Book Review of The Lawyer's Guide to Writing Well, by Tom Goldstein and Jethro K. Lieberman
Journal of Legal Education, Vol. 66, No. 2, pp. 439-44 (2017)
Northeastern University School of Law Research Paper No. 302-2017
7 Pages Posted: 8 Nov 2017
Date Written: 2017
Abstract
In the third edition of The Lawyer’s Guide to Writing Well, Tom Goldstein and Jethro K. Lieberman describe various approaches lawyers take to starting their writing. Goldstein and Lieberman ask the writer to consider, before and above all other things, the audience. For a legal writing text, this could be legal writing professors, law students or practicing lawyers. This book seems meant primarily for the third group, the practicing lawyer. While the authors spend too much time arguing the proposition that lawyers are generally poor writers, the rest of the book, especially with regard to the nuts and bolts of writing, is very helpful. The authors correctly treat “writing” as not just the process of putting words on a page, but include a useful section on the important and often-ignored process of editing.
Keywords: Legal Writing
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