Painter Surprised at London Legal Writer’s Meeting

Judge (Ret.) Mark Painter, now of counsel at HelmerMartins, attended the April 2018, monthly meeting of Clarity in London. Clarity is an international group of lawyers and judges who believe in writing in plain English.

The topic for the morning was “Plain language in the USA: forward strides or stuck in the mud?” by Professor Mark Cooney of Western Michigan University Thomas Cooley Law School. Professor Cooney is a champion of the legal plain language movement.

Judge Painter was in London with his wife, Sue Ann, on holiday, and it was fortuitous that the Clarity meeting coincided with the trip. It was held in the Guildhall in the old City area.

The lecture traced the plain language legal movement in the United States, and concluded that some professors, and some judges write in plain English. But that the biggest laggards, and those wedded to the “old” system of legal writing, were the practitioners…