Legal Analysis Research & Writing (LARW): Introduction

Good legal analysis requires an understanding of what the law is, how the law works, and how the law is communicated by lawyers. Learning the law and, specifically, learning how to write using it is a bit like learning a foreign language...In legal writing, to conduct sound legal analysis, you must also "show your work" - that is, show the reader step by step how you derived your conclusion from applying the law to the facts of your case. The way you "show your work" in legal writing is formulaic like scientific writing. Courts reach and write decisions in a methodical way and pursuant to an accepted formula, and lawyers must do the same...There are two primary types of writing that lawyers do: objective legal writing and persuasive legal writing...Objective writing is often referred to as predictive writing. No matter what you call it - objective or predictive - the purpose of this type of legal writing is to present a balanced analysis of the law, given the facts presented. In other words, objective legal writing does not take a position and then design an argument to further or support that position. Instead, objective writing answers a question and then sets forth and applies legal authority to explain that answer to the reader...Persuasive writing should should start with an objective analysis of the law and an objective analysis of your client's case. You need to look at the law and facts objectively so that you know the strengths of your case, the obstacles you must overcome, and, therefore, your best plan of attack to "win."...Your goal is to persuade your audience...You do this by framing the law in a way that best suits your client, framing your client's facts in the light most favorable to her, and persuasively applying the law to your client's facts to argue for a specific outcome. 

- Melissa Shultz & Christine Tamer, Writing by Numbers: Legal Writing Made Easy (2020). 

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