Legal Writing | Striving for Clarity

Judge Bacharach will illustrate principles from his recently published book (ABA Press), entitled Legal Writing–A Judge’s Perspective on the Lessons from Science and Rhetoric . Judge Bacharach’s presentation draws on lessons from the field of psycholinguistics, which involves the study of how the human brain processes and stores language. For example, psycholinguistics have studied how quickly or slowly we read particular types of passages, how the human brain filters written language, and how the brain stores certain information for recall and not other information. But the presentation is not an academic foray into science.

Judge Bacharach’s presentation uses these scientific principles to show how attorneys, judges, and law students can improve the clarity and memorability of their legal writing. The book illustrates these lessons with examples from well-known advocates and orators, showing how we can apply the same principles to our own legal writing.

This CLE is approved for credit through April 2, 2023.