Use them to put your reader in the shoes of your client. Instead, emphasize facts you think are important. Don’t use conclusory words, such as obviously, clearly, or surprisingly. Tell your client’s story, not your conclusions.If one of the top legal writing experts in the world can approach writing with such simplicity, maybe we all can, too? Here’s the advice that Gary gave about legal writing. Luckily, we can be better legal writers when we stop trying to sound like TV lawyers and focus on clear, simple communication. This bogs down our writing and makes every document an exhausting slog. And we don’t trust our judgment about which issues to focus on. So we give too much deference to what has been written before. Those mistakes stem from lacking confidence that our words will be enough. Gary pointed out that, because we want people to take us seriously as lawyers and we don’t feel that we’ve earned it yet, we make mistakes. Imposter syndrome is particularly prevalent at the beginning of your career. How Imposter Syndrome Leads to Bad Writing So we try to signal we are smart lawyers-and that’s where we go wrong. In our efforts to avoid growing pains, we want to “write like lawyers” straight away. But we’ve had only a handful of opportunities to write legal documents. That has got me thinking: Maybe bad legal writing stems from feeling like we’re imposters?Īccording to Gary, we expect ourselves to be expert writers when we’re just starting practice. I feel released from the expectation to “sound like a lawyer.” Some of my own imposter syndrome melts away.
Because he uses plain language, conversations are accessible and the advice seems manageable. Every time, it amazes me that Gary is so down-to-earth and that he doesn’t sound like a lawyer or professor. He’s someone I’ve long admired, so I jump at every opportunity to get his advice on legal writing. I’ve been working with Gary Kinder, the founder of WordRake, for over 18 months now.
But do those feelings affect our legal writing? It’s the feeling that you’re an incompetent fraud-and it’s just a matter of time before others discover. How Imposter Syndrome Leads to Bad Legal Writing (and Seven Tips to Fix It)Įvery young lawyer knows imposter syndrome.
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