Be an Expert in Legal Research Writing – Simple & Effective Tips

by Gia Glad Cogneesol

When students in law schools take their first tentative steps towards a full professional legal career, they have a lot on their minds. The primary ones are learning the wider nuances of law, developing skills in legal research writing and most importantly, analysis of the law in specific cases.

However, in the midst of all these facets, one very crucial side often gets relegated to the back burner and that is legal writing and the need for clear and effective communication.

All the best legal brains from lawyers to researchers, from legal staff to legal secretaries should have the ability to write well. It should be in a manner that opens up the finer points of law to the full comprehension of those it is intended for. But surprisingly, as a lawyer or researcher you might have a great deal of legal acumen but might be found wanting where legal writing is concerned.

How then can you improve your legal writing abilities, starting from mundane emails to complex briefs for the higher courts of law?

Listen to your editor – Not everybody is lucky enough to have an editor proof read legal writing. But if you do, make the most of it. An editor’s job is to correct minor errors in your writing and strengthening the piece by perfecting the language. Legal parlance is in a world of its own and quite different from books and newspapers. An editor is well trained and has the skill sets to modify your piece to make it just right from the point of view of specific legal type prose. He will do his work but you should learn from the experience. Never think that just because you are good in law you will be good in languages too. Now is the time to dump that ego if you have one and take full advantage of the editor’s expertise. It will be good for you throughout your career.
Learn from the experts – The best way to pick up the ropes and be a master in legal writing is to learn from the masters themselves. Read, read and read the judgments of Court justices and the briefs prepared by legal luminaries. You might not even have to look over the horizon; there might be a lawyer or a researcher in your own law firm who might have optimized the art of legal writing. Follow their works closely and analyze how they have slowly started and proceeded with their brief. And remember there is no standardized format for legal writing. Every piece that you type in or write should bear a distinctive style of your own and should be as per the needs of the appropriate audience.
Get to the point quickly – Legal writers often tend to be elaborate and try to attain the finest opening one liners followed by the first paragraph in the same style. By the time the main points in the middle of the brief have been reached, they tend to lose their way and become superfluous. Instead, what you should do is to quickly get off the blocks and finish the introductory part as soon as possible. Focus more on the main points and analysis that follow. Build up your piece layer by layer with each point blending in seamlessly with the one before and after.
Improve with practice – While following guidelines of master practitioners of legal research writing will surely help, becoming one yourself will depend on how you mature over time and make the most of your experience. The keyword here is practice and the more you do so the better you will get in this art. Start afresh for every write-up with a clean mental state. Don’t carry forward the baggage of the last piece you wrote. This will bring a high level of uniqueness to your writing and every piece will have your special stamp of authority.

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