Legal Writing

Dear Attorney — Listen to Your Marketing Director

I’m reviewing a cover letter to a proposal. The 24-page proposal is from a law firm that wants to offer legal services to an insurance company. The 650-word cover letter was drafted by an attorney who worked on the proposal.

It’s awful (the cover letter) — two pages of hype that belongs in a brochure. In a cover letter, it sounds insincere and phony. And those are not the adjectives that describe the cover letter of a winning proposal.

My job is easy. All I have to do is call the firm’s marketing director, and say this:

Why don’t we use the cover letter we used on the last three proposals. Each of those proposals turned out to be winners, so why not follow a proven path?

Then he gets to talk to the attorney. If he can persuade her to use the proven cover letter, great! I can get it ret and set in no time. If he can’t, . . . .

Here’s my advice to an attorney writing a cover letter to a proposal: Keep it short. It’s not a brief. It should consist of nothing more than the following:

1. Attached is the proposal you requested;
2. Please call me if you have any questions/concerns about the proposal;
3. I look forward to being of service to your organization.

That’s it. Anything more than 250 words is — in most cases — too much.

And listen to your marketing director. He doesn’t tell you how to practice law, does he?

Full post as published by Set in Style on December 04, 2009 (boomark / email).