The Write House Is Revolutionizing The Way Lawyers Write

After introducing participants to its plain English movement on the opening day of the training Wednesday 26 October 2016, The Write House taught participants how to write to join the top 1% of the global legal profession. Chinua Asuzu, Dean of The Write House, taught participants language skills and techniques to improve their documents. Mr Asuzu also showed participants how they can begin sentences with ‘and’, ‘because’ and ‘but’ for effects. Participants also learnt how to use bullets, italics, numbers, enumeration, tabulations, etc. to enhance clarity and readability. Mr Asuzu emphasized the importance of being clear, comprehensible, concise, cogent, and complete– what Mr Asuzu described as the 5 Cs of legal writing. Mr Asuzu, who is also a Senior Partner at Assizes Lawfirm, pointed out the need for lawyers to prepare their briefs, pleadings, written addresses, and submissions in a way that will assist the judge in delivering a sound and favourable judgement. Under Mr Asuzu’s expert guidance, participants learnt how to use language as a winning strategy, whether in negotiations, litigations, or transactions. TheNigeriaLawyer correspondent who was one of the participants noted that Mr Asuzu showed participants why they should always apply the golden rule of legal drafting– ‘use the same term to describe the same thing’. He discouraged lawyers’ use of elegant variations especially in transactional drafting. Mr Asuzu also discouraged lawyers from using archaic words such as– aforementioned, aforesaid, as per, forthwith, etc. He also emphasized the need for lawyers to handle abbreviations, acronyms, initialisms, etc carefully. Apart from teaching legal language, there was a lot of bonus learning Mr Asuzu had to offer as well. Flowing from Mr Asuzu’s profound knowledge of legal English and legal principles, he pointed out that lawyers and judges should not just apply statutes and legal principles blindly,  but apply them within the context of the circumstances. To achieve this, he said, judges and lawyers must think deeply, and read extensively. A former administrative-judge at the Tax Appeal Tribunal, Mr Asuzu criticised lawyers who quote judgments wrongly by “copying and pasting” parts of judgments in their arguments without any analysis with their own words. Mr Asuzu said the ethical thing to do is to refer to the judgement or quote the judgment moderately. What is most notable about The Write House’s 3-day legal workshop is that the workshop is not just about language but how to use language to get results. Mr Asuzu calls it rhetorics– the art of persuasion. Participants found the workshop very enriching and invaluable. Mrs Ade Adeyemo, Executive Secretary of Lagos State Law Reform Commission, who was Honoured Guest at the training program, presented certificates to participants. The Write House continues to revolutionize the way lawyers write. Founded in 2012, The Write House teaches legal writing to courts; law firms; legal departments; and ministries, departments, and agencies. Its next legal-writing program, Judicial Writing: A Benchmark for the Bench, comes up 30 Nov-2 Dec 2016. Photo from the past event ]]>