THE FUTURE of Legal Tech and the Art of Persuasive Legal Writing

Legal writing can be complex, but with the right techniques, it becomes a powerful tool for persuasion. In this inaugural Legal Writing Mastery newsletter, brought to you by Hellmuth & Johnson’s Legal Writing Practice Group, we provide more detail on some of the points from our article in Minnesota’s Bench & Bar. (Read the article)

Something Old, Something New

AI is a tool to improve—not make obsolete—the art of persuasive writing.

Using AI as a tool is an excellent way to enhance persuasive writing without replacing the human touch that makes it truly compelling. Here is how we use AI to enhance
our writing and storytelling without losing that passion that gives it a meaning that speaks to us on a subliminal level.

1. Increasing Efficiency and Productivity: We use AI to handle repetitive tasks such as generating outlines, drafting content, or even suggesting persuasive phrases. This allows us to focus more on crafting nuanced arguments and refining their style. A great example is using AI to develop a scaffolding so that we can jump right into the “Madman” phase of the Flowers Paradigm.
2. Research and Generation of Ideas: AI tools, like the several deposition tools out there, help us sift through vast amounts of knowledge quickly. We use this most to develop timelines. Westlaw’s AI Cocounsel is another great tool to kick start your legal research so you can dive into the actual content rather than wrestling with Westlaw’s searches.
3. Grammar and Proofing: AI has really taken spell-check to the next level. With tools like Grammarly or BriefCatch, we save us—and the clients—valuable resources.
4. Adapting Tone and Style: This is one of our favorite uses for AI. Once we have a writing task complete we can put into a large language learning model, such as Chat-GPT, to help modify the tone so that it matches the person we are writing for.
5. Inspiration without Substitution: Perhaps the most misunderstood part of AI. AI is great at generating inspiration and getting the ball rolling, but it is up to us—as the human writer—to develop that inspiration into something emotional or intuitive, so that it can be persuasive.

5 Cool (and Not Necessarily New) Tech Tools and Recommends

1. Wikipedia Common’s The Cognitive Bias Codex
2. Superhuman Tool Vault
3. Sign up for Superhuman newsletter
4. WayBackMachine for archived versions of websites
5. guidde

Podcast/Media of the Month

• Cyrus Johnson’s substack WORLD’S FIRST 100% SYNTHETIC AI PODCAST ON THE US CONSTITUTION(!)
• Excited Utterance, Episode 155 A Proposal to Replace the Hearsay Rules
• Texas Appellate Law Podcast, Episode 140 Bridging the Gap Between Law and Technology

Storied Pleadings: The Power of Narrative Introductions

Megan E. Boyd

Link to full article

Summary: This article discusses the use of narrative techniques in legal writing, particularly in complaint introductions. It argues that incorporating storytelling elements can create a strong first impression and persuasively frame the plaintiff’s case, while still adhering to procedural and ethical rules.

Monthly A.I. Prompts

Here are some Prompts to play with. Put them in your favorite AI-Image generator, such as Microsoft’s Bing, and modify to your heart’s content. Share your interesting images in the comments.

• Prompt: Abstract art paper art origami diorama, with depiction of four legal-writing attorneys, with each representing one of the four stages of “Flowers Paradigm” as applied to legal writing by Bryan A. Garner—modern art ukiyo-e style, colorful, ukiyo
• Prompt: Ending scene in “soylent green”, but with the main character realizing that everything he had been told about legal writing was a lie, oil on canvas
• Prompt: La Jetée style black and white rendering of three attorneys having existential crises, with each attorney having a different type of existential crisis, while trying to write a legal brief, vintage

Conclusion

AI tools can significantly enhance legal writing by enabling legal teams to produce higher quality work more efficiently and cost-effectively, despite the inherent challenges of legal writing. This is important because it has the potential to improve the overall quality of legal writing across the profession, allowing lawyers to better serve their clients and the legal system while focusing more on core aspects of their practice.