Coaching Services

Susan Feibus provides sustained, personalized legal writing coaching that law firms and in-house law departments cannot replicate internally - especially in the post-Covid era of remote work. Partners or supervisors may be great writers, but most do not have the time or inclination to invest in other lawyers’ legal writing proficiency. Partner/supervisor feedback typically is limited to redline edits (often at the eleventh hour) which do not show lawyers (especially junior ones) how to improve their future work. The result is disappointing work product and demoralized lawyers. 

Susan’s personalized coaching can achieve what busy partners/supervisors cannot.  She offers practical advice, beyond redline edits, that help lawyers master each stage of the writing process from outlining, writing first drafts, editing and proofreading. Because of her coaching experience and writing and editing briefs, herself, Susan is expert at identifying and diagnosing writing issues.

By working with Susan, lawyers can:

• Master pre-writing practices and processes

• Embrace taut organization, clarity and conciseness

• Strengthen self-editing and proofreading skills

• Overcome writing time wasters

• Hurdle over writer’s block

• Enjoy writing again, not just having written

The benefits to law firms and in-house law departments from Susan’s personalized coaching are many:

• Better first drafts from the lawyer to partners/supervisors

• Less partner/supervisor time reviewing/revising work product

• Improved retention from improved morale because of better work product

• Improved retention since otherwise talented lawyers won’t need to be dismissed because of deficient writing skills

• Improved retention by giving top performers the opportunity to take their legal writing to the next level

• Recruitment of better candidates from demonstrated commitment to lawyer training

• Eliminated or decreased write-offs

Services include ten-hour coaching packages per lawyer and regular office hours at a fixed interval (weekly, monthly, other) during which lawyers can sign up for coaching.

Coaching Process

Susan’s typical coaching process involves:

• Initial meeting – either by videoconference or in person in Chicago – to establish rapport, discuss the lawyer’s writing process, obstacles and expectations

• Confidentially review redacted short samples of work product (memoranda, briefs, agreements, substantive correspondence) that the lawyer submitted to partners/supervisors before their edits

• Conferring to provide preliminary evaluation and suggestions for improvement based on the writing samples

• Meetings to critique the lawyer’s redacted work product, either completed or ongoing assignments, which the lawyer provides prior to the meeting

• Additional meeting to enhance clarity and effectiveness of correspondence and email

Meetings typically last about one hour. Susan provides written critiques prior to the meetings, as appropriate, with suggestions for improvement.

Continuing Legal Education

WriteRight is an approved Illinois MCLE course provider. We will apply for Illinois MCLE credit for the in-person and videoconference sessions.