In-house counsel may be able to read dense alerts, but they are not inclined to do so...
Shortly after my post on writing category-killer client alerts went live, I received an email from a reader. It read in part:
I just read your 9 rules for writing client alerts and, yes. All yes. I was brought into my firm to improve external writings, especially our client alerts. I've previously shared all of your tips to our attorneys, and the reactions go from "Hmmm, you're probably right" (about 15 percent) to "This is how lawyers write and we aren't changing" (the other 85 percent). Do you have any tips for helping attorneys understand this is how the rest of the world reads?
Great point. In my experience, law schools teach legal writing in a fairly anachronistic fashion. But there is a trend, even in court documents, toward readability. Client alerts should be no different.
In-house counsel may be able to read dense alerts, but they are not inclined to do so. Have some compassion for your reader; they plow through hundreds of emails and documents each week. Help them want to read your alert.
When persuading lawyers, gather your evidence and build your case. These tips should help:
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Present competitor alerts. These are helpful to show that not all lawyers write dense client alerts. The “we've always done it this way” thinkers will hopefully see that not everyone adheres to that thinking.
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Benchmark readability. Put your current alerts though Microsoft Word’s readability checker (similar to its spellchecker). It’s not a perfect tool, but it will highlight dense writing. The higher the score on the 1-to-100 scale, the easier it is to understand your writing. Start by aiming to improve an alert’s readability by 10 points. Here’s a how-to from attorney and consultant Barron Henley.
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Edit a current alert. Show your attorneys that their content can be delivered in another format and retain the integrity of its content. Try to convince your writer to publish both pieces, for a side-by-side comparison of which draws a larger audience (and then see #4 below).
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Use your analytics. Whenever possible, show that clearly written alerts are opened more often, result in more click-throughs and engage the reader for longer periods of time on your site.
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Suggest a compromise. A client of mine with a newsletter of 2,000 subscribers has an amazing open rate of 34-38%. How does he do it? His client alerts are clearly written and only four paragraphs long. He includes a link to a 3-4-page white paper that provides a deeper dive into the topic. Boom. Everybody’s happy.
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Check out Scribes. Scribes is the American Society of Legal Writers. Members “seek to create an interest in writing about the law and to promote a clear, succinct, and forceful style in legal writing.” Their site has scores of tips for writers.
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Look to the experts. Check out “Plain English for Lawyers,” by Richard C. Wydick. It’s short and contains exercises for developing a more “enlightened style” of legal writing. Distribute Strunk & White’s “Elements of Style” to each attorney. This 50-year-old guide is the most widely read and employed English style manual.
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Start with a champion. Look for the attorney most willing to increase the readability and reduce the formality of his or her writing. Let that attorney serve as an example that the world will not end and a book of business will not collapse when client alerts are written more clearly.
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Have patience. It’s going to be hard to persuade attorneys who’ve written long, complex sentences replete with clauses and footnotes to begin writing like Ernest Hemingway. If necessary, work on incremental improvements rather than demanding a complete overhaul.
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[Susan Kostal is an editor, writer, business development strategist and media coach with over 25 years experience on the beat and in the C-suite. Susan's expertise includes legal industry trends, marketing, communications, and public relations.]
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