Legal writing training

Practice law at a new level

Writing is how lawyers (and other legal writers) carry out the business of the law. Our workshops offer new tools that go well beyond what you learned in law school. You will create unprecedentedly clear, precise, and persuasive legal content more consistently and faster.

We bring a lot of experience to legal drafting

We have consulted on or revised briefs, memos, decisions, contracts, regulatory and enforcement documents, bylaws, expert witness reports, procedural FAQs, and even some legislation.

  • We teach internationally established best practices for clarity, as well as a new staged process to help participants reduce writing and review time.

    We suggest taking the core course before our document- or skill-specific training because it covers foundational content.

    More on core courses

  • These courses teach writers how to:

    • work skillfully with key documents that lawyers produce regularly, like memos and decisions

    • avoid the pitfalls for that document type

    • write clearly and quickly under pressure

    • use templates effectively

    • gain from others’ experience with these types of documents

    More on document-specific training

  • These courses focus on and strengthen certain skills your team may need, depending on what they write. These include:

    • editing and proofreading

    • delivering negative messages

    • writing complex documents with multiple drafters

    Ask us if you need a course you don’t see here.

    More on skill-specific training

  • If you prefer to work at your own pace, check out our online school. We offer:

    • a roughly 12-hour course called Briefing Note Fundamentals

    • coffee-break courses that are densely packed mini modules you can take in 40 to 60 minutes

    Our current coffee-break courses are:

    • Why workplace writing is difficult and often unclear (it’s not you)

    • How to structure documents for readability

    • The best style for modern workplace writing

    • More coming soon!

    See online courses

Choose training that fits your needs

We offer on-site training, live webinars, and online self-paced courses. Each workshop is customized to your organization and group.

Our workshops

Some of our clients

  • Alberta Court of Appeal

  • Alberta Justice

  • Alberta Human Rights Commission

  • BDP

  • Blakes

  • Canadian Corporate Counsel Association

  • Canadian Human Rights Commission

  • Dentons

  • FMC Law

  • GNWT Department of Justice

  • Government of PEI Department of Justice

  • Legal Aid Alberta

  • Norton Rose Fulbright

  • Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments

  • Stikeman Elliott

  • Yukon Human Rights Commission

Core courses

  • Effective Legal Writing

    Learn the core skills legal writers need to create clearer, more readable documents faster.

  • Effective Legal Writing Level 2

    Deepen principles from Effective Legal Writing. Participants apply what they learned to more complex examples.

  • Effective Legal Writing and Reviewing for Leaders

    A condensed version of Effective Legal Writing with a focus on leaders’ needs and how to give clear, useful feedback to writers.

Ask for a course description

Courses for specific documents

  • Written Advocacy

    Find a new level of precision and power when writing persuasive legal content

  • Effective Legal Opinions

    Give clear, concise legal advice that’s usable by a wide range of readers

  • Effective Decision Writing

    Build a persuasive relationship between mandate or law, evidence, and findings

  • Effective Bylaw and Rule Drafting

    Revise existing bylaws or develop new ones using clear, accessible language and formatting

Ask for a course description

Courses in specific skills

  • Effective Editing and Proofreading

    Understand the fundamentals of efficient reviewing (and reduce process time significantly)

  • Write to Persuade

    Learn to write in a powerful, compelling, and clear style and build a reputation for clarity

  • Deliver Negative Messages Skillfully

    Write professional and respectful messages when readers may not want to hear what you have to say

  • Build Strong Rationale

    Focus on creating strong, evidence-based analysis in any type of document

  • Write Effectively as a Team

    Make decisions early to create consistent, clear, well-ordered content when writing collaboratively

Ask for a course description

What we teach your people to do

  • Before

    25 words

  • After

    18 words

  • Before

    29 words

  • After

    16 words

  • Before

    29 words

  • After

    14 words

  • "Our team was very impressed with the Wordsmith writing course. It was engaging, interesting, interactive and brought new insight to even our most experienced writers. The instructors were able to seamlessly blend their examples, tips and tricks to apply to our specific environment. Look forward to engaging them again!

    Kelly Tyler, Director at Alberta Justice and Solicitor General

  • "Our work with Wordsmith has been transformative. Writers and reviewers find that writing is faster and easier overall, and our quality assessment measures show writing quality is improving.

    Sarah Bradley, Ombudsman and CEO of the Ombudsman of Banking Services and Investments

  • "Best writing course I have ever taken."

    Benoît Clément, Director of Financial Innovation at Verra
    (5 star Google review)

  • “This was a good, practical course. I plan to use the triangle analytical tool to employ a more structured approach to thinking/planning my writing."

    Participant from PEI Justice Department

  • "I really enjoyed this training. It has really given me a lot of ideas of ways to rephrase legal language to make it more accessible to the reader."

    Participant from Yukon Human Rights Commission

  • "Sessions were well led by presenters who were very aware of the briefing note process in government. This meant I was able to get maximum value from the information."

    Victoria Laidlaw, Alberta Education
    (5 star Google review)