Attorney Zachary Andrew McEntyre is a partner at King & Spalding, LLP, where he focuses on commercial litigation. In 2015, Zachary Andrew McEntyre won a Burton Award in legal writing for an article he co-authored with other King & Spalding partners. The goals of good legal writing are essentially the same as that of writing in general: to get the message across in the clearest and simplest manner possible so that even outsiders can understand. However, achieving this is not as easy as it sounds, as there are many other things to factor in. Lawyers must write with the client's best intentions in mind, so before writing they must know everything there is to know about the case. This can be achieved by asking a lot of questions during interviews and by reading relevant documents. The tone of writing should feel naturally professional and should avoid extreme legalese and chattiness. Redundancies and verbose language can compromise the clarity of the text, making it more difficult to understand and thus less effective. It is also important to keep content limited to essentials and then proofread the draft several times before submitting.
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AuthorAn experienced commercial litigator, Zachary Andrew McEntyre currently serves as a senior associate in King & Spalding’s Atlanta. Archives
January 2018
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