American Bar Association
To communicate effectively, lawyers should strongly consider their audience, especially when it is the court, according to panelists at the American Bar Association webinar, “Effective Legal Writing Strategies: When the Court is Your Audience.”
Lawyers should aim to reduce the amount of time a judge needs to understand their case, the panelists said, agreeing that lawyers’ success in advocating for their clients will largely depend on their writing ability.
Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Christopher McFadden said sometimes he’s halfway through a brief and “still not quite sure what the legal issue I have to decide is,” adding that lawyers should be aware of the “cognitive load” they’re putting on judges.
McFadden said shorter sentences and parallel structure help judges understand and identify the issues.
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Nancy Abudu agreed that short, concise sentences for topic sentences and brief headings are the “first point of clarity.” Using the table of contents as an outline for where you plan to go as the writer and want the reader to follow along is key, she said.
“It’s a road map for the case,” Abudu said. “It begins with your strong understanding of what the case is.”
Abudu said tone also should be considered for clarity. “At the appellate level you’ve got three judges, most likely, [whose attention] you’re trying to get, and everyone’s learning style is different. So, I recognize it can be difficult to pick a style that can accommodate the various audiences,” she said. “But, again, it comes back to you really being the owner of your case and setting the stage through the tone, through the language of what your case is about and what it is you want.”
According to Margaret Bullard, a central staff attorney for the Court of Appeals of Georgia, the table of contents and headings should be persuasive, “but don’t make them too concise that the court doesn’t know what you’re asking for. For example, if a heading says, ‘The Car Chase,’ I don’t know what that means by itself. Give more context,” she said.
Bullard said she learned in law school that “a judge should be able to read your headings and agree with them, and you win, explaining that they should be framed in such a way that readers would have to agree with what you wrote.
Bullard cautioned against using excessive detail that “bogs down the reader at the beginning,” sloppy, slang or colloquial language, or legalese.
“You don’t have to tell somebody you’re a lawyer by using legalese. We’ll know that from the bar number on the brief,” Bullard said.
Abudu said there still is debate about the use of colloquial terms, contractions and conjunctions. She suggested that judges and lawyers adopt a writing style that has longevity.
Acronyms, consistency, paragraph structure, persuasiveness and other writing strategies were also discussed.
The program, sponsored by the ABA Judicial Division, is available for free on-demand. Visit www.americanbar.org/groups/judicial and click on “Resources.”
(https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/ 2025/07/effective-legal-writing-court/)
To communicate effectively, lawyers should strongly consider their audience, especially when it is the court, according to panelists at the American Bar Association webinar, “Effective Legal Writing Strategies: When the Court is Your Audience.”
Lawyers should aim to reduce the amount of time a judge needs to understand their case, the panelists said, agreeing that lawyers’ success in advocating for their clients will largely depend on their writing ability.
Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Christopher McFadden said sometimes he’s halfway through a brief and “still not quite sure what the legal issue I have to decide is,” adding that lawyers should be aware of the “cognitive load” they’re putting on judges.
McFadden said shorter sentences and parallel structure help judges understand and identify the issues.
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Nancy Abudu agreed that short, concise sentences for topic sentences and brief headings are the “first point of clarity.” Using the table of contents as an outline for where you plan to go as the writer and want the reader to follow along is key, she said.
“It’s a road map for the case,” Abudu said. “It begins with your strong understanding of what the case is.”
Abudu said tone also should be considered for clarity. “At the appellate level you’ve got three judges, most likely, [whose attention] you’re trying to get, and everyone’s learning style is different. So, I recognize it can be difficult to pick a style that can accommodate the various audiences,” she said. “But, again, it comes back to you really being the owner of your case and setting the stage through the tone, through the language of what your case is about and what it is you want.”
According to Margaret Bullard, a central staff attorney for the Court of Appeals of Georgia, the table of contents and headings should be persuasive, “but don’t make them too concise that the court doesn’t know what you’re asking for. For example, if a heading says, ‘The Car Chase,’ I don’t know what that means by itself. Give more context,” she said.
Bullard said she learned in law school that “a judge should be able to read your headings and agree with them, and you win, explaining that they should be framed in such a way that readers would have to agree with what you wrote.
Bullard cautioned against using excessive detail that “bogs down the reader at the beginning,” sloppy, slang or colloquial language, or legalese.
“You don’t have to tell somebody you’re a lawyer by using legalese. We’ll know that from the bar number on the brief,” Bullard said.
Abudu said there still is debate about the use of colloquial terms, contractions and conjunctions. She suggested that judges and lawyers adopt a writing style that has longevity.
Acronyms, consistency, paragraph structure, persuasiveness and other writing strategies were also discussed.
The program, sponsored by the ABA Judicial Division, is available for free on-demand. Visit www.americanbar.org/groups/judicial and click on “Resources.”
(https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/ 2025/07/effective-legal-writing-court/)
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