Bryan Pattison’s article, Writing to Persuade, published recently in the Utah Bar Journal describes the daily life of a litigator so accurately, that I feel compelled to include it verbatim.  From Writing to Persuade:

“What kind of lawyer are you?” The answer, of course, is easy: “I’m a litigator,” you respond. As you bask in the glow of that term and envision yourself in the courtroom shredding a witness on cross, you get the follow up question: “So what do you spend most of your time doing?” You think back to the past week. Then the week before that. The picture of the cross-examination fades. Time to come clean. “Writing,” you answer.

As Mr. Pattison points out, litigators are professional writers, as are all lawyers, but litigators seem to be in denial about the nuts and bolts of their trade.  According to Bryan Garner, “There are only two things lawyers get paid for: writing persuasively and speaking persuasively.” Bryan A. Garner, Garner on Language and Writing 20 (2009).

My Legal Writing students were horrified to learn that they would be spending 60-70% of their time WRITING, especially in the first few years of their careers as lawyers.  In Writing to Persuade, Mr. Pattison interviewed several “deciders” – judges from all levels of Utah courts.  Each “decider” provides a few kernels of wisdom on effective writing and for the most part, the advice  is simple and it basically comes down to the following from Writing to Persuade.

What were you thinking about the last time you wrote a brief or trial court memorandum? Sticking it to opposing counsel? Sticking it to the trial judge who botched your case? Impressing your client with your mastery of legalese? Or perhaps just getting something on paper and filed before the 5:00 p.m. deadline? If so, hit reset. Because the success of your writing depends solely on how the judge receives it, the starting point to persuasive legal writing is to write with your judicial reader in mind.

For more advice from the “deciders,” visit the full post here.