal-Writing Resolutions for 2013 (Part Two)

By Matthew Salzwedel on December 19th, 2012

Fear Has No Place in Legal Writing

By Chris Bradley on December 17th, 2012

Legal-Writing Resolutions for 2013 (Part One)

By Matthew Salzwedel on December 12th, 2012

Striking Introductions Make Memorable Legal Writing

By Matthew Salzwedel on December 5th, 2012

Persnickety Lawyers Hyphenate Phrasal Adjectives

By Matthew Salzwedel on November 21st, 2012

Simple Legal Writing a Newfangled Idea? Hardly.

By Matthew Salzwedel on November 14th, 2012

When the Partner Hates Your Brief

By Sybil Dunlop on November 13th, 2012

Do “Sexting” and “Mash-Up” Belong in the Dictionary?

By Andy Mergendahl on November 8th, 2012

Random Musings on Usage in Legal Writing

By Matthew Salzwedel on November 7th, 2012 11 comments

Smart Firms Cultivate Their Legal-Writing Talent

By Matthew Salzwedel on October 24th, 2012

Avoiding Sexism in Legal Writing—Man-Ending Nouns and Salutations

By Matthew Salzwedel on October 17th, 2012

Stop Misusing “Such”

By Andy Mergendahl on October 11th, 2012 13 comments

Avoiding Sexism in Legal Writing—The Pronoun Problem

By Matthew Salzwedel on October 10th, 2012 13 comments

Don’t Waste Your Time Writing Law-Review Articles

By Matthew Salzwedel on October 3rd, 2012

Use Blockquotes When You Have a Point You Don’t Want to Make

By Sam Glover on October 3rd, 2012

Eschewing Comfort Words in Legal Writing

By Matthew Salzwedel on September 26th, 2012

Segways, and Other Homophonic Legal-Writing Blunders

By Matthew Salzwedel on September 19th, 2012

Legal Writing by Committee (or How to Manage the Cooks)

By Matthew Salzwedel on September 12th, 2012

Scrubbing Adverbs From Legal Writing

By Matthew Salzwedel on September 5th, 2012

Legal Writing as Clear Thinking

By Matthew Salzwedel on August 22nd, 2012

Beware of False Writing Snoots

By Matthew Salzwedel on August 15th, 2012

Bloated Legal Writing? Try the Writer’s Diet, But Don’t Stop Exercising

By Matthew Salzwedel on August 8th, 2012

Rebutting Ethos and Pathos in Legal Writing

By Matthew Salzwedel on August 2nd, 2012

It’s 2012 — Nix Latinisms in Your Legal Writing

By Matthew Salzwedel on July 25th, 2012 19 comments

A Brief Guide to Editing Like a Pro

By Chris Bradley on July 5th, 2012

Eliminating Nominalizations/Buried Verbs in Legal Writing

By Matthew Salzwedel on July 3rd, 2012

Is Good Legal Writing Inherited or Developed?

By Matthew Salzwedel on June 27th, 2012 12 comments

Legal Writing: Ditch “Here-and-There Words”

By Andy Mergendahl on May 24th, 2012 12 comments

Create Superb Legal Writing With the ‘Fictional Dream’

By Chris Bradley on May 18th, 2012

Three Things You’re Doing to Hurt Your Writing

By Josh Camson on March 28th, 2012

Marc Randazza’s Entertaining—and Effective—Legal Writing

By Sam Glover on March 15th, 2012

Write Better Than a Second-Rate Poet

By Chris Bradley on March 6th, 2012

20 Grammar Mistakes You Should Stop Making

By Sam Glover on February 10th, 2012

Flow and the Art of Lawyering: Part 3

By Chris Bradley on February 7th, 2012

Strong Legal Writing: A Guide

By Josh Camson on January 20th, 2012

Flow and the Art of Lawyering: Part 2

By Chris Bradley on January 10th, 2012

Flow and the Art of Lawyering: Part I

By Chris Bradley on December 13th, 2011 12 comments

Read Widely to Improve Your Legal Writing

By Chris Bradley on October 18th, 2011

Fiction and Legal Writing: Three Surprising Similarities

By Chris Bradley on September 20th, 2011

Don’t Look Dumb: Proofread Your Writing

By Graham Martin on September 6th, 2011

Unblock Legal Writing With Confession

By Chris Bradley on August 30th, 2011

The Oxford Comma and Other Punctuation Issues

By Karin Conroy on August 18th, 2011 29 comments

Legal Writing: Slash Verbosity

By Andy Mergendahl on August 17th, 2011

Legal Writing to Win a Pulitzer

By Chris Bradley on August 16th, 2011

Redundancies Clutter, Cloud, and Complicate Legal Writing

By Andy Mergendahl on August 10th, 2011

Thy Legal Writing Shall Not Include “Shall”

By Andy Mergendahl on June 12th, 2011 26 comments

Law Firm Style Manual: Why You Need One, How to Make One

By Guest on February 14th, 2011

Details Can Make or Break Your Brief

By Randall Ryder on November 4th, 2010

Use CleanHaven to Edit Briefs

By Randall Ryder on September 21st, 2010

The Elements of Style: Obsolete?

By Sam Glover on July 7th, 2010 11 comments

Improve Your Legal Writing: Just Say It

By Randall Ryder on June 10th, 2010

10 Legal Writing Tips From Bryan Garner

By Leora Maccabee Itman on April 23rd, 2010 14 comments

Using Scrivener for Legal Writing

By Nicole Black on February 26th, 2010 14 comments

Make Time for Outlines

By Randall Ryder on December 22nd, 2009

Avoid Passive Voice (Most of the Time)

By Sam Glover on August 20th, 2009

How to Improve Your Legal Writing

By Sam Glover on July 9th, 2009