Tale of the Law School Professor

I used to teach a writing course to first-semester law students. I’m not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. But this brilliant little law school where I worked decided it wanted “real” writers to teach its student how not to write like stereotypical lawyers.

As a professional copywriter and creative writer, I had a blast. I championed the use of contractions, conversational tones, and first person viewpoints. Of course, the problem is that the legal profession has certain standards and expectations. The rules of formal writing prevail when it comes to writing legal briefs and contracts. You can’t use contractions in your wills or contracts, and no one cares about “me” or “you” in legal briefs–you need to write them in third person. Still, I think students got the point we were trying to make: don’t make your writing overly complicated.