Coaching Services

I provide 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. 

My personalized coaching goes way beyond redline edits. I offer practical frameworks that help lawyers approach each stage of the writing process from outlining, writing first drafts, editing and proofreading.  Results of my one-on-one approach include:

• better drafts from lawyers

• less partner/supervisor time reviewing/revising 

• 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

I also help partners/supervisors become more efficient and effective editors.

Because of my extensive experience writing and editing briefs and coaching, I can identify and diagnose writing issues quickly without need for multiple drafts.

Coaching Process

My typical coaching process involves:

• Reviewing samples of the lawyer’s work product (typically significant memoranda or briefs) that was submitted to partners/supervisors before lawyer received edits. 

• Meeting with the lawyer – either by Zoom/Teams or in person in Chicago, if desired – to establish rapport, discuss their writing process and provide preliminary evaluation and suggestions for improvement based on the writing samples. 

• Additional periodic meetings to critique the lawyer’s work product, typically an ongoing assignment, which the lawyer provides prior to the meeting.  (I will sign an NDA, if requested.)  I provide a written critique prior to the meeting with suggestions for improvement.  

Meetings typically last about one hour but can be longer if desired.