International Audience Joins Cooley Law School’s Kimble Center for Legal Drafting Webinar

 

LANSING, Mich. RIVERVIEW, Fla. – On November 14, Cooley Law School’s Kimble Center for Legal Drafting hosted a webinar that drew viewers from Poland, Nigeria, Canada, the UK, and throughout the US. The webinar—“Clear Legal Writing: New Resources, Technology, and Cases”—focused on various aspects of legal writing in plain language. It was cosponsored by Clarity, an international organization devoted to clear legal writing.

Professor Emeritus Joseph Kimble presented first, sharing details about his new (free) online book, Essentials for Drafting Clear Legal Rules, which he coauthored with Bryan Garner. The book reflects Kimble’s and Garner’s decades of work restyling the rules that govern all federal cases and that judges and lawyers use every day across the country. It offers concrete instruction, with abundant examples, for all forms of drafting.

Ivy B. Grey, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer of WordRake editing software, spoke second. She discussed how properly using writing technology can reinforce substantive legal writing skills and make it easier to revise and reorganize text.

Professor Mark Cooney spoke last, presenting his research on cases in which courts have refused to enforce legal documents that were difficult to understand because of legalese and poor design.

The Kimble Center’s mission is to produce and make available—to attorneys and consumers—legal documents that are clear and easily understandable, documents unlike anything that the public is used to seeing from attorneys. More information about the Kimble Center is available at www.cooley.edu/academics/kimble-center-writing.

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About Cooley Law School: Cooley Law School was founded on a mission of equal access to a legal education and offers admission to a diverse group of qualified applicants across the country. Since the law school’s founding in 1972, Cooley has provided a modern legal education to more than 21,000 graduates, teaching the practical skills necessary for a seamless transition from academia to the real world. An independent, non-profit law school, accredited by both the American Bar Association and the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Cooley holds classes year-round at its Michigan and Florida campuses.