Legal Writing

A legal writer is a sort of technical writer. The best legal writers use short sentences for complicated thoughts, utilize active verbs, and make sure the voice is confident and able for anyone to understand. Some documents people use legal writing for include:

• Company policies
• Business processes
• Policies and procedures manuals

In law school, legal writing mainly pertains to the presentation of arguments in legal memos and briefs. Law students learn to present their case and findings clearly and concisely. However, many law school graduates and lawyers can apply their writing skills to various fields, not just crafting arguments. Legal writing skills can be helpful for lawyers, paralegals, copywriters, corporate writers, journalists, news analysts, and human resources professionals.

Good legal writing streamlines the subject matter, making the result a very concise and compelling form of communication. Legal writing can be found within almost all organizations, from employee handbooks to job descriptions to onboarding paperwork for new hires.

There are three stages of the step-by-step legal writing process:

• Research stage—spend a lot of time researching and acquiring accurate information
• Writing stage—follow style guides and policies to compose a document
• Post-writing stage—prepare the final draft and begin implementing

A legal contract is an agreement between private parties that creates mutual obligations enforceable by law. If you ever face a lawsuit, you will need to be able to prove four elements to verify that a contract legally existed:

• Offer
• Consideration
• Acceptance
• Mutuality

Ensuring that any contract you use includes these elements at a minimum can help to protect you if that contract is ever challenged in court.

Yes. Two parties can create their own contract, and it can be binding. However, certain standard operating procedures and specific policies should be included in the template of your legal contract.