Writing Well: Legal-speak needs to go.

Behold the image of the self-important “I’m-special” lawyer, rocking back and forth in his chair, and talking to himself like a mental patient.

Please help. It’s silly and no one’s impressed anymore. People are laughing again. Oh, Lawyer-Speak and Legalese. Of the lamer lawyer-centric institutions, only “Professionalism” and “Work-Life Balance” are more embarrassing, abused and irrelevant, and more likely to undermine clients, than the way in which many lawyers continue to speak and write. At least those two prissy battle cries originally had a point. But Legalese never had a point.

A few years ago, another law firm sent us a draft of a simple housekeeping agreement. It was a 3-page confidentiality agreement used during talks for an acquisition.

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