Plain English for Lawyers

Wydick's central insight is that the cure for bad legal writing is not learning to write like a lawyer — it's unlearning the habits law school taught you. Cut surplus words. Use short sentences. Pick verbs over nouns. Arrange your words with care. That's basically the book, but the examples make it stick. At 130 pages, this is the shortest book on the law shelf, and the highest-leverage. Every paragraph improves your writing. Five worms. The book every legal-writing professor assigns and every senior associate wishes the juniors would actually read.