Edit Like a Professional: Why Lawyers Should Borrow from the Nonlegal Editing Toolbox

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BY MIREILLE BUTLER

Lawyers spend much of their professional lives writing, yet too often their editing practices remain narrowly legalistic. The assumption is that editing legal writing must differ dramatically from editing other forms of professional prose. But in fact, many of the most effective editing techniques have long been practiced outside the law: in publishing, journalism, and technical writing. By adopting these methods, lawyers can produce documents that are not only substantively sound but also clear, persuasive, and readable.¹

The Goals of Effective Editing

At its core, editing pursues four interrelated goals: structure, clarity, correctness, and voice.² A well-edited document reflects logical organization, avoids redundancy, and flows smoothly from one point to the next. It also communicates with concision, eliminating unnecessary jargon or wordiness. Correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling are non-negotiable, both for professionalism and for precision. Finally, tone and voice matter: A contract, a client advisory, and an appellate brief each demand a different register, and editing ensures that the writer has struck the right one.

These objectives are not unique to legal writing. Editors in other fields pursue them just as vigorously. What sets law apart is the density of authority (citations, precedent, statutes) that complicates the editing process. But the principles remain constant.

The Stages of Editing

Professional editors rarely attempt to tackle all issues at once. Instead, they adopt a staged process³ that lawyers would do well to mimic.

The first stage of editing that professional editors use is called developmental or big picture editing. Editors read the document in full before making any changes, seeking to understand its purpose, its intended audience, and its most important points. Only then does structural editing begin.

Structural editing is a sub-phase of developmental editing but happens after having understood the broad picture. In structural editing, the focus turns on coherence. Does the document move logically from background to argument to conclusion? Are there redundancies, or critical gaps in reasoning?

Line editing and copyediting follow, refining word choice, varying sentence structure, and checking tone. Finally comes mechanical editing/proofreading to ensure conformity to citation manuals and formatting guidelines.

Many lawyers still follow outdated practices (two spaces after periods, excessive underlining, oversized indents) that typesetters abandoned decades ago.

Outside the law, these stages are commonplace. In-house editors at publishing houses for example, or professional book editors,⁴ rarely begin by copy-editing semicolons; they start by interrogating narrative arc and coherence. Lawyers can achieve similar gains by resisting the urge to edit only for grammar.

A Disciplined Approach

Borrowing from the broader editing world, lawyers can adopt different disciplined approaches depending on the project.

One method involves adopting the sequential editing technique described above, adapted for lawyerly work. First comes the big picture editing: organization, substance, completeness, and tone. In fiction, this might mean focusing on momentum and pacing, plot consistency, story organization, tone, and voice. In law, this also means assessing tone while grasping the applicable legal principles, the client’s goals, and the key arguments. From there, one can turn to structural editing, focusing on the substance of the writing by ensuring arguments are complete, reviewing organization and flow, and verifying transitions. Finally,
editors will shift to readability, style, consistency, grammar, and citations accuracy and format. This mirrors how magazine and book editors work, initially ensuring that the writing makes sense as a whole, then moving into line editing before finishing by copyediting and mechanical editing.

Law professor and attorney Joe Regalia⁵ recommends using two methods for legal editing: the one-read editing technique and the red flag editing technique.⁶ Both methods originated outside the legal sphere but translate seamlessly into practice. The one-read editing technique simply consists in reading a draft once and identifying words, sentences, or sections that require rereading (with a circle, a checkmark, or squiggly margin lines). This method allows editors to quickly identify trouble spots without getting bogged down in solutions. It is fast, efficient, and particularly helpful when editing colleagues’ work. Similarly, red-flag editing, during which the editor compiles a list of overused words (“very,” “really,” “in order to”), vague phrasing, or passive constructions, provides a targeted way to improve clarity and concision.

Practical Tools and Checklists

Writers and editors beyond law also rely on practical tools to discipline their editing. Lawyers should not hesitate to do the same.

Checklists are invaluable⁷ They can include grammar and spelling, formatting and layout, word choice, tone, and voice. Additional legal-specific items—such as avoiding repetitive recitations of black-letter law, using string cites sparingly, and paraphrasing where possible—can be added without losing the broader utility of the checklist approach.

Professional editors rarely attempt to tackle all issues at once. Instead, they adopt a staged process that lawyers would do well to mimic.

Typography also matters.⁸ Many lawyers still follow outdated practices (two spaces after periods, excessive underlining, oversized indents) that typesetters abandoned decades ago. Editors in publishing learned long ago that consistent heading styles, thoughtful line spacing, and careful use of dashes and bullets improve readability. Lawyers should follow suit.⁹

Software tools likewise deserve attention. Microsoft Word’s readability statistics and style functions can be underused in law offices. Proofreading platforms like Grammarly or PerfectIt¹⁰ can also help, though lawyers must remain mindful of client confidentiality when using AI-driven tools. The temptation to outsource editing to generative AI is real, but of course, ethical caution is warranted. According to Bloomberg Law’s 2023 survey of legal practice, 48 percent of respondents already use generative AI for document review and 28 percent for summarizing narratives, yet many of the AI tools publicly available are not tailored to the confidentiality demands of legal practice.¹¹

Editing as Professional Obligation

Legal readers—judges, clients, opposing counsel—are busy. Editing is not cosmetic; it is a professional responsibility.¹² A poorly organized brief or error-ridden contract wastes time and undermines credibility. Conversely, a carefully edited document saves readers effort, increases persuasiveness, and reflects the lawyer’s discipline.

Writers outside the law have long understood this truth. The Chicago Manual of Style, The Elements of Style, and Fowler’s Modern English Usage¹³ are not legal texts, but they remain invaluable guides for legal writers. The best lawyers read them regularly, sharpening instincts for clarity and concision that benefit every brief and motion.

In the end, lawyers are professional writers, who like all professional writers, need professional editing.¹⁴ Borrowing from the wider world of editing is not a departure from legal tradition but an affirmation of it. Clearer documents, stronger arguments, and more efficient communication will follow.

About the author

Mireille Butler is a teaching professor and the co-director of the Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing Program at the University of Washington School of Law.

NOTES

1. Bryan A. Garner, Legal Writing in Plain English (3d ed. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2013).

2. Joseph M. Williams & Joseph Bizup, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (13th ed., Pearson, 2021).

3. Fiverr Blog, “The Different Methods of Book Editing,” Sept. 8, 2022 https://blog.fiverr.com/post/the-different-methods-of-book-editing. See also Dave Chesson, Kindlepreneur, Types of Editing for Books: What Are They and Which do you need, April 30, 2025.

4. www.kristencorrects.com/8-secrets-of-the-book-editing-process/.

5. https://write.law/blog/edit-systematically.

6. Tiffany Yates Martin, Intuitive Editing, A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing (E3 Press, 2020).

7. John Hiski Ridge and Suzan Kobashigawa, “Editing Other Lawyers’ Work, The Six Stages of Effective Editing,” Colorado Lawyer Magazine, July 2022, https://cl.cobar.org/departments/editing-other-lawyers-work/.

8. Matthew Butterick, Typography for Lawyers (2d ed., Jones McClure Publishing, 2015).

9. Suzanne Suarez Hurley, “Advancing the Legal Profession with Typography,” Florida Bar Journal Vol. 86, No. 9, November 2012, www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/advancing-the-legal-profession-with-typography/.

10. PerfectIt is a proofreading software for professional editors.

11. Bloomberg Law, 2023 State of Practice: Legal Landscape (2023), https://pro.bloomberglaw.com/insights/technology/2023-state-of-practice-practice-in-the-new-era/. This number remains stable, as noted in the most recent 2025 Bloomberg Law report, Predictions that Cut Through the Commotion, https://pro.bloomberglaw.com/insights/business-of-law/legal-trends/#takeaways (40 percent of attorneys indicated that they have used generative AI for work-related projects. Of those 40 percent, more than half have used generative AI for legal research, and more than a third have used it for drafting memos or correspondence).

12. Washington Rules of Professional Conduct, in particular RPC 1.1, 1.3, and 3.3, require lawyers to prevent errors that arise from insufficient proofreading, such as incorrect dates, names, or legal citations.

13. See The Chicago Manual of Style (18th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2024); William Strunk Jr. & E.B. White, The Elements of Style (4th ed. 1999); H.W. Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (4th ed. Oxford University Press, 2015).

14. See Henry DeVries, “Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Write Drunk, Edit Sober’ Great Marketing Advice,” Forbes Magazine (Dec. 11, 2018) www.forbes.com/sites/henrydevries/2018/12/11/ernest-hemingways-write-drunk-edit-sober-great-marketing-advice/. While DeVries notes that the quote, “Write drunk, edit sober” is often misattributed to Hemingway, DeVries adds that for any marketer, writer of blog content, PR expert, or professional writer, “Writing drunk is bad advice. But sober editing is great advice.”