WRITING WORKSHOPS

These programs are designed to meet the needs of legal writers from any practice area at any level of expertise. From 2-hour legal writing refreshers to multi-day workshops that explore the latest trends in document design and technology, Iselin offers a diverse range of Writing trainings for new and experienced attorneys alike. A partial list of programming is below. For more information or to request a customized training package, get in touch.

Legal Writing & Analysis Refresher
6 hours: Understanding the rhetorical situation (purpose, audience, scope, stance), types of legal reasoning, basic rhetoric, writing  process, using signals effectively, putting into practice with 90-minute memo (90-minute memo includes research and writing, peer review, and group discussion). 

Good Thinking is Good Legal Writing
2.5 hours: Analytical thinking, critical thinking, logic, approaching a legal issue. 

Effective Email Communication
4 hours: Understanding how the medium changes the message, how the message is communicated, substantive and stylistic considerations for email, techniques and strategies for effective email communication. 

Writing & Document Design for the e-Reader Audience
3 hours: Defining and understanding the e-reader as a medium, thoughtful communication choices, hyperlinks, footnotes, images.

Prewriting Strategies 
1.5 hours: Defining and understanding the prewriting phase, prewriting under time constraints, techniques for efficient and effective prewriting (research, organization, outlining, drafting). 

Advanced Analytical Techniques
3 hours: Large-scale organization, small-scale organization, effective paragraphing and sentence structure, substantive and generic transitions, thesis sentences, placement of negative facts and responses to counterargument. 

Trends in Legal Writing: Technology and Document Design
3 hours: Visual rhetoric, document design, typography, technology, mediums. 

Rhetoric & Storytelling
3 hours: Understanding the rhetorical setting, persuasive appeals and arguments, storytelling techniques in legal argument. 

Precision & Revision Across Multiple Drafts
2 hours: Concision, precision, how to create and execute a self-editing checklist, effective topic/thesis sentences/headings, introducing quotes, using quotes, sentence clarity, commas, narration, dashes, etc.

Brief Writing in Brief
2 hours: Persuasive writing refresher, components of the appellate brief, structuring a cohesive argument.

Effective Responses to Counterargument in Brief Writing
2 hours: Defining and understanding counterargument, effective and ineffective techniques in responding to counterargument.

Brief Writing for the E-reader
2 hours: Understanding the e-reader as medium, techniques for e-reader briefs consistent with court rules.

Unifying Voice 
3 hours: Setting parameters for style and format, consistency in terms, team-based roles, exchanging and sharing drafts. 

Techniques for Non-Native English Writers
3 hours: Understanding the U.S. legal system, diagnosing miscommunication, translating effective native-language writing to effective English legal writing. 

Effective Use of Facts
2 hours: Fact specificity, identifying why facts matter in the context of the law, fact-based reasoning.

Legal Research Refresher
3 hours: Research plan, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, secondary sources as research tools, purpose-based reading, organizing results, understand concept-based research (vs. fact-based), practitioner tools.