What I wish I had known about legal writing--part 2
2. I wish I had known that becoming a good legal writer would take years.
I thought I was a good writer in college. I also thought the basic training I received in law school would enable me to write well in practice. I was wrong.
I just finished reading the book Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. In it he reports on a theory of developing expertise. The theory suggests that it takes 10,000 hours to develop expertise in a particular area. If the theory is right, it certainly applies to legal writing. So if you work 2000 hours per year, and you spend 1000 of those hours writing, becoming an expert legal writer would take you 10 years. That's a long time.
But it's not enough to just do the skill for 10,000 hours. You need to work at it--study, learn, and implement what you've learned. If you don’t study your craft--if you just write on auto-pilot--it will take you more than 10,000 hours. And if you write for fewer than 1000 hours per year, it will take you more than 10 years. It could take you 15 or 20. I wish I had been aware of that long haul.
As an aside to the law students and young lawyers reading this, may I say that I sometimes hear from senior attorneys that law students and young lawyers are ineffective legal writers. This bothers me because it is unrealistic to expect high-quality legal writing from novices who have spent far fewer than 10,000 hours practicing legal writing. I believe these often misguided complaints arise from two causes: First, some complainers are not expert legal writers themselves and are not in a position to fully judge expert legal writing. Second, some complainers have forgotten how ineffective and inexpert their own legal writing was when they were novices. Hang in there, young lawyers.
________
Wayne Schiess, author of Preparing Legal Documents Nonlawyers Can Read and Understand
I thought I was a good writer in college. I also thought the basic training I received in law school would enable me to write well in practice. I was wrong.
I just finished reading the book Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. In it he reports on a theory of developing expertise. The theory suggests that it takes 10,000 hours to develop expertise in a particular area. If the theory is right, it certainly applies to legal writing. So if you work 2000 hours per year, and you spend 1000 of those hours writing, becoming an expert legal writer would take you 10 years. That's a long time.
But it's not enough to just do the skill for 10,000 hours. You need to work at it--study, learn, and implement what you've learned. If you don’t study your craft--if you just write on auto-pilot--it will take you more than 10,000 hours. And if you write for fewer than 1000 hours per year, it will take you more than 10 years. It could take you 15 or 20. I wish I had been aware of that long haul.
As an aside to the law students and young lawyers reading this, may I say that I sometimes hear from senior attorneys that law students and young lawyers are ineffective legal writers. This bothers me because it is unrealistic to expect high-quality legal writing from novices who have spent far fewer than 10,000 hours practicing legal writing. I believe these often misguided complaints arise from two causes: First, some complainers are not expert legal writers themselves and are not in a position to fully judge expert legal writing. Second, some complainers have forgotten how ineffective and inexpert their own legal writing was when they were novices. Hang in there, young lawyers.
________
Wayne Schiess, author of Preparing Legal Documents Nonlawyers Can Read and Understand
Amen. It just makes me feel inadequate some days to think that it took me *years* to learn the things I've learned. Years. And I'm still learning, and I'm 56.
Wayne says:
You're normal.
Reply to this
Wayne,
Thanks for this entry. It prompted me to read Outliers too (at least the 10,000 hour chapter).
I wholeheartedly agree with your concern over young lawyers being deemed "ineffective legal writers" by more experienced counsel. That kind of stigma can really hurt a lawyer at the outset of her career. Good legal writing is indeed a learn-able skill, and it's great to know there are legal writing instructors out there with this perspective (even if it is not so prevalent in the halls of big law firms!)
Reply to this