Let's Not Be Creative: "Rigid IRAC" and the Hidden Power of Formalistic Legal Writing
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Let's Not Be Creative: Rigid IRAC
and the Hidden Power of Formalistic
Legal Writing
Andrew J. Turner*
Legal writing professors should embrace rigid, inflexible writing conventions
and do so without apology.
In our effort to help law students become skilled legal writers, we too
willingly give up strict and formalized legal writing conventions as overly
constrained and devoid of creativity. We often teach those conventions with
caveats and apologetic undertones. Instead, we should embrace formalistic
conventions, including old-fashioned, inflexible, castor oil-style IRAC.'
In our modern culture, which celebrates creativity and individual expression,
the idea that formalistic conventions should trump creativity sounds not only
dated, but slightly totalitarian. Creativity is associated with intelligence,
insight, and sophistication, all things we aspire to. Pushing rigid adherence to
IRAC over more intuitive and flexible approaches feels like rejecting beautiful,
sweeping architecture in favor of gray, Stalinist apartment blocks.
However, I argue that, contrary to popular sentiment, formal legal writing
conventions are not dreary, gray, rigid systems ill-suited to the complexities of
high-level legal work. Rather, they are powerful and underappreciated tools
for producing quality legal work under the exacting conditions of modern
legal practice.
Effective legal writing is one of the most difficult skills for an attorney or
law student to master. Successful legal writing depends on a broad range
of analytical, rhetorical, and writing skills, many of which require entirely
different mindsets, backgrounds, and abilities.
In this article, I first argue that an important and under-appreciated reason
legal writers struggle to effectively overcome these legal writing challenges is
*Andrew Turner, Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School.
1 IRAC is an acronym for the most common format for expressing the legal analysis of a
single legal point in written form. The acronym usually stands for: Issue, Rule, Application,
and Conclusion. See IRAC, WIKIPEDIA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRAC (last visited
Feb. 1, 2024) [hereinafter IRAC Wikipedia Entry]; Working with IRA C, TOURO LAW ACADEMIC
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM, https://www.tourolaw.edu/ADP/StudySkills/IRAC.aspx (last
visited Feb. 1, 2024); Using the IRAC Method in Lawy School, BARBRI, https://www.barbri.com/
irac-method-law/ (last visited Feb. i, 2024).
Journal of Legal Education, Volume 72, Number 3 & 4 (2024)](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jled72&div=22&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Let's Not Be Creative: "Rigid IRAC" and the Hidden Power of Formalistic Legal Writing
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