The Idea of an Essay, Volume 3

102 The Idea of an Essay: Volume 3 Writing in the Legal Profession: An Overview Gonzales v. Raich 545 U.S. 1 (2005) Ethan Beck Ethan Beck is a junior Pre-Law major who plans on attending law school after graduation in 2018. He enjoys reading classical literature, playing ultimate Frisbee, and spending time with friends and family. Legalese: legal writing has a reputation for being so intensely complicated, archaic, and nebulous that this word has been coined solely to refer to the often incompressible jargon that is legal writing. While not all legal documents are verbose and obscure, in general, legal writing is a highly formal and technical form of expression used to convey legal analysis, judgments, rights, and duties. In broad terms, there are three types of legal writing, and while each has its own intricate purpose and highly specialized vocabulary, they all share the same fundamental characteristics. The first, and arguably most common, form of legal writing is persuasive in nature (Radulescu 368). Persuasive legal writing, used exclusively in case briefs, negotiation letters, and court decisions, is a form of legal writing that requires lawyers to present their own or their client’s position in the best possible light in order to persuade a higher authority of its validity (Radulescu 368). Judges, by contrast, do not write to persuade a higher authority, but rather to convey their reasoning as authorities on a certain issue. The second type of writing common in the legal profession arises in the context of inter-office memorandums and letters to clients. Attorneys normally intend this type of writing to inform a client or legal partner of the strengths and weaknesses of a certain perspective on a legal issue. Attorneys create legal memorandums and letters in a way that takes into account the background knowledge of the intended audience. Briefs to judges and memorandums to law firm