PREPARING FOR LAW SCHOOL . . . At Wisdom's Friend, Nick Texas offers a review of The First Year Law School Survival Kit, by Jeff Adachi. Nick includes this quote from the book, which states an important point that is often ignored by lawyers, especially the most obnoxious ones:

Remember that language is your tool as a lawyer: words, their use, and more importantly their power are the staples of a lawyer's trade, and much of your career as a lawyer will be spent reading documents, reports, cases, etc. as a trained reader. At the same time, remember that the objective is not to speak in a secret code that no one else understands. You will not impress clients or jurors with fancy ten-dollar words. Your job as an attorney is to make the law accessible to law people, and that means being able to translate the gobblegook of the law into clear, understandable, common English.

For more law-school preparation tips, see these earlier posts from this weblog: "Get a Head Start on Law School: Karl Llewellyn's Bramble Bush" and "This Weblog Is Going Downhill Fast: A Post About Issue-Spotting on Law School Exams."

Comments

[Eh Nonymous]

Your job as an attorney is to make the law accessible to law people,

Even while assuming that "lay people" was meant, the truth is this:

Our job is sometimes to write things that can't be misinterpreted; sometimes to write things that can't be disputed; and lots of the time to write things that persuade, move, and admit of no denial.

You can't reach the judge (or the jury) or sway the other party if your words are jumbled, mumbled, or otherwise bumbled.

The greatest writers and the greatest orators can make the greatest lawyers - if they have the rest of the tools. But anyone can edit their own work, practice with it, learn how to improve it.

Also, re. the $10 words- Cf. Judge Selya of the First Circuite. He uses words that are downright hippomonstrosesquipedalian. (I can't find that word using Google, either; start with sesquipedalian, if you must, like so, and then go ahead and guess.

[Eh Nonymous]

Looks like it should be "hippopotomonstro- etc."

Cite is to Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words. Josefa Heifetz Byrne: a lovely, but by all available evidence enormously strange lady. I salute her.

[CM]

Thanks for referring back to those earlier posts! I forgot that there were some great preparing-for-law-school tips hidden among the posts about being a real lawyer. Bramble Bush is going on my summer reading list.