We have designed our seminars and workshops with legal writers in mind. All are practical and interactive, emphasizing strategies and techniques to help you produce work of the highest quality.

Editorial reviews are an essential element of the seminars, enabling us to tailor each presentation to your interests and needs. Our care to customize our programs guarantees the best use of the time you spend in a seminar. At your request, we can redesign our seminars as workshops, for which editorial reviews are optional.

The following seminars and workshops are available:

The Seminar in Legal Writing

Writing Legal Narratives

Writing Persuasively

Writers, Readers, and Transactions

Plain English, Satisfied Clients

The Keys to Clear Writing

Writing with Style

Advanced Seminar on Style

Writing Memos and Letters

Writing for the Marketplace

The Process of Writing

Techniques for Revising

Proofreading

Editing Your Colleagues' Work

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The Seminar in Legal Writing (8 hours; usually offered in two 4-hour sessions)	This seminar addresses the problems that most frequently appear in legal prose. Its scope enables you to understand the principles and practice the techniques that will facilitate your work as a writer. It is especially useful for lawyers at the beginning of their careers. Topics include the following: – defining your purpose and your audience – managing the parts of the writing process that experienced writers often find difficult, such as getting organized, getting started, and editing your own work – using the structures of sentences to achieve emphasis, variety, and rhetorical power – structuring paragraphs and documents to ease the understanding of complex material – determining the appropriate style and tone for a piece of writing – solving the grammatical and stylistic problems that highly educated writers often encounter. Back to Top
Writing Legal Narratives (4 hours)	This seminar for litigators focuses on the narrative sections of motions and briefs. It deals with matters of strategy and technique, providing you with the tools to tell your client's story well and make it a compelling part of the document's persuasive aim. Topics include the following: – finding the story among the facts – giving the story a recognizable shape – writing a good lead, developing your theme, handling chronology –making the story an integral part of the document's persuasive purpose – presenting yourself effectively Back to Top
Writing Persuasively (4 hours)	This seminar helps litigators and other attorneys write more persuasively by extending their rhetorical range beyond convincing arguments alone. It focuses on three modes of persuasion that together can change readers' minds and hearts and move them to favorable action: – presenting a lucid and compelling argument – appealing to your reader’s self-interest or emotions to enhance your argument – inspiring your reader's confidence Back to Top
Writers, Readers, and Transactions (4 hours)	This seminar provides transactional attorneys with guidelines and techniques to enhance the clarity, brevity, and readability of their agreements. Topics include the following: – writing sentences of moderate length – keeping the core of the sentence intact – stating the main point before the qualifications – avoiding ambiguity – achieving consistency – considering your reader's needs – writing simply Back to Top
Plain English, Satisfied Clients (4 hours)	This workshop is designed for attorneys whose practice requires them to follow the SEC Guidelines for Plain English. It explains the principles of clarity and brevity behind the guidelines and presents their application not only to SEC filings, but also to client advisories, directors' handbooks, legal updates, letters, briefs, and memoranda. Topics include the following: –writing with a well-defined, explicit purpose –writing to anticipate and meet your reader's needs –applying the SEC guidelines for clarity –applying the SEC guidelines for brevity Back to Top
The Keys to Clear Writing (4 hours)	This workshop is designed for attorneys in all practice areas and at all levels of experience. It examines the elements of clarity at the level of paragraphs, sentences, and words. You learn how to provide your paragraphs with topic sentences, cohesively developed points, and strong transitions; to write sentences of moderate length with intact cores and well-placed modifiers; to avoid ambiguous and imprecise diction; and to use examples effectively Back to Top
Writing with Style (4 hours; editorial reviews optional)	Style represents the sum of your choices about diction, sentence structure, and the arrangement of an argument or analysis, rather than something added to a piece of writing. This workshop deals with the elements of style that legal writers tend to misuse or use too seldom. You consider the stylistic errors common in legal prose, such as overlong sentences, abstraction, and excessive qualification. You then see how to enhance your own style by using the devices that distinguish the best legal prose. Back to Top
Advanced Seminar on Style (4 hours)	This seminar is designed for experienced attorneys who want to enhance their craft as writers. It takes shape around a detailed analysis of the characteristics of your style, which we provide after reviewing writing samples. The seminar explores each element of the analysis (word choice, the patterns of sentences and paragraphs, and rhetorical devices) so that you can assess your own style and explore ways to develop it. You will have the opportunity to do the following: – identify the stylistic features of your own prose – analyze which features are most and least effective – experiment with the stylistic devices that set great legal writing apart. Back to Top
Writing Memos and Letters (4 hours)	Summer clerks and new associates spend most of their time writing the results of their research and communicating by letter with colleagues, clients, bureaucrats, and opposing counsel. This seminar eases your transition from academic to professional legal writing by setting new standards and defining the steps to meet them. Topics include the following: – getting your assignment – planning your work in light of the writing process – organizing your research – drafting the document – handling quotations and citations – revising –editing and formatting – learning from criticism Back to Top
Writing for the Marketplace (4 hours)	Attorneys are often required to write for new kinds of readers in a variety of new forms. In addition to briefs, agreements, and memos, you may also produce client advisories, newsletters, op-eds, magazine and journal articles, web pages, and marketing letters. This seminar focuses on developing the skills to address your readers' interests and turn readers into clients. Topics include the following: – selecting a subject – writing an effective lead – anticipating your readers' needs and engaging their interest – keeping the message simple – creating a good impression of yourself Back to Top
The Process of Writing (4 hours; editorial reviews optional)	This workshop treats writing as a process, not just a product, so that you can gain control over your work and improve its quality. You explore the stages of the writing process and the steps to transform a blank page into a successful communication with a reader. You learn to recognize and solve problems by using practical techniques, such as non-stop writing and after-the-fact outlining. Back to Top
Techniques for Revising (4 hours)	This workshop focuses on the final stage of the writing process, where you turn the record of your thoughts into a successful communication with your readers. It presents techniques for gaining critical distance on your work; cutting clutter; testing the structural soundness of sentences, paragraphs, and longer documents; and taking into account your reader's needs. Back to Top
Proofreading (4 hours)	This workshop is designed for paralegals and secretaries who proofread legal documents. It provides practical instruction in the techniques that professional proofreaders use to guarantee error-free texts, and presents the kinds of grammatical and mechanical errors you are likeliest to encounter. Back to Top
Editing Your Colleagues' Work (90 minutes)	This workshop is designed for advanced associates and partners who edit the work of their colleagues. It focuses on how to delegate work to achieve the desired results; how not to edit; and the importance of editing according to clearly defined principles. Back to Top