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I am an international 2L at Columbia/NYU. English is not my first language, and I realize that a good writing is essential for one's legal career.

I was lucky enough to get a Big Law V50 position for next summer, but want to work on my writing skills before I join as a summer associate.

Any suggestions on professional legal writing courses in New York?

Many thanks!

tag for my own interest

not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I know that many schools offer writing clinics/workshops. At the very least, those two schools will have the resources to help you develop those skills. If you don't get any good suggestions here, I would say to explore some options within the schools. I

Did some writing tutoring at a big state school. The writing center I tutored at served undergrads and graduate students (mostly international). Not sure what level your English is at, but general on campus writing centers might be something to look into. They can at least be another set of eyes for proof reading and coherence.

Try to make your point in as few words as possible. Brevity is always better than vocabulary. Also, befriend a summer who'd proofread your junk for you.

PepperJack wrote:Try to make your point in as few words as possible. Brevity is always better than vocabulary. Also, befriend a summer who'd proofread your junk for you.

Not sure I agree. In theory, sure, everyone sings the praise of brevity. In reality, I find that it's overrated in the profession.

At school, professors love to claim that length doesn't matter but studies have shown that they invariably favor longer exams and papers. I was an engineer before law school and I tend to be direct and to the point. It's worked for me quite well, but still not as well as many of the poli sci undergrads who could barf out lengthy, vaguely relevant treatises on exams. As long as you are not completely off topic, writing a lot helps, despite professors' claims to the contrary.

At work, I have found that it's far better to write too much and have the partner edit it down than the opposite.

The fact is that everyone from the supreme court down bitches about verbosity, yet keeps practicing and rewarding it.

Anonymous User wrote:

PepperJack wrote:Try to make your point in as few words as possible. Brevity is always better than vocabulary. Also, befriend a summer who'd proofread your junk for you.

Not sure I agree. In theory, sure, everyone sings the praise of brevity. In reality, I find that it's overrated in the profession.

At school, professors love to claim that length doesn't matter but studies have shown that they invariably favor longer exams and papers. I was an engineer before law school and I tend to be direct and to the point. It's worked for me quite well, but still not as well as many of the poli sci undergrads who could barf out lengthy, vaguely relevant treatises on exams. As long as you are not completely off topic, writing a lot helps, despite professors' claims to the contrary.

At work, I have found that it's far better to write too much and have the partner edit it down than the opposite.

The fact is that everyone from the supreme court down bitches about verbosity, yet keeps practicing and rewarding it.

Accidentally replied anon - Maybe. Could also be that it's likelier the person who writes more in three hours also knows more so is making more points, further exploring points, or anything else. It takes longer to make the same point in fewer words.