Solo Practice

Austen L. Parrish and Dennis T. Yokoyama have authored a little bible for legal writing called Effective Lawyering; A Checklist Approach to Legal Writing & Oral Argument.  Both Associate Professor of Law Parrish and Professor of Law Yokoyama teach at Southwestern Law School.  Yokoyama is the Director, Legal Analysis, Writing and Skills Program; Parrish, Director of the Vancouver Summer Law Program.  They sent me this book and asked if I would review.

Well, this little gem of a book is an excellent primer and should be in every law student's and lawyer's briefcase for quick and easy reference on the rules of Legal Writing and Oral Argument. The authors state:

We have designed this book to be a concise, easy-to-use reference - not a book to be read cover to cover.  We intend to provide concrete advice, and to serve as a day-to-day reference.  Because many people find it difficult to improve their legal writing, the book has adopted a methodical approach.  In our experience, practitioners and students alike can improve their advocacy by following carefully crafted checklists. Checklists force writers to focus on specific problems and help them to improve incrementally and systematically.  The checklists in this book have evolved from our experiences as former litigators and professors of legal writing.

To that end, you will find 150 tightly written pages with fully fleshed out checklists, including preparation, approach to research and more, for the following:

• Effective Legal Writing
• Trial Court Briefs
• Appellate Briefs
• Oral Argument
• Interoffice Memorandum
• Letter Writing (including e-mails)
• Academic Writing

The Appendices include sample briefs, memos and letters.

And each checklist is power-packed, punchy and concise.  This book should be right next to your Rules of Professional Conduct.

I wish I had this book when I was both in law school and practicing.  It would have made my life much easier.  It's just brilliantly done and will save you hours upon hours of frustration when you have to do your legal writing or prepare for oral argument.  I highly recommend this book to law students and practitioners alike.  (And...it's only $20.00 on Amazon.)