7 Ways to Improve Your Legal Drafting Skills

7 Ways to Improve Your Legal Drafting Skills7 Ways to Improve Your Legal Drafting SkillsThe written word is one of the most important tools of the legal profession. Words are used to advocate, inform, persuade, and instruct. Although mastering legal draftingtakes time and practice, superior writing skills are essential to success, and you can take steps to improve yours. 01Remember Your AudienceRobert Daly/Caiaimage/Getty ImagesEvery word you write should be tailored to the needs of the reader. Documents that embody the same research and message may vary greatly in content and tone based on the documents intended audience. For example, a brief submitted to the court must advocate and persuade. A memorandum to a client must analyze the issues, report the state of the law, and recommend an appropriate course of action. Always keep your audience in mind when crafting any piece of writing.02Organize Your WritingOrganization is the key to successful legal writing. Create a roadmap for you r writing by using visual clues to guide the reader. Introduce your subject in an introductory paragraph, use transitional phrases (furthermore, however, in addition, etc.) between each paragraph, introduce each paragraph with a topic sentence, and use headings and subheadings to break up blocks of text. Limit each paragraph to one topic, and sum up your message with a concluding sentence or paragraph. Organizational structure guides the reader through your text and promotes readability.03Ditch The LegaleseLegalese s of legalese include words such as aforementioned, herewith, heretofore, and wherein. Ditch unnecessary legalese and other jargon in favor of the clear and simple. To avoid legalese and promote clarity, try reading your sentence to a colleague or substituting abstract words with simple, concrete terms. For example, instead of using I am in receipt of your correspondence, use I received your letter. Its clearer and more succinct.04Be ConciseEvery word you write should con tribute to your message. Omit extraneous words, shorten complex sentences, eliminate redundancies, and keep it simple.Consider the following sentenceDue to the fact that the defendant has not attempted to pay back the money owed to our client in the amount of $3,000 it has become absolutely essential that we take appropriate legal action in order to obtain payment of the aforesaid amount.A more concise version reads Since the defendant has not paid the $3,000 owed our client, we will file a lawsuit seeking reimbursement. The latter sentence conveys the same information in 18 words versus 44. Omitting unnecessary words helps clarify the meaning of the sentence and adds impact.05Use Action WordsAction words make your legal prose more powerful, dynamic, and vivid. Add punch to your writing with verbs that bring your prose to life. Here are a few examplesWeak The defendant was not truthful. Better The defendant lied.Weak The witness quickly came into the courtroom. Better The witness bo lted into the courtroom.Weak The judge was very angry. Better The judge was enraged.06Avoid Passive VoicePassive voice disguises responsibility for an act by eliminating the subject of the verb. Active voice, on the other hand, tells the reader who is doing the acting and clarifies your message. For example, instead of the filing deadline was missed, say plaintiffs counsel missed the filing deadline. Instead of a crime was committed, say the defendant committed the crime.07Edit RuthlesslyEdit your writing ruthlessly, omitting unnecessary words and rewriting for clarity. Careful proofreading is particularly important in legal writing. Spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors in a document submitted to the court, opposing counsel or a client can undermine your credibility as a legal professional.

Selling Outsourcing Services to Business

Selling Outsourcing Services to BusinessSelling Outsourcing Services to BusinessThere are many trends in the sales industry and business as well. One of unterstellung trends is the move for many businesses to outsource some or all of their non-core functions. An example of a non-core function that a business might consider outsourcing is a law firm that contracts with a document management company to manage, supply and staff their copy and print center. Another very common example of outsourcing is when a business pays another business to manage their payroll. Before a business contract with another to take over a specific business function, a sale must be made. And the professional who is charged with closing the sale is an Outsourcing Services Representative. A Quick Explanation of Outsourcing Consider any business and think about what the main purpose or core function of that business is. Any function that is not directly related to their core function and considered non-core or non-mission critical. If a company realizes that much of their resources (including capital) is involved in managing their non-mission critical functions, they may consider hiring an outside person or firm to take over the function. In more outsourcing arrangements, those employed to manage a specific function are not considered employees of the company hiring the outsourced company but are either independent employees or are employed by the outsourced company. Selling Services Selling tafelgeschirrs is significantly different than selling a tangible product. When a customer or prospect can binnensee and feel a product, they tend to have significantly fewer questions as compared to the number of questions they have when considering purchasing something intangible. It means that your sales skills will need to be a consistently higher level of polish to be successful in selling outsourcing services. You should also fully expect that the sales cycle will be longer when selling s ervices. Looking for a Job Your job search will take a bit more effort and time than compared to searching for a more traditional sales career. You will need to find a service-oriented company that sells outsourced services and that, while seemingly obvious, can pose quite a challenge. There are, however, several industries that you could explore to help focus your job search. Examples are payroll services, food services, janitorial, travel agencies, print shops, insurance and financial service companies, mail and logistics businesses, training and telesales companies. Expected Compensation In general, sales professionals who sell outsourcing services are highly compensated reps. Reps usually earn a higher than industry average base salary and usually have a very lucrative compensation plan that rewards them with high commissions for closed sales. The salaries are often high to compensate for the extended sales cycles and, in many outsourced service industries, to compensate for the fact that there are fewer potential customers to which to engage in a sales cycle. You should also expect that your competitor will be highly skilled and highly motivated to sell their services. Realize that if your sales cycle is long and your prospects are few, so too are your competitors. Keeping your sales skills strong and your professional network broad are critical success factors. Location, Location, Location As a final note, where you live, and work will probably have a significant impact on both your success in selling outsourcing services and how many employers you will find. If you plan to look for a job selling services in a rural area, you may be in for quite a challenge. In general, the bigger the city, the more outsourcing services sales stelle there will be. It doesnt mean that you wont find opportunities in all areas of the world, however. So if selling outsourcing services is what you passionately want to do for a career, then polish your resume, hone your skills and get ready for a wonderful and rewarding career.

Former G-Man Lands Job in Security

Former G-Man Lands Job in SecurityFormer G-Man Lands Job in SecurityBy understanding how better security saves companies money, Al Ortiz got in on the ground floor of a new operation.When Al Ortiz welches laid off from his position as a regional security director for Bank of America in February, he said he realized that big corporations were leid seeing the value his skills could have on their companies.When times are tough, companies are not as likely to hire security people, he said. Were not revenue producers. But we can save companies a lot of money. And I think the big companies were not valuing that in this economic downturn.Ortiz, a retired FBI agent, had used his network to look for a job when he was hired by Bank of America in 2006. This time around, he went back to that network. I know a lot of folks in the industry. I reached out to my contacts to see if there was anything coming down the pike with other companies, and to just get advice, he said The network was telling me about jobs that were open, and there were calls made on my behalf, but I didnt hear back, he said.Job security for security prosThe OpsLadder member, who speaks Spanish fluently, had been in charge of security for one-quarter of the U.S. and all of Latin America for Bank of America. Ortiz was looking for a job with similar responsibility as well as job security. And while he thought the big corporations would be his best bet, he felt like he was hitting a brick wall as he made his way through job listings.His strategy was to focus on jobs with big corporations, thinking hed have a better chance with job security if he went with bigger companies. The fact that he didnt hear back from employers made me think those jobs were already filled from the inside, he said. I still kept swinging the bat with the corporate Web sites, but my hopes were diminished.When a friend who works for a Wall Street firm suggested Ortiz try Ladders, his search took a different tack. This friend said, Youre making over $100,000 let Ladders work for you. So I became a member and started looking through the site.I saw a job that I was qualified for, so I sent my resume, he said. Within two hours, I got a call from a recruiter. I was amazed. It was totally different from what I had been experiencing.Ortiz had a few requirements in looking for a job, including the fact that he wanted to stay in Texas, if possible, and he wanted to leverage his Latin American expertise. The position he applied to on Ladders involved work in Mexico and the United States. It was based in the Southwest and required Spanish fluency. There wasnt a lot of detail about the job, but from what I saw, I knew it would be interesting, he said. The recruiter had me fill out a couple of forms, and the next thing you know, I was going into an interview with the COO and the president of HR.The position, for a director of security with a smaller company that is growing rapidly, offered several challenges for Ortiz. The job called for someone who could provide and develop security systems. The company needed it done quickly. I was interested in the challenge of creating a security department, setting it up the right way from the get-go. Ive walked into other jobs where things were not set up right, and you spend so much time trying to fix things. I liked the idea of having everything work the right way from the beginning.Ortiz, who was hired three weeks after the first interview, said he also talked to the company about how he could save them money. Larger companies dont see what security can do for them. I needed to get in to speak to the people in charge to convince them what I could do for them. bedrngnis only am I a security guy, Im a businessman. Im arresting a person that could have cost them a lot of money. The bigger company doesnt value that they dont sweat a $1 million inefficiency. The small companies do sweat it. This company certainly does.