8 Reasons to Improve your Legalese

What this episode covers

It’s essential for lawyers to develop their legalese properly. In this podcast I provide 8 pieces of wisdom to really get your legalese on the right path. Specifically in this podcast you will learn: Why clients need to appreciate how smart you are, and how using legalese can really help you in that respect Why your charge out rate is related to your need to use big words, and how as you increase in seniority you really should start using bigger words and more legalese, lest your clients abandon you are a simpleton; How to make judges love you by creative use of latin and other dead languages, and twists, turns and convolutions at every stage of advocacy; Improving your sentence structure and length by significantly increasing your use of the word “and” as well as modifiers and (subject to point 5 below) use of commas; How punctuation is ruining your career, making you seem stupid, and otherwise allowing people to understand what you are talking about (which is not a good thing); Why to ignore the myth of plain English drafting which is proliferated by people who don’t know what they are talking about – the reality being that proper use of legalese will catapult you into a better position in life; How to avoid using paragraphs, and why the “wall of text” needs a proper revival in all forms of legal drafting, legal writing and communication; Your obligation to your parents and how the cost of your education leaves you beholden to them to use big words and complex sentence structure. Hope you enjoy! If you’d like some less sarcastic tips on legal writing, check out my article Assignment to Advice. Check out the rest of the Legalese Series: Celebrating the Incomprehensible An Exercise in Legal Drafting and Legalese Striking the Right Tone It’s essential for lawyers to develop their legalese properly. In this podcast I provide 8 pieces of wisdom to really get your legalese on the right path. Specifically in this podcast you will learn: Why clients need to appreciate how smart you are, and how using legalese can really help you in that respect Why your charge out rate is related to your need to use big words, and how as you increase in seniority you really should start using bigger words and more legalese, lest your clients abandon you are a simpleton; How to make judges love you by creative use of latin and other dead languages, and twists, turns and convolutions at every stage of advocacy; Improving your sentence structure and length by significantly increasing your use of the word “and” as well as modifiers and (subject to point 5 below) use of commas; How punctuation is ruining your career, making you seem stupid, and otherwise allowing people to understand what you are talking about (which is not a good thing); Why to ignore the myth of plain English drafting which is proliferated by people who don’t know what they are talking about – the reality being that proper use of legalese will catapult you into a better position in life; How to avoid using paragraphs, and why the “wall of text” needs a proper revival in all forms of legal drafting, legal writing and communication; Your obligation to your parents and how the cost of your education leaves you beholden to them to use big words and complex sentence structure. Hope you enjoy! If you’d like some less sarcastic tips on legal writing, check out my article Assignment to Advice. Check out the rest of the Legalese Series: Celebrating the Incomprehensible An Exercise in Legal Drafting and Legalese Striking the Right Tone

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