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Attorney Learning Outcomes

Litigation Attorneys
Transactional Attorneys

Learning Outcomes — Litigation Attorneys

Tom’s programs and coaching will help attorneys write more confidently, efficiently, and powerfully. Depending on the training you seek, your attorneys will do the following more proficiently: 

Write concisely, clearly, and persuasively.

  • Write concise, clear, and cogent sentences. 
  • Write short, focused paragraphs. 
  • Employ persuasive writing techniques to write pointed, powerful arguments. 
  • Transition quickly, clearly, and persuasively to do the following: 1) guide readers through their analysis; and 2) emphasize favorable facts and arguments. 
  • Punctuate creatively to highlight facts and ideas. 
  • Prune excess words and redundant sentences. 
  • Provide thorough, penetrating arguments with fewer words.

Generate and articulate dynamic arguments.

  • Frame persuasive overall rules by incorporating persuasive writing techniques, policy, and favorable language from authority. 
  • Assert precise plain meaning arguments when statutes and regulations govern a dispute. 
  • Analyze authority deeply to draw parallels to—and distinctions from—that authority to generate powerful arguments that explicitly relate to their client’s facts. 
  • Write irresistible arguments by employing the following techniques: 
    • Organizing their analysis coherently for each issue they analyze. 
    • Framing persuasive tests (i.e., sub-rules) that state a standard that: 1) their authority supports; and 2) their client’s facts can meet, or their opponent’s facts cannot meet.  
    • Elevating favorable authority to highlight parallels between this authority and their client’s facts.  
    • Distinguishing contrary authority, including limiting cases to their facts. 
    • Developing multiple facts to support their arguments.
    • Organizing facts by the arguments they support. 
  • Eliminate redundant rules and arguments. 

Organize arguments transparently and convincingly.

  • Write persuasive headings and subheadings that outline their arguments. 
  • Ensure that subsections in their analysis are internally consistent. 
  • Ensure that different subsections in their analysis do not discuss the same issue.

Organize and frame statements of fact that tell a cogent, favorable story by doing the following.

  • Maintaining credibility.
  • Exploiting the record.
  • Implementing fact emphasis and deemphasis techniques to create a favorable foundation for their arguments. 

Maintain and enhance their credibility as advocates.

  • Evince their intelligence to gain their readers’ trust. 
  • Avoid hyperbole and ad hominem attacks. 
  • Punctuate intelligently and persuasively.  
  • Avoid grammar errors.
  • Proofread thoroughly.

Pre-write and outline to write drafts efficiently.

  • Brainstorm facts.
  • Choose the best authority.
  • Craft detailed outlines that promote organizational and analytical acuity in initial drafts.

Write introductions that develop potent themes, immediately state their request for relief, and highlight their best arguments.

Edit exhaustively.

  • Substantive edits.
  • Writing edits. 

Learning Outcomes — Transactional Attorneys

Tom’s programs and coaching will help transactional attorneys write more confidently, efficiently, and clearly. Depending on the training you seek, your attorneys will do the following more proficiently:

Write transactional documents in plain English.

  • Provide clarity and certainty in agreements to ensure that clients: 1) know what they have agreed to do; 2) can hold other parties to what they promised to do; 3) avoid disputes; and 4) prevail in litigation if disputes arise. 
  • Write concisely, clearly, and cogently. 
    • Write short, clear sentences that use plain words. 
    • Limit most sentences to one idea each and other sentences to at most one idea and one condition. 
    • Write short, focused paragraphs.
    • Reduce and eliminate parenthetical information.
    • Transition seamlessly to do the following: 1) demonstrate relationships between contractual terms; 2) state conditions to those terms; and 3) emphasize important terms. 
    • Tabulate effectively to organize information and give readers that information in short, understandable nuggets. 
    • Use active voice to connect parties to what they are obligated to do—or not do—unless passive voice minimizes clients’ duties or gives them more room to maneuver.
    • Use active verbs to clarify and refine parties’ obligations. 
    • Punctuate creatively to highlight connections between ideas and give readers resting points in longer sentences. 
    • Prune excess words and redundant sentences.
    • Eliminate legalese: stuffy and antiquated writing.  
  • Edit exhaustively.
    • Substantive edits.
    • Writing edits. 
  • Maintain and enhance their credibility. 
    • Evince their intelligence to gain their clients’ and opponents’ trust. 
    • Punctuate intelligently.
    • Avoid grammar and proofreading errors.

Advise clients in emails and internal memoranda.

  • Implement effective questioning techniques to ensure they completely understand their clients’ problems.  
  • Listen carefully to clients’ concerns.
  • Reflect empathy and concern for clients’ problems.
  • Problem-solve to meet clients’ business needs. 
  • Provide appropriate amount of detail for easier and more complex client questions. 
  • Define issues that will be analyzed in the email or memorandum. 
  • Generate and articulate dynamic arguments to respond to complex client questions. 
    • Assert precise plain meaning arguments when statutes and regulations govern a dispute. 
    • Present solution-oriented analysis by employing the following techniques: 
      • Stating bottom-line answers immediately. 
      • Organizing their analysis coherently for each issue they analyze. 
      • Framing favorable rules by incorporating persuasive writing techniques, policy, and favorable language from authority. 
      • Grounding their analysis in authority, whether contractual, legal, or both. 
      • Developing multiple facts to support their arguments.
      • Organizing facts by the arguments they support. 
    • Eliminate redundant rules and arguments. 
  • Determine whether they would serve client better by discussing analysis in a real-time conversation. 

Use email to support real-time negotiation—not supplant it.

  • Understand nature and limitations of email communications. 
  • Write professional emails.
  • Use email to identify issues that need further discussion. 
  • Write clear disclaimers about the information contained in the email. 
  • Avoid negotiating terms via email, especially those terms where parties likely to disagree. 
  • Create lists of open issues, organized by document.  
  • Use these lists to structure real-time conversations. 
  • Eliminate metadata within documents before distributing them to other parties. 
  • Ensure that other parties’ redlines accurately incorporated their changes. 

 

Format and organize reader-friendly documents.

  • Write definitions in plain English and use these terms consistently in all relevant documents. 
  • Choose and implement an outline form for all documents in an agreement. 
  • Write headings and subheadings. 
  • Paragraph frequently. 
  • Provide spatial cues like indents and bullet-points to make organization of document transparent. 
  • Space generously.