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ARTICLE · 09 MARCH 2022

Best Writers, Best Lawyers: Tips On How To Be Both

Fogler, Rubinoff LLP
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Despite his antique gender exclusion, Lord MacMillan was right.

CanadaLaw Department Performance
Ronald D. Davis
Ronald D. Davis
Robert Macdonald
Robert Macdonald
Teodora Prpa
Teodora Prpa
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Ronald D. Davis*, Robert Rotenberg+, Robert Macdonald*, Teodora Prpa*

*Fogler Rubinoff LLP

+Rotenberg Shidlowski Jesin, Barristers

"The lawyer's business is with words: They are the raw material of his craft."

- Lord MacMillan (1873 –1952)

1.            Lawyers and Writing

Despite his antique gender exclusion, Lord MacMillan was right. Lawyers are only as good as their language. A lawyer can have all the legal knowledge in the world, but if they can't marshal the words to convey that knowledge, they and their work are the lesser for it.

It's not only about craft. It's also about ethics. Lawyers have an obligation to "perform any legal services undertaken on a client's behalf to the standard of a competent lawyer", says the Law Society of Ontario in Rule 3.1-2 of the of the Rules of Professional Conduct. It has "baked in" writing and drafting to the very definition of competence:

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