Kim M. Baker has been teaching writing in academe and business for 19 years. As the Writing Specialist, Professor Baker supports all law students as they work to improve their writing skills, beginning in Legal Methods first year and continuing through seminar papers, writing samples, test...
Michele Norris of NPR recently interviewed novelist Richard North Patterson. Before becoming a published novelist, he had been a lawyer. When asked, by Norris, why so many lawyers become writers, Mr. Patterson responded, in part, that lawyers arrange messy facts into pleasing narratives. He stressed that lawyers must write clearly and concisely. Ms. Norris pushed back by suggesting that legal writing doesn’t resemble English. In response, Mr. Patterson said that such writing is "bad legal writing." Your Legal Methods professors will love hearing that. :-)
You can access the interview at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128619794