As an attorney, you communicate with your clients not only through phone calls and e-mail, but also through the documents that you draft for them. Drafting clear, well-written documents is critical for the success of any attorney, but particularly for trusts and estates lawyers—after all, the lawyer is speaking on behalf of the client and stating what the client wants to have happen at the time of death or disability.

Legal drafting is not a skill that can be mastered in law school; it is an ongoing process that requires attention and continuous refinement throughout your legal career. Drafting Wills, Trusts, and Other Estate Planning Documents can help you take the first steps toward improving your legal drafting skills and teach you new writing habits that will result in better documents.

In addition to addressing issues of style, organization, grammar, and the appearance of the document, this book specifically teaches you how to adapt language from existing legal forms and refine it for use in your practice. The final chapter includes several estate planning documents, with annotations explaining how the author has incorporated the suggestions in this book to create clearer, more concise legal documents—and ones that still meet the needs of clients, other attorneys, and the courts.

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: The State of Drafting
1.1 Why Good Drafting Matters
1.2 How Well Do Estate Planners Draft?
1.3 Why Estate Planners Draft Poorly

Chapter 2: Matters of Style
2.1 Use Standard English
2.2 Ambiguity and Vagueness
2.3 Be Consistent
2.4 Avoid the Passive Voice
2.5 Words of Authority: Avoid the Inconsistent and Incorrect Use of “Shall”
2.6 Use the Present Tense When Possible and Write Trusts and Powers of Attorney, Not Just Wills, in the First Person
2.7 Buried Verbs
2.8 Numbers
2.9 Keep it Short
2.10 Provisos
2.11 Types of Words and Phrases to Avoid
2.12 Specific Words and Phrases to Avoid
2.13 Definitions
2.14 Terminology Peculiar to Drafting Wills and Trusts
2.15 Learn Proper Grammar and Don’t Be Intimidated by Pedants
2.16 Write and Rewrite

Chapter 3: How to Organize an Estate Planning Document
3.1 Overview
3.2 Organizational Principles
3.3 Organize for Ease of Reference and Amendment
3.4 Mechanical Aids to Organization
3.5 Organization of a Will
3.6 Organization of a Trust
3.7 Organization of a Power of Attorney

Chapter 4: Mechanics: The Physical Appearance of the Document
4.1 Introduction
4.2 White Space
4.3 Justification: Left or Full?
4.4 Use Headings and a Logical Numbering System; In Longer Documents, Include a Table of Contents
4.5 Font and Font Size
4.6 Always Use Tabs—Never the Spacebar—To Set Indents and Align Text
4.7 Capitalization and Other Devices to Call Attention
4.8 Other Marks of a Professional-Looking Document
4.9 Handling Cross-References

Chapter 5: How to Use Forms Instead of Letting Them Use You
5.1 Collecting Good Forms and Snippets of Forms
5.2 Use Statutes and Other Authoritative Sources to Draft Form Language
5.3 An Approach to Modifying a Form to Make It Your Own
5.4 Fix the Mechanics
5.5 Get Rid of the Legalistic Garbage
5.6 Edit for Organization
5.7 Sentence by Sentence Analysis and Editing for Style

Chapter 6: Annotated Sample Forms
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Will Leaving All Property Outright
6.3 Living Trust Incorporating Marital Deduction and Credit Shelter Trust Planning
6.4 General Durable Power of Attorney
6.5 Health Care Power of Attorney

Kevin D. Millard is a partner in the law firm of Chorney & Millard LLP, where his work focuses on estate planning and estate administration. He is a member of the Trust and Estate and Taxation sections of the Colorado Bar Association; a member of the Rocky Mountain Estate Planning Council (President, 1992-1993); and a member of the American Bar Association. Mr. Millard is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and serves on its State Laws Committee and co-chairs its Legal Education Committee.

Mr. Millard served for one year as co-director of the legal research and writing program at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has since served as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and the University of Colorado School of Law. He has also authored several articles on topics related to estate planning.

Mr. Millard received his B.A. (magna cum laude) from Kenyon College in 1972 and his J.D. (cum laude) from the University of Minnesota in 1975. He is admitted to practice in Colorado and Minnesota.

Format: 7x10" Softcover
Copyright: 2006
Pages: 166
ISBN: 978-1-932779-41-7
Publisher: Bradford Publishing Co.