Legal Writing in a Nutshell offers practical guidance for organizing office memoranda and appellate briefs. Teaches how to write in the objective and argumentative styles. Provides practical solutions to common problems faced by law students and legal writers. Suggests simple methods to improve sentence structure, paragraphing, and transitions.

#It Won t Teach You to Write, but Will Give You a Pretty Decent BluePrint (2009-08-10) Like all of West s nutshell series, this little book packs a powerful punch. I purchased it for a review prior to taking a paralegal certification exam and found it to be very valuable. It gives good, solid guidelines for legal writing as well as practical examples. I highly recommend this book to any law or paralegal student needing to get a handle on the legal writing process. It will help you narrow your focus and better identify the audience for this type of writing.

#Great Law Aid (2007-09-22) This book was extremely helpful! I found it to be most useful when I read it after I read the course readings(as a review tool). . . but of course, you should do whatever helps you learn best. However,I must stress, as tempted as one may get, DO NOT substitute it for the actual case readings!! There are a lot of details that are not mentioned in the horn book that law professors are interested in. . . and they test you on what THEY think is important, not what you think is.

#Thorough and fundamental. (2003-03-20) This book covers the fundamentals of legal writing so thoroughly and carefully that it could well substitute for many first-year legal-writing texts. Its approach may strike experienced writers as too traditional or too basic. Still, for the novice it will provide a solid grounding in legal-writing style, legal analysis, legal memos, letter writing, and persuasive writing. Many practicing lawyers would do well to heed the teachings in this book. One critique: Persuasion is so common in law schools first-year, legal-writing courses that this N...

Designed as a desktop reference for legal writers. It provides reference material and guidance on improving one s legal writing. One large index with cross-references under each entry. The book is easy to use and provides quick, reliable answers. Addresses questions that occur to all legal writers. Covers small particulars and large issues as well.

#Invaluable reference for working legal writers (2009-04-09) I don t normally post reviews -- in fact, this is the first one I ve ever done -- but I thought I should create a counterpoint to the one negative review listed for this book. I m an in-house attorney who does a lot of contract and other drafting. I use this book constantly, and I ve encouraged the non-lawyer contract managers I work with to buy it, too. You may be able to find this stuff on-line, but it s invaluable to have one well-organized place to answer just about all the common questions that come up when doing l...

#whatever (2004-01-13) Woo Hoo, another outrageously overpriced softbound pamphlet designed to bilk hardworking law students out of a few more bucks. Well, that was my first impression especially considering my professor s announcement that they give [him] lots of free books. Gee, wonder why!Anyway, this is a grammar reference that clarifies some fine distinctions and is organized like an encyclopedia, with topics such as when or if and that or which. The thing is, it s nothing you can t get from the Internet or in another, less costly grammar manual. If you don t have to, do...

There is no other textbook available that teaches both the legal writing requirements of the US legal system and essay writing structure in several modes, while reviewing advanced grammar. Legal brief writing, contracts, business letter writing,legal research,and the irac format are discussed, using authentic examples. Summary writing, report and reaction, comparisons, and persuasive writing are explained with examples of each. All writing and grammar exercises are designed to offer further practice using legal contexts. The textbook is suitable for classroom use for ESL law and pre-law students, as well as for independent study by attorneys who collaborate on cases or in organizations that require an understanding of the US legal system.

From the all-important brief — concise, comprehensive and effectively written — to the delivery of powerful oral arguments, a lawyer’s success depends on his or her ability to communicate. As cases are increasingly decided out of the courtroom on papers submitted, accurate and persuasive writing is more critical to a successful outcome than ever before. In its ninth edition, Brief Writing and Oral Argument has been revised and updated to keep your students ahead of the most pressing trends in legal writing and research. Revised throughout to integrate information on electronic legal research, this classic text sets the standard in practical advice from experts in the field of law who understand the legal system from behind the bench and before the court. A new section on legal writing further highlights the significance of written documents in the courtroom today. Distinguished judge and teacher Edward D. Re and award-winning litigator Joseph R. Re lead the reader throug...