Legal Advice That Creates Value
Six principles to transform how you write
Why it matters
Most legal advice is delivered in writing: emails and memos. It is that document that defines the client - or business colleague - experience and perception of their lawyer’s competence and the relevance of the advice. Lawyers, ultimately, are as good as their writing.
Yet, too often, that writing falls short. There is a persistent gap between what clients expect and what they get. They want a direct answer, a recommendation they can act upon, delivered in a simple and practical way. What they receive instead is a lengthy yet inconclusive technical analysis.
This training will show you how to bridge that gap and craft legal advice that is clear, useful, and actionable. In a nutshell: legal advice that creates value.
One more reason this matters now: AI can write emails and memos. But AI produces statistical averages, and moving beyond the average legal advice is precisely what this course is designed for. Prompting AI effectively, developing your own style, and knowing when AI gets it wrong all require strong writing skills of your own.
Content
After a brief introduction to the value creation approach to legal advice, participants will explore six key techniques through numerous examples and exercises:
1. The question behind the question. Before writing a single line, how to ensure you have understood the question and the underlying business problem?
2. Structure. How to structure your memo so as to meet the cognitive needs of your clients instead of mirroring your own reasoning process?
3. Headings. How to make optimal use of headings and subheadings to improve clarity and readability, highlight key ideas, and guide the reader’s attention?
4. Style. How to make your writing shorter, simpler and clearer, without losing precision or nuance where it matters?
5. Advising through uncertainty. How to give a clear, actionable recommendation when the law is unclear or ambiguous?
6. Visual impact. How to improve layout, and how to create graphics and charts to make complex reasoning immediately accessible?
Throughout the training, participants will discuss what may be holding them back from adopting this new approach and how to make the change stick.
Who Should Attend
This course works for all lawyers engaged in drafting legal advice as well as their supervisors. It works equally well for lawyers in private practice, in-house legal departments, government bodies, and the non-profit sector.
Even seasoned lawyers will find principles and tips they have never been taught and habits worth reconsidering.
More importantly, effective legal writing isn't just an individual skill: it requires an environment that understands and encourages it. Senior lawyers and team leaders who attend this course will be better equipped to set the standard and coach their teams accordingly.
Format and Options
A half-day or full-day session, available in three versions depending on your needs:
Generic
The training is built around examples and exercises drawn from real legal practice, covering a wide range of situations.
Custom
We adapt the content to your own practice. You send us examples of emails and memos written within your team and we build the exercises around them. This makes the training immediately relevant to your day-to-day reality.
Custom + individual feedback
Participants send one or more of their own documents before the session. In addition to the custom training, each participant receives personal feedback on their own writing. In our experience, this option delivers the strongest results: individual feedback is a powerful trigger for lasting change.
Available in English, French, and Dutch.
Fees are quoted individually following a conversation with Antoine.
How Participants Describe the Course
Anonymous post-training feedback consistently rates this course above 90% for relevance to participants' work, practical value, quality of delivery, and likelihood to recommend it to a colleague.
Useful
Practical
Clear
Interactive
Interesting
Fun
Confronting
Insightful
Accurate
To the point
Well structured
Efficient
Varied
Modern
Illustrated
Refreshing
Meaningful
