Writing is one of the most fundamental attributes of a lawyer. It is also the most utilized skill by lawyers in the legal profession. Not only is it a basic requirement for recruitment by most law firms, but it is also a factor that weighs in your growth and development as a lawyer throughout your career.
Most activities in the legal profession require proper and excellent writing to be executed properly. Whether it is preparing an argument in court on behalf of the client, drafting a contract to individuals or organizations, proper writing is required, and its absence may be detrimental to the goal you plan to achieve.
Business Writing As A Process For Lawyers
The process of completing a document to perfection may sometimes be tedious and time-consuming. The presence of writing programs and software has fortunately mitigated this problem to a very large extent.
Some of these programs are general writing software which lawyers also happen to utilize, while some are legal writing software specific and more beneficial to lawyers in practice. This article will examine the most efficient and in use programs that are beneficial to lawyers and the legal profession at large.
Microsoft Office
The segment is specifically for Microsoft Word for lawyers. This is because lawyers and law firms usually have a wide range of clients which many times may include financial institutions who always use Microsoft Excel in performing most of their duties.
Performing due diligence and reviewing these documents prepared by these institutions will also require the use of Microsoft Excel by lawyers.
In addition, lawyers sometimes have to guide certain clients in preparing and editing pitches and proposals. This primarily requires the use of Microsoft PowerPoint, which is the most efficient tool for achieving these goals.
Finally, Microsoft Word is the most utilized Microsoft Office tool by lawyers, which goes to show how useful it is when preparing documents. It’s equipped with numerous offline and online functions that prepare documents, a relatively comfortable process for lawyers, either such document is being prepared from scratch or being edited.
It also has the function of including add-ons — other writing tools that ultimately improve your writing, while using Microsoft Word.
Grammarly
While Grammarly may not have been specifically made for lawyers its functions allow it to scrutinize different forms of documents including legal documents. Before you begin editing, this platform allows you to select the intended tone of the document, the level of engagement it should portray, and the nature of the audience receiving the document.
Using this as a foundation the program then identifies the grammatical errors in the documents, the statements or sentences that are not engaging as they should be and the level of plagiarism in such documents.
The legal profession requires a lot of references in its writing, ranging from citing the exact words of a judge from a previous case or referring to the exact provisions of a statute. Or it could also be about quoting the words of a particular writer from a textbook or a journal.
The program helps in identifying the situations where these references are not properly identified by a quotation mark, directing the attention of the lawyer to do so. Finally, the software grades the level of writing in the entire document in the form of a percentage, giving the writer a good idea of how authentic and engaging the writing is to its intended audience.
Google Docs
While Microsoft Office tools do a good job in helping lawyers start a document from scratch as well as edit one, and Grammarly takes documents to points that are well near perfection, Google Docs benefits lawyers immensely due to its unmatched collaborative function.
Writing is often an individual endeavor. And the legal profession is an extremely collaborative one, and almost every lawyer works in conjunction with at least one colleague in performing their legal duties. For that reason, Google Docs makes this list.
Google Docs is a web writing platform powered by Google which allows multiple writers on a single document. Each writer or contributor simply needs to own a Google account to either create a Google Docs document or be an editor on one.
This way, clients may add their lawyers as editors on their documents to effect changes which they can monitor in real-time. Senior lawyers also have the opportunity to supervise subordinates’ work in real-time, in order to minimize the possibility of mistakes on delicate tasks. Ultimately, lawyers cannot go wrong in using Google Docs.
Scrivener
The Scrivener is a writing software specifically created for writing projects rather than writing one single document. This software will be perfect for lawyers as different cases and clients have a lot of documents prepared on their behalf by their lawyers.
The Scrivener allows the writer to create segments or folders for each project under which different documents will exist. This allows for easy access to either a folder or a document, while automatically saving after each editing session. Apparently, The Scrivener will be just a perfect fit for many other professions that require long-term writing, but its benefits for lawyers are especially great.
Conclusion
The four programs explored in this article have specific functions, and that’s why they were selected above many other writings and editing programs beneficial to lawyers. Their functionalities and sophistication are enough to help any lawyer in his daily preparation of documents for the attention of colleagues, clients, courts, and adversaries.
Besides the massive time-saving advantage that comes with utilizing these programs, they also perfect the necessary documents to extents that may be impossible or too time-consuming if attempted manually. Other writing and editing programs that lawyers may also find useful include BriefCatch, Copyscape, and Hemingway Editor.
