Strategic Legal Writing

Book excerpt: Many legal writing texts emphasize how one writes; this book is unique because it also focuses on why one writes. Every chapter challenges the reader to write to achieve a strategic objective. Each assignment has been carefully considered by the authors, and fully vetted to simulate the decision-making involved in the preparation of important legal writing, whether in a general counsel's office, a law office, a government attorney's office, or a judge's chambers. Simply put, the authors' approach is that effective legal writing does not exist in a vacuum. This book provides practical assignments that teach the student that the best legal writing is not an end in itself, but a means to a larger strategic objective.