Q. What is legal writing?
Answer
That’s a good question! There are many possible answers, and some will even argue that there’s no such thing as “legal” writing: they say that all writing is writing and there’s no need for the “legal” qualifier. For our purposes, we think that all writing undertaken by lawyers as part of their profession is legal writing and that’s what the Legal Writer’s Toolkit and these FAQs are designed to help with. That means we’ll try to help you with interoffice memos and briefs, but also with business letters, contracts, and even resumes.
Q. Will the materials on the Toolkit be accessible for legal writers with disabilities?
Answer
Yes! The Toolkit was designed with accessibility in mind and all materials should be available and useful to everyone. Should a particular segment of the Toolkit not be accessible, please let us know and we will work as rapidly and diligently as possible to correct the problem.
Q. I’m a skilled writer in other areas. Do I really need a site devoted to helping me become a better legal writer?
Answer
Perhaps not. Some people (although fewer than you might think) make the transition from experienced writer in other fields into strong legal writer easily. Others struggle with some of the formal and linguistic requirements that characterize legal writing: the simplicity of sentence structure and the emphasis on Plain English are just two of the expectations to which many find it difficult to adapt. The Legal Communication and Research faculty will help you to adapt to this new style of writing and the Toolkit will provide materials that will prepare you for your LCR classes, augment and support you while studying, and remind you of what you studied. If you’re comfortable making the transition to becoming a legal writer, you’re free to not use the Toolkit to help you. But if you find yourself with questions about some aspects of legal writing, at any time, the Toolkit will be there to help you.
Q. Can I just view the content on the Toolkit and not go to my Legal Communication and Research classes?
Answer
No! That would be a disastrously bad idea! The Toolkit is designed to supplement and reinforce the concepts you discuss in your LCR classes, but it not in any way intended to substitute for those concepts. An asynchronous approach to writing support can be effective, but it is not intended to be, nor would it be successful as, a substitute for the intensive, in-person, writing tuition you get at SUCOL. We can remind you of some of the concepts you’ve learned in class, and we can reinforce some of the things your Professor said to you in class, but we can’t teach you from scratch. There’s no substitute for going to class, exploring with your colleagues the best way to become a legal writer, and regularly submitting your work for your Professor’s comments. You can’t do any of that with the Toolkit.
Q. Am I required to use the Toolkit?
Answer
No! Individual Professors might ask you to view parts of the Toolkit’s materials, and that’s a matter between you and your Professor. But there’s no institutional requirement that you view some, any, or all of the Toolkit’s materials, and there are no exams, or grades associated with the Toolkit. Some of the Toolkit’s materials might have questions for you to answer in order to help you learn the material better. But there’s no record kept of your answers and your answers won’t be relayed to anyone or kept on our system. The service is there to help you if and when you need it. You decide, and you’re in control!
Q. If I use the Toolkit, will my involvement be kept private?
Answer
Yes! The Legal Writer’s Toolkit has no way to record the identities of its users, nor will we try to identify any person who uses our materials. We’ll be happy to speak with you about the Toolkit if you’d like to contact us, of course, but there’s no requirement to do that and you can use the Toolkit’s materials in complete anonymity.
Q. Are there any restrictions on how and when I use the Legal Writer’s Toolkit? Do I need to register to use it?
Answer
No! The materials for the Toolkit will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You will be able to access the materials when you like, where you like, and as often as you like. There are no restrictions to how many times you watch a particular segment or use any of the tools in the Toolkit. There are no forms to fill out or any type of registration process. All that’s required for you to use the Toolkit are your interest, a computer, and an internet connection.
Q. The information contained in a Toolkit segment appears to differ from the approach I was taught by my Professor or Supervisor. What should I do?
Answer
Follow the advice of your Professor or Supervisor! The Toolkit is designed to give good, accurate, general information about legal writing. We can’t address every specific situation, and we can’t address the personal preferences of individuals. So if a Professor or Supervisor gives you specific advice about writing that appears to contradict something you see or hear in a Toolkit segment, you should follow your Professor or Supervisor’s advice, not ours! One of the first rules of all writing, not just legal writing, is that the reader is always right. When a Professor or Supervisor tells you how that person would like to read something you’ve written, you’re getting advice directly from the reader. That’s a precious commodity and you should always pay attention to it.
Q. I’m having trouble with an assignment I’m working on for LCR. Can I talk to someone who works with the Toolkit in order to get some help?
Answer
No! The only people you can talk to about a current assignment are your LCR Professor and your LCRA. Talking to anyone else – another Professor, another student, a family member, or someone you’ve just met in the street – runs the risk of being an Honor Code Violation, which is not something you want on your record. At present, the Toolkit isn’t set up to respond to individual consultations about assignments that have already been submitted and graded, although it’s possible that we’ll be able to do that in the future.
Q. I’m an alum of the law school and don’t have the same restrictions about documents being written for a grade. Can I talk to someone who works with the Toolkit about something I’m working on?
Answer
No! Even if you could get a waiver of the attorney/client privilege and the work product doctrine that would allow us to look at something you’re working on for your firm, it would be too complicated for us to verify that we wouldn’t be causing you ethical difficulties and besides, we don’t have the staffing to allow us to conduct individual meetings at the moment. If this changes, we’ll make a note of that on the Toolkit’s home page, but for the moment we don’t have the ability to hold individual consultations with anyone.
Q. I don’t see a Toolkit segment on something I would really like to know more about. Can I ask to see if that’s going to be added soon?
Answer
Yes! We want the Toolkit to be as useful as possible for you, and while we have a list of things we’ll be working to add, and plan to be adding to the Toolkit’s resources as often as possible, it’s certainly possible that we haven’t thought of something that would of particular interest to you. So please let us know what you’d like to see us add to the Toolkit and we’ll do our best to be responsive to your request.
Q. I could use some help on my legal research skills. Are you planning to add some segments on that into the Toolkit?
Answer
Not at the moment. Legal writing is a fairly stable area and the advice about writing hasn’t changed much over the years. By contrast, legal research is one of the fastest-changing areas in the law, and any advice we offered on the Toolkit would be out-of-date within months, perhaps even weeks. Your LCR Professors, and the law school librarians, will stay as current as possible with all the developments in legal research and they’ll keep you alerted when something changes.
