Legal Analysis, Research and Writing Write to Counsel
A regular column in Washington State Bar News
The legal writing faculty at UW Law contribute articles to a regular column in the Washington State Bar Association’s magazine, Washington State Bar News (formerly NWLawyer). That column — titled “Write to Counsel” — covers issues relevant to practicing attorneys, students, judges or anyone interested in effective legal writing.
Get Involved
If you have a question about legal writing that you’d like to see addressed in a future Write to Counsel article, please submit your question to nwlawyer@wsba.org with the subject line “Write to Counsel.”
Past Articles
- March 2025: Lauren Sancken, By the Rules: Techniques for Writing Persuasive Rules
- December 2024: Jeff Feldman, Writing Tips from the Bench: Knowing When Less Is More
(A Conversation with Ninth Circuit Judge Morgan Christen) - October 2024: Mireille Butler, Drafting Transactional Documents and Avoiding Ambiguity
- July 2024: David J.S. Ziff, Math for Lawyers: The Importance of Counting to Five
- June 2024: Jaclyn Celebrezze, Drawing Connections: A Guide to Visual Advocacy for Lawyers
- March 2024: Amanda Stephen, Citing GenAI: If, when, and how to cite generative artificial intelligence in your legal writing
- February 2024: Lauren E. Sancken, Lessons in Advocacy from Held v. Montana
- December 2023: Benjamin S. Halasz, Writing Tips from the Bench: To Be Persuasive Keep It Simple, An Interview with Justice Mary Yu
- July/August 2023: Mireille Butler, From Brief to Business
- June 2023: David J.S. Ziff, When Precedent Lacks Power, Make the Judge Want to Decide in Your Favor
- April/May 2023: Jaclyn Celebrezze, Like and Subscribe: Six Ways to Create Engaging Digital Content
- February 2023: Amanda Stephen, The Underground Scholars Initiative Language Guide: A Tool for Reducing Bias in Your Writing
- December 2022: Lauren Sancken, Spinning Your Wheels with Legal Research: Tips for When the Going Gets Tough (or Stuck)
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September 2022: Benjamin S. Halasz, Coach the Court: Writing Tips from the Bench, An Interview with Judge Rebecca Glasgow
- July/August 2022: Mireille Butler, Using ‘Soft Skills’ to Help Newly Licensed Lawyers Become Better Writers—and Better Lawyers
- June 2022: David J.S. Ziff, Say Goodbye to Bad Digital Presentations
- March 2022: Mary Zou, Sent from my iPhone: 5 practical tips for communicating effectively on your mobile device
- December 2021: David J.S. Ziff, From Anecdata to Data on Writing a Winning Brief
- September 2021: Benjamin S. Halasz, Write Introductions that Will Bedazzle Rather than Bore
- June 2021: Lauren E. Sancken, The Importance of Being Earnest: Writing an Effective Supplemental Authorities Letter
- April/May 2021: Mireille Butler, Frame It: How to use a deep issue statement to make a lasting first impression
- February 2021: Benjamin S. Halasz, Strengthen Your Briefs: Argue Rules Before Comparisons
- December 2020/January 2021: Lauren E. Sancken, Terrific Third Drafts: Taking Your Writing from Bad to Good to Great
- October 2020: David J.S. Ziff, Return on Investment: Editing for Professional Development
- June 2020: Rebecca Talbott, Show, Don't Tell: How to (invisibly) persuade through facts
- April/May 2020: Lauren Sancken, RE: Emails
- March 2020: David J.S. Ziff, Practical Citation
- February 2020: Benjamin S. Halasz, To Write with Flow, Use the Old-to-New Connection
- December 2019/ January 2020: Helen A. Anderson, Persuasive Grammar
- October 2019: Kathy McGinnis, Winning with Point-First Writing
- September 2019: Lauren E. Sancken, Words of a Feather: Poetry as a Legal Writing Tool
- July/August 2019: David J.S. Ziff, There's No Such Thing as a 'Bad' Case
- June 2019: Benjamin S. Halasz, Activate Your Prose by Using the Passive Voice
- May 2019: Tom Cobb, Embracing the Singular 'They'
- April 2019: Helen Anderson, Creating a Point of View in Legal Storytelling