Revised March 2009
A. Casadonte
PREPARING YOUR WRITING SAMPLE
A good lawyer must be an excellent writer. Often as part of the job search process, potential
employers will ask to see samples of your legal writing. You should carefully select the writing
sample you intend to submit as it may well form the basis of an employer's opinion about the
overall quality of your writing skills. A good writing sample alone will probably not get you a
job, but a poor writing sample may very well prevent you from getting an offer.
On the next page is a reprint of an excellent article from the Bulletin published by the National
Association for Law Placement. Author David James shares his perspective on helping you
select appropriate writing samples.
C
HOOSING AN APPROPRIATE WRITING SAMPLE
• Prospective employers are looking for a concise (ideally 4-7 pages, but no more than 10)
legal analysis of an issue. The key to a good writing sample is your writing style and
analysis: the document should frame the issue, analyze the issue and come to some sort of
conclusion based upon the analysis.
• You can use a written work product from a legal job or internship, or one of the documents
you prepared for your Legal Analysis, Research and Writing class – just make sure it’s your
best work!
• You may want to consider including a non-legal document with your legal writing sample.
This can be especially effective for intellectual property positions (such as technical articles
or published research) or as a reflection of your writing skills in general.
• When in doubt, ask the employer what kind of writing sample is most appropriate.
P
REPARING THE WRITING SAMPLE
• Prepare your writing sample in advance. Have one ready if an employer asks for one as part
of an application package or during an interview/office visit.
• If you know you have done better or can do better, then don't submit a poor quality sample.
Rewrite or edit the document if necessary.
• Work with your Legal Analysis, Research and Writing instructor. Solicit the opinion of the
attorney or judge for whom you originally drafted the memo or brief.
• If you intend to use a written work product from a legal job or internship, make sure it does
not contain confidential information. When in doubt, check with your supervising attorney
or judge. You may be able to black out the confidential information.
Santa Clara University © 2009
2
“HELPING STUDENTS SELECT WRITING SAMPLES—AN EMPLOYER’S PERSPECTIVE”
BY DAVID C. JAMES
A lot has been written about certain job hunting topics—for example, resumes and
interviewing—but writing samples have not gotten much attention. Obviously, writing samples
should be well written, free of misspellings, typo-graphical errors, and grammatical problems.
But two other important issues seem to get overlooked: “When does the employer want a writing
sample?” and “What kind of writing sample does the employer want?”
Some employers want to collect writing samples at the initial interviews, or even
beforehand. I ask for writing samples at the call-back interview stage, once applicants have
survived an initial interview. At interviews, students should be prepared to provide a writing
sample in case the interviewer asks for one, but providing an unsolicited writing sample wastes
paper. Students should provide a writing sample when their employer asks for it.
Employers prefer certain kinds of writing samples; yet, each year only a handful of
students ask me what kind of writing sample I want. While employers will take what students
have, certain kinds of writing samples serve the purpose much better than other.
Good writing samples are legal writing. Although this doesn’t seem very restrictive, it
does disqualify some writing. Something the student wrote before law school is not my idea of
legal writing. And, though magazine and newspaper articles might be worth giving to me, then
can only supplement a writing sample. In discussing writing sample with other employers, I find
in agreement on the following guidelines.
▪ Provide persuasive writing
▪ Provide something from the real world
▪ Provide something recent
▪ Provide about 10 pages
▪ Provide something understandable
▪ Provide your own work
▪ Cross out parts written by someone else
▪ Excise confidential/sensitive information
▪ Avoid lurid subjects
▪ Don’t add a binder
Persuasive writing allows employers to evaluate advocacy skills. Good choices include a
well-written memorandum of points and authorities or a brief. Some kinds of analytical (as
opposed to persuasive) writing are fine. For example, a bench memorandum for a judge puts a
premium on practical research and writing skills. Writing that does not involve research, or that
is scholarly but not practical, is less satisfactory.
Most employers want something from the real world—something done as a law clerk or
extern. Second choice is a school exercise that simulates a real world product. Law review and
other scholarly writing do not serve the need. Because students polish law review articles to the
nth degree, the amount of time spent on them is all out of proportion to the time available in
practice. And law review articles raise the question whether the editors blended their work with
the applicant’s. The purpose of the writing sample is to convince the employer that the student
can do the kind of writing the employer’s attorneys do. So, the best writing samples are projects
that could have been done in the employer’s office.
A writing sample should be something the student wrote recently. Legal writing skills
should improve with experience. When applicants give me two-year old writing samples, they
might as well tell me their skills haven’t improved in two years. I treat writing samples as a
measure of the applicant’s current skill level, without crediting the subsequent experience.
Santa Clara University © 2009
3
Employers don’t need more than about ten pages to evaluate an applicant’s writing skills.
Two or three pages can be more that enough to discern that a writing sample is weak or strong,
but it may take more reading to make finer discriminations. Because the competition is keen, I
make fine discriminations among strong papers. Some applicants resort to overkill, providing a
stack of writing samples. This excess stems from trying to cover all the bases, not knowing what
the employer is looking for. It’s more graceful simply to ask employers what they want.
Some students are not averse to using writing sample that most employers cannot readily
understand. A student should send a writing sample that deals with an arcane subject only to
employers who can appreciate it. Some writing samples have an elliptical quality, because
students have cut them to create more manageable lengths. When students cut a paper, they
should not delete necessary context, and they should annotate the cover—for example, “I have
omitted Arguments III and IV.”
A writing sample should allow an employer to assess the applicant’s work. Sometimes an
applicant’s writing sample appears on its face to be someone else’s work—for example, a sample
maybe a memorandum of points and authorities or an appellate brief signed by a supervising
attorney. If that is the case, applicant’s need to explain their part and the attorney’s part in
drafting the memorandum. In law firms and clinics, students who are doing pleadings are
sometimes given a boiler plate shell from which to start. In such cases, applicants need to explain
what is boiler plate and what is original work. I’ve received writing samples with whole sections
in common from students who clerked in the same office. Anytime applicants use writing
samples containing work that is not their own, they should provide an explanatory note.
When students use a writing sample that is not entirely their own work—a moot court
brief is a common example—they should cross out the part they didn’t write. Simple annotating
the front page with who wrote what doesn’t suffice. Applicants need to make it easy. Unless they
draw an “X” through or excise, the pages they didn’t write, it’s too easy to mistake someone
else’s work for theirs. When students hand over a writing sample during an interview, they can
ill-afford the time it takes to explain who wrote what. Wasting time makes students appear
unprepared. If students need to explain what they wrote, or anything else about their writing
sample, they should write it on the cover sheet.
Students should excise confidential/sensitive information from their writing sample.
Some applicant’s thoughtlessly breach confidentiality. When students fail to redact out
confidential material, it no longer matters whether they write well. They have tainted their
application. When students delete confidential information they should insert fictitious material
to maintain the flow of the text. Otherwise, reading their writing sample will be a real chore.
From time to time, students go awry trying to be memorable. They choose a writing
sample with lurid subject matter, distracting the employer from the merits of writing. When
students resort to shock value, the impression they’re making is unfavorable.
Some students try to gain an edge by putting their application materials in elaborate
notebooks. Documents like appellate briefs that are customarily bound are acceptable. But when
students stick an unbound writing sample in a binder just to dress it up, they create two
problems. One, binders take up room; someone has to strip the writing sample from its binder
before putting it in the file. Two, once employers strip writing samples, the have to do something
with the binders. I have received binders so expensive that I felt obliged to return them.
Discourage students from burdening employers with binders.
I conclude with a bit of advice that many students want to hear, something career service
professionals can comment to every student about every writing sample: “Put your name on it.”
