LawyersUSA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Daniel Schaefer, 27, a second-year student at The George Washington University Law School, spends hours writing research papers for school.

But as a summer associate at Dickstein Shapiro, a 400-lawyer firm based in Washington, D.C., his deadlines are tighter and his assignments more focused.

"In law school, you have a lot more time to tackle a subject, and you could write 100 pages on anything," said Schaefer, a Pittsburgh native. "But in a law firm setting, that's not always what the assigning attorney or partner wants. That's one of the biggest challenges – figuring out how much information is appropriate."

To help summer and first-year associates master the firm's writing style, veteran attorneys act as personal writing coaches. The coaches read and review associates' written assignments, and offer individualized criticism.

Associates also attend writing classes in the firm's offices, and have the opportunity for one-on-one coaching with an outside writing consultant.

Elaine Metlin, a partner and co-chair of the firm's professional development committee, said that associates' writing styles "can often be kind of academic in nature, rather than persuasive. They have to learn to change that, especially if they're going to be litigators. So, helping them make that transition is a really important part of the program."

Dickstein Shapiro is among a growing number of law firms with in-house writing programs.

Sullivan & Worcester, a 185-lawyer firm based in Boston, offers seminars aimed at helping associates hone specific writing skills, such as "writing persuasively" and "advanced legal writing and editing."

Ojen Sirin, the firm's development manager, reviews associates' written assignments. Associates can also receive individual help from outside writing coaches.

Ross Guberman, president of Legal Writing Pro, near Washington, D.C., said law firms have been driven to establishing writing programs by the steady decline in the quality of associates' writing.

"Many partners say that the writing is getting worse and worse every year," Guberman said. "Every new class of law students is worse than the one before.

"Some of it is over-confidence," he explained. "Writing is the one thing associates think they're the best at, and the one thing partners think they're the worst at."

Computer-fluent Millennial lawyers – used to cutting and pasting, instead of writing and revising – tend to "cobble together" their thoughts, Guberman said.

Sloppy copy

Common problems include careless proofreading, use of the passive voice and wobbly sentence structure.

Associates often have pre-conceived notions about what constitutes good legal writing, Metlin added. For example, she said, "They start throwing in phrases like "as such." Who talks like that?"

Other legal-writing pitfalls, according to Metlin, include:

• Wordiness.

"There is a notion of having a theme and repeating it, but saying the same thing over and over is not really that effective."

• Legal jargon.

"If you really understand something you should be able to explain it to your mother, your juror, your 10-year-old kid. I also think you ought to be able to write it."

• Muddled thinking.

"Sometimes I think people start to write before they truly understand something, and the unclear writing is sometimes a manifestation of unclear thinking. When you are doing something for a court you can't expect they're going to parse your brief three or four times. They're going to read it once if you're lucky."

'Be specific'

But convincing a group of lawyers their writing needs work isn't easy.

"It's a very anxiety provoking topic," Guberman said. "Writing seems to have a kind of emotional resonance in people that other skills don't."

Guberman suggests partners be as specific as possible when making suggestions about an associate's writing.

For example, he said, "Don't tell them to be concise; tell them what words and phrases you want them to cut."
So far this summer, David Engelhardt, a partner in Dickstein Shapiro's antitrust section and Schaefer's writing coach, has given Schaeffer concrete suggestions to improve his writing.

For example, after reading a choice-of-law memo Schaeffer had written, Engelhardt suggested Schaefer tighten the introduction to make the point of the memo clearer.

"I think the way he phrased it was that I almost got there, but didn't entirely get across what was to come," Schaeffer explained. "As you read through my memo, that became apparent. There was more I could have done to set it up and give the reader a better understanding of what was to come."

'Refresher course

An increasing number of state and local bar associations also offer writing seminars.

At a recent "Effective Writing for Lawyers" workshop sponsored by the D.C. Bar Association, 20 students labored to shorten sentences, tweak transitional phrases and circle grammatical errors in a 90-page workbook.

"Avoid redundant, empty, bureaucratic and Latin terms," advised teacher Kate Sylvester, a former journalist and partner in Writewell, a D.C. writing consulting firm.

Most of the lawyers were there for continuing legal education credit; some had been sent by their firms to improve their writing. Sylvester said the course is also popular with lawyers who have been out of the work force for several years and want to refresh their writing skills.

H. Lalla Shishkevish, the D.C. Bar's director of continuing legal education, said the writing program – which includes a basic and advanced class – is so popular that a writing class is scheduled almost every month, and always sells out.

Michael Goad, legislative counsel for the U.S. Coast Guard who edits junior attorneys' writing, said he took the class as a refresher.

While he makes an effort to write in "plain English," instead of legalese, he's also "surrounded by a lot of bad writing," he said.

"It's always good to take a step back and review basic writing rules," Goad said.

Questions or comments can be directed to the writer at nora.tooher@lawyersusaonline.com