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Learn from President & Chief Justice William Taft.

‘Don’t write so that you can be understood; write so that you can’t be misunderstood.’

Published

2 months ago

February 23, 2024

Stella Charles Akupue

Equipping Young Lawyers for the Digital Age: Afam Osigwe's Advocacy at the Young Lawyers Forum Agbor Branch Summit’’

By Chinua Asuzu

William Howard Taft served as the 27th US President from 1909 to 1913 and as the 10th US Chief Justice from 1921 to 1930.

“Taft offered judges and lawyers this more realistic strategy for carefully navigating hostile waters: ‘Don’t write so that you can be understood; write so that you can’t be misunderstood.’ In our adversary system, a legal writer may not be able to prevent ‘hostile’ readers from attempting to refashion a precedent or written argument to suit the readers’ purposes, but a meticulous legal writer can make any attempts more difficult.” Douglas E. Abrams, ‘Eight Strategies That Enhance Legal Writing,’ 77 Journal of the Missouri Bar (March–April 2021), 74, 75 (The Taft quote is from ‘Reporters’ Notebook: Bits and Pieces of News,’ Buffalo News [15 Sept. 2008], B2.)

Learn from President & Chief Justice William Taft.

As Attorney General and Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon said, “Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.” Francis Bacon, Of Studies: Essays, No. 50, R. Whately, ed. (1867), 501 (italics mine).

Chinua Asuzu, Uncommon Law of Learned Writing 2.0 (Partridge, 2023), 5–6.

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