Writing Effectively This Summer: You’re Not in Law School Anymore
Today’s issue of Standout Summer Associate comes from Julie Schrager who is the Senior Legal and Business Writing Coach at ArentFox Schiff. With thanks to Emma Okey (Vanderbilt) and Micah Villanueva (Chicago-Kent) for their helpful comments!
Picture this: you’re in your summer job, and an assigning lawyer asks you to draft a memo analyzing how Arizona law applies to your client’s potential breach of contract action. Same kind of thing you wrote in law school, right? But maybe not. Writing effectively requires understanding your readers. And your readers this summer are different from your law school legal writing professors. How do I know this fact? Because I taught 1L Legal Research and Writing before becoming an in-house legal writing coach at a large law firm. I see how successful summer associates pivot from writing for legal writing professors to writing for busy law firm lawyers.
Here are three ways your summer readers are different and how you can write effectively in a new professional environment.
The Assigning Lawyer Hasn’t Fully Thought Out the Assignment: At many law firms, you’ll receive a short blurb setting out an assignment and have a follow-up conversation about it. But the assignment will not be carefully crafted and communicated as it was in law school. How can you address this challenge? Come to an assignment meeting with a checklist of questions and an open and curious mind about the task. Before you leave the meeting, try to act brave (even if you don’t feel it) and say, “Thanks for meeting with me. Let me make sure I understand the assignment. You’d like me to [fill in here].”
The Assigning Lawyer Doesn’t Know the Answer to the Question: Legal writing professors know what you are going to say before you say it because they created the assignment, did the research, and know the answer. Practicing lawyers aren’t in this situation – you’re doing the work to answer the question. You can address this challenge by 1) writing a clear and precise email or memo that 2) includes the necessary factual and legal context; and 3) answers the specific question.
It’s Only a Small Part of the Assigning Lawyer’s Job to Teach You: Legal writing professors are paid to teach you and to read and comment on your writing. Law firm lawyers are not, and they haven’t been trained to comment on writing, so getting helpful feedback can be more challenging. Here is a suggestion: when you have a feedback conversation, ask the assigning lawyer for a few ways you might have improved your memo. These specific words can prompt lawyers to more fluently share their thoughts.
When you better understand your reader, you’re even more well prepared to write effectively this summer.
Keep standing out.
More about Julie Schrager
Julie is committed to breaking down barriers that may interfere with new lawyers being successful and therefore spends significant time working to integrate summer associates and new associates into legal practice. She also holds writing workshops at law schools around the country, including U. Chicago, Howard, and Iowa this school year.
Before Julie became an in-house legal writing coach, she taught first-year legal research and writing at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Earlier, Julie served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Division of the United States Attorney’s Office in Boston. And before that, Julie was an associate at Arnold & Porter in Washington, where she practiced in the litigation and legislation areas.
Julie graduated from Harvard College and the University of Chicago Law School.
