Bryan Garner, leading legal lexicographer and editor of Black Law Dictionary, advocates plain English legal drafting that replaces archaic legalese with clear, precise structure. Effective legal writing builds judicial trust, sharpens argument focus, and improves client outcomes.
Read Serious Prose Before Writing Legal Briefs
Garner emphasizes that legal writers rarely write better than the quality of prose they consume. Before drafting a complex court brief or contractual instrument, advocates should read high-quality non-legal publications to recalibrate their tone, sentence variety, and clarity.
Lawyers who immerse themselves in disciplined, crisp prose develop stronger control over rhythm, transition, and vocabulary. Students enrolled in a practical legal writing course practice reading professional journalism and essays to eliminate dense legalese from their legal drafts.
Clarify Arguments to Build Judicial Trust
The primary duty of an advocate is to clarify complex legal principles rather than obfuscate facts. Judges operate under severe time constraints and appreciate briefs that present clear legal issues without unnecessary Latinisms or convoluted sentence structures.
Key strategies for clear legal drafting include:
- Frame legal issues on page one in a single paragraph of under 75 words ending with a question mark.
- Place key conclusions at the beginning of sections rather than burying them at the end.
- Use active voice verbs and keep subjects close to their verbs for immediate readability.
- Eliminate redundant word pairs such as null and void or give, devise, and bequeath.
Adhering to fundamental principles of legal writing helps advocates structure persuasive arguments that withstand judicial scrutiny.
The Art of Aggressive Editing and Revision
Drafting is only the initial stage of producing high-quality legal work. Bryan Garner recommends dividing the drafting process into distinct phases: deep legal research, outline creation, initial drafting, and aggressive self-editing.
During the editing phase, writers must review each sentence to remove unnecessary prepositions, shorten long paragraphs, and verify statutory citations. Guidance on plain language drafting is published by the Official US Plain Language Action Network. By treating editing as a separate, rigorous discipline, legal professionals produce persuasive briefs that win cases on merit.