Legal Writing Course

Course Overview

Are you aware of the crucial distinction between legal writing and legal drafting? Don’t fall for the common misconception—they are not the same! They serve distinct purposes in the legal profession. While writing involves persuasive documents such as court briefs and legal letters, drafting focuses on impactful contracts.

Skillfully command words for advocacy, information, persuasion, and instruction. Ensure your communication leaves the right impression and clients receive your intended message.

Our comprehensive Legal Writing Course specializes in clear, effective communication for a global audience. It goes beyond words—understand English-speaking lawyers’ unique perspectives on the legal, political, and business landscapes.

Fun fact: Most international commercial agreements are drafted in English. For lawyers working in English as a foreign language, mastering contract drafting is key. The course explores various agreements, coupled with practical drafting sessions. Gain confidence to draft effectively in English, regardless of the governing law.

Structured as a practical learning experience, our course integrates numerous exercises and real-world examples to ensure an interactive and stimulating outcome, so get ready to produce typical workplace legal documents!

Who Should Attend

This course is for lawyers, legal secretaries, commercial managers, contract managers and anyone who must draft, amend or update contracts, legal letters and legal opinion. The course is suitable for non-native English speakers looking for a better understanding of English legal terms.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

  • Apply plain English style of writing to all legal documents
  • Recognize the need for legal clarity in different types of legal documents: legal letters, emails, memorandum and opinions
  • Apply good legal writing practice
  • Demonstrate the register of legal writing
  • Correct common mistakes in legal writing
  • Dispense and deal with pitfalls and issues relating to the use of legal jargon
  • Proofread effectively

Course Content

Legal Drafting 

  • Signs of a well drafted contract: The simple rules!
  • The language of drafting: Will v Shall v Must
  • Identifying the legal formalities for a binding contract
  • Structure and formation of a commercial contract: follow the formula and you won’t go wrong
  • The importance of Boilerplate clauses:
    • No waiver
    • Notices
    • Assignment v Novation
    • Governing v Jurisdiction
    • Force majeure – are we covered for viruses (covid19)?
    • Dispute resolution clause: Litigation v Arbitration v Mediation
  • The preliminary documents in international transaction – using Heads of Terms effectively
  • Vague words and expressions in commercial contracts- know the pitfalls!
    • Best endeavors v All reasonable endeavors v reasonable endeavors
  • Overview of cross border contracts: Distribution v Joint venture v Agency agreements
  • Share Purchase Agreements
  • Warranties and indemnities
    • Allocating risks and liabilities between the buyer and seller
    • Negotiating warranties from a Share Purchase Agreement

Plain English in Legal Correspondence

  • Good legal writing practice
  • Moving from legalese to Plain English
  • Unnecessary archaic and meaningless phrases
  • Collocations
    • Importance of collocations in legal writing
  • Pitfalls and issues relating to the use of legal jargon in legal writing
  • Writing short emails
  • Writing long emails
  • Writing formal emails

Writing A Legal Letter

  • Layout of a letter
  • Body of a letter
  • Putting a letter together
  • The register of letter writing
  • Typical sentences in legal letters
  • The letter writing clinic: looking at the ten most common problems
  • Rewriting letters
  • Rewriting informal sentences to modern alternatives
  • Correcting common mistakes in letter writing

Legal Writing Troubleshooting

  • The problem of English idioms
  • Rephrasing English idioms
  • Easily confused words
  • Cutting unnecessary words
  • Use of consistent terminology
  • Ambiguity: how to avoid it
  • Vagueness: how to avoid it
  • Misuse of preposition in dates
  • Problem words
  • Constantly litigated words
  • Rewriting sentences to remove gender specific language

Table of Contents

Course Code DU1502 Category
Location: Dubai, UAE
Duration: 5 Days
Language: English
Cost: 15,770 SAR
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