On publishing Elegant Legal Writing
On publishing Elegant Legal Writing
Why I’m proud of it and why it deserves to be read.
Publishing my book Elegant Legal Writing (book | blog) didn’t feel real until the advances arrived from the University of California Press. Not long ago, I wasn’t sure I could devote enough focused energy to one project to fulfill my goal of authoring a book. But there it is: a book. Let me explain why I’m proud of it and why it deserves to be read.
Elegant Legal Writing is written in a voice of confident expertise that developed over time. I started writing it four years ago, but only gradually understood what the book should say and believed in myself as the person who must say it.
Although written from my perspective as a litigator and law professor, Elegant Legal Writing bears traces of previous experiences I sometimes thought of as failures or detours:
I only taught high school for two years, but lessons learned from earning the attention of ninth graders turned out to help me persuade judges and juries.
I never published my memoir or poetry, but creative writing workshops helped me move beyond intuition and study writing as a craft.
I had to shut down my language-learning app WordBrewery, but I repurposed the love of words that inspired it into a new project: designing an Advanced Legal Writing course at UCLA Law.
Indeed, the greatest challenge I’ve faced as a lawyer (unruly attention) led me to the core theme of Elegant Legal Writing: an attorney should write so that busy judges with limited energy, attention span, and motivation appreciate the attorney’s briefs because they are helpful, concise, and pleasant to read.
A book about writing will be scrutinized sentence-by-sentence. Anticipating such scrutiny can be paralyzing, but I used it to motivate me. Thousands of hours of revision, aided by many generous reviewers, went into shaping a tightly written text that gets right to the point. No digressions or fluff survived.
The book’s appearance reflects its contents and advice. Its short sections and copious examples, visuals, and white space make it look approachable and inviting, showing that it is intended to be read by busy professionals.
The book is fast-paced and packed with information but never dense or hard to follow. Instead, it teaches by modeling its ideas. Writing mechanics can be just as abstract, difficult to explain, and soporific as any area of law, but Elegant Legal Writing creates a sense of effortless learning. Everyone who reads it will encounter new ideas and revisit core principles without having to overexert themselves to do so.
Please consider buying a copy and helping me spread the word by reviewing it on Amazon and mentioning it to your networks (you can use this Amazon shortlink: bit.ly/elw-book). I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Ryan McCarl is a founding partner of Rushing McCarl LLP, author of Elegant Legal Writing (U. Cal. Press 2024), and adjunct professor at Loyola Law School. For more writing tips, subscribe to the Elegant Legal Writing newsletter and follow Ryan on LinkedIn. McCarl’s book is available on Amazon and elsewhere.
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