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10 Legal Writing Tips From Bryan Garner

  • You will never write as good well as you read, so read seriously and for technique. Subscribe to The New Yorker, The Economist, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. After you’ve completed your legal research, but before you write your brief, pause, sit down, and read an article in The Economist. Then write. It will be a good tonic to your style.
  • Be a lawyer who clarifies and not a lawyer who obfuscates. Judges will trust your writing and you will win more often, even when the merits are not in your favor.
  • Learn how to write proper English. Buy a dictionary, thesaurus, and a writing usage book (or two). If you’re not careful with your grammar, judges will wonder what else you are not being careful with.
  • Challenge inadequate and inefficient legal writing dogmas like putting citations in the body of your writing and double-spacing legal briefs whenever possible and appropriate, but don’t push your luck and lose your job in the process.
  • Write a letter on your business’ stationary stationery each day. If your handwriting sucks, work on that too. All Most literary people have a good hand.
  • Don’t write it if you wouldn’t say it outloud out loud. A good brief should be able to stand up to a strong oratorical reading.
  • Don’t bury your good content. It’s untrustworthy and ineffective. Emphasize and amplify what IS important in your writing. For example, on the first page of your brief clearly and concretely frame your legal and factual issues in a single paragraph no longer than 75 words that ends with the question mark.
  • Find yourself a writing mentor or two. Find the best writers in your firm or department and gravitate towards them. Be careful – you can iron in bad habits as well as good.
  • Write simply and clearly. No one should have to read a sentence twice to understand it’s its meaning, and you should always use the simplest word that means the same thing. If your reader was going to skip your word, sentence, paragraph or quote anyway, omit it from your writing.
  • Don’t stagnate your writing. Work on multiple writing projects at the same time, so you can jump from one idea or style of writing to another. It will keep your mind fresh and you will be more efficient.

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