And now you are in law school and you are asked to write legal memoranda and briefs, essay examinations, and other legal writings. In law school you are asked to be a writer and to submit that writing for judgment, just as you will wrire and receive the judgment of colleagues in a law firm, and the judges who will decide the cases you bring before them. Every law student needs the opportunity to study her writing, to ponder over the many ways writing can be sabotaged, and how we go about distinguishing between good and bad writing. Every law student needs the skills of the writer, a writer's sensibilities. We can learn how to address the obstacles we face as writers.
Lawyers are persons and writers before they are lawyers.
By attending to what comes first, we may be better at what comes later. Writing may turn out to be more than an instrumental task, a tool, a means to a desired end. For some it is a way of learning, teaching, thinking. Writing can be, and is often, a great pleasure. And, to be honest, we know that writing can be difficult, if not downright hellish.