Best Legal Writing Books: Improve Your Legal Writing

Legal Writing: An Introduction

Legal writing is the cornerstone of the legal profession. Whether you are crafting a persuasive argument to a judge, summarizing a case in a memorandum, or drafting a contract, legal writing is a skill that every legal professional needs to master. The ability to communicate your legal reasoning clearly and concisely can mean the difference between losing and winning a case.
For law students , mastering the legal writing process is essential to their success in law school and their future careers. Legal writing assignments often mirror the types of writing professionals will do in practice, which makes legal writing an important part of the educational process.
Whether you are a first-year student learning the basics or a seasoned attorney looking to brush up on your skills, there are many great resources available to help you improve your legal writing.

Books for Legal Writing

George D. Gopen and Judith Swan, The Science of Scientific Writing 1 (1990). Although the authors do not limit their treatise to legal writing, the article long has been a staple among legal writers. It discusses the mechanics of writing such that even an appellate decision will captivate the reader, if done according to scientific principles, based on cognitive psychology.
Bryan A. Garner, The Elements of Legal Style. Bryan Garner is one of the leading legal writing experts today. In this book he compiles many of his shorter articles into a single text that covers a plethora of topics related to legal writing.
Bryan A. Garner, Garner’s Modern English Usage. This text is considered by many the Bible on English usage. It is helpful for all writers, of course, even if you are not a lawyer. It is used in law schools across the country and is published by the Oxford University Press.
Edward D. Re, Legal Writing: Getting it Right and Getting it Written (2d ed. 2006). This is the text for legal writing courses for many law schools. It is one of the few texts that combine writing skills with the practicalities of getting work done on time. Part discussion of theory and part guide to getting work done, it is a great primer.
Jack Remington, Lawyers’ Guide to Writing Well. The original "how-to" style book for legal writers. It is simple and basic and covers most every area that is important to a writer. It is short and simple and gives practical tips to make a big difference.

Classic Legal Writing Books

Legal writing experts have been actively constructing a theory of law teaching for decades. They often follow a pedagogical tradition, coming from their teachers and mentors. The most conventional method of obtaining a legal education is the apprenticeship model. The study of books, both older and contemporary, is part of that process. Every legal writing professor got there some how, and often they cite to the work of those that made a difference in their own legal educations. Typical texts for the first year law student are Richard Neumann’s Learning to Love Statutes and Statutory Interpretation, which can be used for two classes – statutory interpretation and professional responsibility, and his Legal Reasoning & Legal Writing. Heather Hughes and Dean Richard Neumann edited Practical Legal Writing, with contributions from dozens of lawyers and professors. Peter Tiersma’s book is also still highly regarded, as is Bryan Garner’s A Lawyer Writes: A Guide to Writing Legal Briefs, Memos, and Other Legal Documents, even though it’s not widely cited in academia. Some professors also return to other classics they read in law school, such as Stephen Gillers’ Ethics of the English Bar and the American Legal Profession. Professor Michael Cade has written Lee and Harris on Civil Discovery, as well as Revisiting Richard Neumann’s Learning to Love Statutes, his collaboration with Professor Mark Cooney.

Legal Writing Books for Beginners

Book recommendations for beginners — those just starting out in law school or with a legal position that requires them to write legally — include the follows:
A Lawyer Writes: A Practical Guide to Legal Analysis by Christine Hurt and Alan L. Durman (West 2014) 313p. Professors Christine Hurt and Alan Durman, both experienced law professors and practitioners, set out to show you how law school writing is different from other types writing you may have done. They explain how the process of legal analysis works, and how learning this process can make you a better writer. They provide exercises throughout the book for you to do to test your skills. When you have completed the exercises, they tell you how to analyze your results to improve your skills. They also look at common writing problems, such as grammatical errors and how to fix them. They also address common citation and other documenting a source issues. Plus, they take a little time to show you new technology, including Judge Cadena’s opinion generator.
Legal Analysis by Tara Plukett (Valpo Press, 2011) 337p. Tara Plunkett wanted to use legal analysis and writing as a way of teaching students to think like lawyers. She wanted her students, and you, to "understand the formal relationship between law and social behavior and to begin to understand how to function professionally in the legal system." They use hypotheticals in each chapter to explain how to analyze a legal problem, and how to discover the solution. They then provide you with exercise at the end of the chapter to test your understanding of the subject and to introduce you to the next chapter. Like where the authors of A Lawyer Writes, they discuss both grammar and citations. They point out that today more than ever you are called upon to be a persuasive writer. The information they provide will make you a stronger legal writer in all parts of your work.

Advanced Legal Writing Books

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON WRITING CENTER’S ADVICE:
The Writing Center at the University of Houston advises:
Advanced legal writing resources
People with highly developed verbal skills – journalists, for instance – find the intricacies of legal language and legal argument particularly difficult to master. As a result, they spend eight years and thousands of dollars learning how to speak as a lawyer writes. In the past, we’ve consulted with adults who are highly educated with graduate degrees in nursing or business and also find legal writing intricate and difficult.
We thought it might be helpful to recommend several legal writing resources that discuss techniques commonly used to render sophisticated, legal argumentation in clear, correct English. With these resources we hope that skilled writers will appreciate the special challenges of legal writing and will feel empowered .
Joseph Williams and Gregory Colomb’s Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (12th edition, 2004) provides an excellent overview of argumentation in all forms of writing, including academic papers and "boldface" writing such as journalism and advertising. Although Style does not target legal writing, it does a fine job of exposing writers’ common tendencies that make their prose verbose or opaque.
Legal Writing in Plain English: A Handbook for Lawyers and Legal Writers, by Gabriela Wolf provides practical tips for the kind of legal writing we encounter in real life: memos, letters to clients, and opening statements. This practice-oriented resource includes exercises and sample memos and letters.
Plain Style: A Guide to Written English, by Chris Jushko also provides a resource for common legal documents in legal practice. Since the 1980s, Jushko has been the writer’s reference for non-complicated, precise writing.

Legal Writing How-To Books and Practical Guides

Books on practical tips and how-to guides for effective legal writing can be some of the most useful sources of information for practicing attorneys. These texts, many of them short, pithy guides with lots of bullet points, lists of pointers and other helpful information, are ideal for busy lawyers looking for quick solutions to pressing legal writing problems or answers to specific legal writing questions. I regularly consult these types of books when facing legal writing challenges, and I frequently recommend them to both lawyers and law students. The books in this category include:
The New 12 Rules of Persuasive Argument
Alisa Pravda and Jan Margolis, 2006 LexisNexis , 138 pages
A Guide to Writing Law Review Articles
Bruce Dennis and Jeffery Smith, 2008 Carolina Academic Press, 176 pages
Writing When You’re Crazy: How Schizophrenia and Unipolar Disorder Affect Your Voice
Cynthia E. Freeland and Caroline Palomar, 2009 University Press of Mississippi, 96 pages
Legal Writing Handbook
Andrea A. Curcio and Elenore Darnell, 2006 Aspen Publishers, 1404 pages
The Basic Practice Series: Writing a Persuasive Brief
Sandra Jordan, 2007 Upper Deck Press, 60 pages
The Attorney-Client Privilege: A New Look for the Twenty-First Century
Jennifer S. Weisberg, 2008 American Bar Association, 68 pages
Legal Writing Style
Thomas A. Goosey, Dawna D. Johnson and David M. O’Brien, 2002 West Group, 672 pages
Avoiding Legalese
Richard C. Wydick, 2009 Carolina Academic Press, 224 pages
Finding the Right Words: A Guide to Writing More Clearly and Effectively
James Souther, 2008 LA Press, 224 pages

Electronic and Online Legal Writing Books

The advent of e-books has allowed authors to provide additional and bonus materials, such as quizzes, in ways not possible before the digital age. There are now many, many e-books on legal writing, some of which are fleshed-out teaching resources, some are personal stories, some are advanced legal writing, and others are actually a whole course (e.g., "The Law School Toolbox" which we have listed above).
The Law School Toolbox (Ariel Levinsohn and Alison Monahan) umbrella includes an e-book, The Law School Toolbox: Finish Law School (especially the final exam and bar exam), and an online learning platform. This is a very advanced course and book for those law students who want to excel, but is very accessible for those who just wish to improve.
Brian Di Mauro’s The Little Book on Legal Writing is a good entry level book for law students (or practicing lawyers) that want to up their legal writing game. It is very inexpensive.
Legal Writing In Plain English is the Gold Standard for legal writing books. While the hardcover version is much vaunted, the e-book edition has the added electronic interactivity that an e-reader allows.
Legal Research and Writing for Paralegals (Advanced) is a more advanced legal writing course for future legal experts, who will be dealing with much more complex legal writing assignments.

How to Choose a Legal Writing Book

When it comes to selecting the right legal writing book, the challenge lies in matching your current level of proficiency, the specific area of your practice and the challenges you frequently face with a volume that trains you to be a better legal writer and what we’ll refer to as legal cognoscente. In other words, how do you know which is the right book at for your particular level of skill and level of need? Many factors come into play. First, of course, is what type of writing you do most. As mentioned above, this group can be roughly categorized as research (memos); persuasive writing (letters, briefs, motions or complaints) or transactional (agreements and similar documents).
Second, how often do you write? Is your legal career primarily your writing career? If so, books addressing style and eviscerating over-reliance on legalese are likely critical to having a more successful legal career. While you might read the occasional treatise on writing (LawReviewWrit, Six Rules for Writing Good Legal Foo, for example) you would be probably best served by reading the books mentioned in the next section of this piece.
Third, do you follow a standard legal-style manual (Bluebook, ALWD, etc.) or does your firm subscribe to something like The Chicago Manual of Style? If so, you may well want to consider spending time with either of the two books mentioned in the next section as they both explain generally accepted rules of style. One of the interesting aspects of the legal writing business is the lack of real consensus around rules like whether to italicize foreign words or number points in a series. Finally , do you regularly proofread other lawyer’s work, or often do you edit others’ work? If you don’t, you may still benefit from reading one of the books on editing below, but if you spend significant time proofreading and editing, the information in one of these books will be invaluable.
If you are a prospective law student, there are a couple of entries below that are ideal for you. First, if you are particularly concerned about how to format your writing and citations, the resources at A Beginner’s Guide to Brief Writing are specifically directed toward a law student audience.
Second, if you wish to understand some of the basic writing and citation parameters you’ll encounter in law school, try Jeffrey L. Fisher and Jane Kamensky’s One-Year Law School Memo. This guide is offered as an 18-month trial premised on the theory that a recent law school graduate will be able to get the benefit of the guide by downloading it just after graduating and using it throughout the period. This is definitely worth a try, and at a price of $4.99, it’s not quite as much of a risk as one of the books discussed above.
Since this blog post is intended to be as timely as possible, we won’t be able to tell you exactly what you should read here. However, with the books below in mind, we’re sure you can make up your own minds.