Before the Plain English movement began over forty years ago, legal writing tended to confuse clients and alienate the public. The purpose of plain English is to write with more clarity and precision, always with the reader in mind, without sacrificing meaning and content. There is a commonly held assumption that legal writing cannot help being complicated. However, it should not differ, without good reason, from ordinary well-written English, readily understood by the lay person.
This fourth edition of Plain English Skills for Lawyers course provides lawyers with a practical toolkit to communicate their expertise clearly, concisely and effectively, using the language of a modern lawyer.
This fifth edition of Plain English Writing Skills for Lawyers course provides lawyers with a practical toolkit to communicate their expertise clearly, concisely and effectively, using the language of a modern lawyer.
What is plain English?
Clients today do not want to read any document more than once. Plain English is a way of writing so that the client can understand on first reading what a lawyer writes. This plain English program will show lawyers how to:
With all these techniques and more, a lawyer’s clients will find it easier to understand them and work better together. We also address the topic of AI, where and when it is useful for lawyers, in line with the Universidad Austral’s policy on use of AI.
This course is entirely online with a combination of synchronous and asynchronous material. Asynchronous material will include videos and talks by experts in the field, as well as interactive tools such as surveys and Mentis. We will also invite a Guest Professor as we did in 2025.
Synchronous material will be interactive and include theoretical explanations and examples followed up by exercises to reinforce the concepts learnt. Exercises will be a combination of individual and collaborative.
This course is for Spanish-speaking corporate lawyers with an upper-intermediate level of English who use the English language to communicate with their clients.
This course shows lawyers how to communicate clearly with their clients, following these 10 principles:
The course provides background on the history of and reasons for the growth of the plain language movement, where it is today, and its future.
As this course is aimed at Spanish-speaking lawyers it will also address their common grammatical errors and false cognates.
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