More True Confessions of a Legal Writing Professor: The Continuing Study of Legal Writing Should Be Deemed a Required Part of Our Professional Responsibility

Abstract

This, at times, irreverent, tongue-in-cheek article is about how the Arizona State Bar should award professional responsibility continuing legal education credit for a seminar on legal writing. First, the article addresses the rules of professional conduct in Arizona. Second, the article discusses why effective legal writing should be included as an explicit part of a lawyer’s duty of professional responsibility. Third, the article discusses examples where courts have chastised lawyers for incomprehensible writing and tied that into a lawyer’s professional responsibility. Finally, the article contains recommendations to better encourage lawyers to continue learning about effective legal writing.

Keywords: legal writing, professional responsibility, duty of competence, ineffective lawyering