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17 Nova L. Rev. 869 (1992-1993)

handle is hein.journals/novalr17 and id is 901 raw text is: Memo of Masochism (Reflections in Legal Writing) J. Tim Willette* THE TooLs OF ARROGANCE With Black Letter Law Lighting the Way We Are Guided Down Paths of Hazy Gray' Writing To succeed in the legal profession the law student must master, in addition to the procedural and substantive law, a combination of counseling, negotiating, advocacy, and research skills. However, these tools are of little value if the attorney-to-be cannot write effectively. There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its con- tent. i2 Good legal writing is not a compilation of arcane Latin phrases or mountains of dreary drivel. Rather, good legal writing is artistry. The attorney, as a craftsman, must sculpt a clear, precise, comprehensive, and most importantly, effective statement. This ability is not the manifestations of an inherent genetic mutation, although the innate passion to develop a legal lexicon may lend itself to some form of DNA analysis. The art of legal writing is a dynamic and perpetual operation. In fact, there is no such thing as good writing. There is only good re-writing.3 The beauty of good craftsmanship is that the final product masks the painstaking and difficult process by which it was created. The good writer-the craftsman- makes it look easy.,4 * As if I have not suffered enough from the slashing slaughter of Legal Righting, I now anxiously await the opportunity to unwarily wade into the steaming cauldron of cacophony known as Moot Court, and be reduced to a gurgling stew of pseudo-legal babble. Until that time, I continue to endure the pleasures of life and enjoy the pressures of school while pursuing a JD/MBA at Indiana University in Indianapolis. I wish to dedicate (with uncharacteristic brevity) this article to mom and dad ... Thanx. 1. I am quoting myself. 2. Fred Rodell, Goodbye To Law Reviews, 23 VA. L. REV. 38, 41 (1936). 3. Louis D. Brandeis, quoted in George W. Pierce, The Legal Profession, Vol. XXX THE TORCH Apr. 1957, at 8. 4. Nathaniel Hawthorne, quoted in CLFroN FADIMAN, TIE AMERICAN TREAsURY 917 (1851).

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