Drafting Wills, Trusts, and Other Estate Planning Documents: A Style Manual

As an attorney, you communicate with your clients not only through phone calls and e-mail, but also through the documents that you draft for them. Drafting clear, well-written documents is critical for the success of any attorney, but particularly for trusts and estates lawyers-after all, the lawyer is speaking on behalf of the client and stating what the client wants to have happen at the time of death or disability. Legal drafting is not a skill that can be mastered in law school; it is an ongoing process that requires attention and continuous refinement throughout your legal career. Drafting Wills, Trusts, and Other Estate Planning Documents can help you take the first steps toward improving your legal drafting skills and teach you new writing habits that will result in better documents. In addition to addressing issues of style, organization, grammar, and the appearance of the document, this book specifically teaches you how to adapt language from existing legal forms and refine it for use in your practice. The final chapter includes several estate planning documents, with annotations explaining how the author has incorporated the suggestions in this book to create clearer, more concise legal documents-and ones that still meet the needs of clients, other attorneys, and the courts.