I graduated in May and have the good fortune of clerking for an appellate court. In law school, I earned a very mediocre grade in my legal writing course, but was able to perform strongly in other courses. I believe my strong performance in those courses is only due to the format of law school exams... they really just call for issue spotting and basic analysis, rather than methodical outlining and refined writing.
While I feel confident in my basic writing skills (short and pointed legal research memos, summer associate projects, etc), I have received feedback that my organization and structural clarity needs work. For example, drafting a 30+ page opinion...the individual pieces of analysis for a complex case will be decent, but my overall organization and structure is poor. I think my outlining and planning skills are weak.
Two questions:
1: if I end up in a corporate/securities/real estate type of practice group, will my struggles with outlining and structure with writing hinder my performance in the same way it does in a job like clerking or litigation? I know that being a great writer is one of the most critical lawyering skills...I was told I was a great writer as a summer associate and in other jobs, but as a clerk, I just always seem to be struggling. I am leaning towards corporate work for many reasons, but would like some feedback regarding how relevant the clerk type of writing skills are to other practice areas.
2: does anyone have any tips they can share regarding becoming a better organizer/outliner/writer? I know this may seem silly for an appellate clerk to ask, but I am hopeful there are others who would benefit from this as well. I tend to jump the gun with legal research and start writing prematurely. Ant tactics to fix this or methods are appreciated. Thank you.
Writing/Outlining Strategies Forum
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JusticeJackson
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Re: Writing/Outlining Strategies
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Last edited by JusticeJackson on Tue Jan 12, 2016 1:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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sprezz
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Re: Writing/Outlining Strategies
i'm a jump in and write person sometimes and a meticulously outline person other times. do you use argumentative headings? even if you're not supposed to in the final draft, drafting it that way can be an easy way to initially set up your overarching structure and then to double check it as you go. just read the headers and if they don't feel syllogism-y enough then tweak and restructure accordingly
