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21 PLL Persp. 1 (2009-2010)

handle is hein.lbr/aaplper0021 and id is 1 raw text is: THE QUARTERLY OF THE PRIVATE LAW LIBRARIES SIS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES ()W TO ELP ASSOI.[AF FS WV (ON'T E VEN KNOW TEY NEED YOU by Ross Guberman, Legal Writing Pro, Washington, DC Editor's Note: Ross Guberman was the speaker at the PLL Luncheon at the 2009 Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. An adaptation of Mr. Guberman's luncheon speech appears below. When people say, You write like a lawyer, why is it always taken as an insult? After all, I doubt you'd be offended if someone accused you of researching like a librarian. These jabs are nothing new, of course. Decades ago, in fact, a law professor named Fred Rodell said, There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its content. I bet you'd agree today as well. But what can you do about it? For starters, you'll need to think of creative ways to capitalize on today's slashed training budgets, fidgety partners, and ever-demanding clients. In some respects, you may have to do more to market the value you've already been adding. In other ways, you may want to consider taking on new roles that you may have never imagined before. So let's brainstorm a bit. Take what I call the five- stage life cycle of the typical law-firm assignment. Can you become indispensable during each stage? Let's take them one by one. Stage one: Should I be writing at all? At so many firms I visit, on any one day I see two memos from two associates on precisely the same research issue. Yet no firm wants to waste its attorneys' time, and surely no client wants to be billed for the same assignment twice. Knowledge management is all the rage these days, but I bet you were engaging in it long before it became so trendy. Now you may not have the budget for an expensive, hi-tech formal KM system. But surely you can draw on your institutional knowledge to help associates find internal experts-and avoid reinventing the wheel altogether. Stage two: How do I begin the research? In the next few years, expect to face generations of associates who cannot fird their way around a legal reference book or even an online treatise. Now more than ever, you can do much to save your firm money and your attorneys' time by redoubling your efforts to introduce associates to the wealth of secondary sources and digests that to them may seem so passe. Stage three: How do I structure the document? Attorneys at all levels suffer over structure and organization. The main problem: thinking about how you want to structure the letter or motion misses the point. What makes for good structure is having an imaginary conversation with a reader who isn't there. So here's the most priceless gift you can give an associate: as they begin to structure their document, ask them questions from the reader's perspective. Serve as a proxy for the judge, client, or partner and then play up your role as a generalist with common sense and a bit of judgment to boot. Remember that the best legal documents are structured around answers to the reader's predicted questions and concerns, so by engaging in this sort of conversation, you can help the associate craft a big- picture structure without even knowing it. Stage four: How do I integrate the authorities? What do you get when you combine computers, time pressure, and wobbly analysis? An epidemic of cut-and- pasted block quotes and blindly summarized facts from cases deemed relevant or distinguishable. Help associates escape from this morass: For every case or statutory cite they want to include, ask them to explain-in their own words-how the authority proves that their overall point is true. Encourage them to use that link as the focal point of their discussion. Only then should they consider cutting, pasting, or summarizing. Continued on page 4 P ECI Volume 21 Issue 1

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