Legal Writing as a Discipline: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

Legal research and legal writing, particularly for persuasive purposes, have been a part of a lawyer’s stock in trade at least as far back as ancient Greece and Rome. But that history has not always been marked by laudable achievements. The written work of English lawyers was often ridiculed as obtuse, obfuscatory, and unintelligible. Unfortunately, American lawyers, in their turn, have received much of the same ridicule. Only in the past four decades has legal education in America devoted much attention to professional training in legal writing.

Keywords: legal research and writing, legal research, law--study and teaching, LRW, skills training, legal education