How Good Lawyers Don’t Write Like Lawyers: Law, Logic, and AI
Total Credits: 2.5 CLE
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- Categories:
- Skills
- Faculty:
- Samuel A Thumma | Robert J McWhirter | Ann B Ching | Kyle Patton
- Access:
- Expires 180 day(s) after program date.
Description
Clear, persuasive writing is a core lawyering skill, but too often legal writing becomes dense, formulaic and ineffective. This program explores how lawyers can use logic, structure and plain language to communicate with clarity and impact. Through practical instruction, a judicial perspective and guidance on emerging technology, attendees will learn how to strengthen their writing, avoid missteps and use modern tools responsibly.
This program will cover:
- Principles of clear, persuasive legal writing and common mistakes to avoid.
- How logic and organization improve legal analysis and written advocacy.
- A judge’s perspective on what makes briefs and motions effective and credible.
- The evolving role of generative AI in legal research and writing, including benefits risks and best practices.
- Techniques for writing more clearly for courts, clients and colleagues.
Designed for lawyers at all experience levels, this CLE offers practical strategies to improve clarity, persuasion and professionalism in legal writing.
Moderator:
Kyle Patton, Editor-in-Chief, State Bar of Arizona
Faculty:
Ann B. Ching, Clinical Professor of Law, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Robert J. McWhirter, The Law Offices of Robert J McWhirter
Judge Samuel A. Thumma, Arizona Court of Appeals
Faculty
Samuel A Thumma Related Seminars and Products
Judge
Arizona Court of Appeals - Division One
Judge, Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, Phoenix, Arizona, since 2012, and Chief Judge 2017-2019. Sam is a member of the National Judicial College Board of Trustees; is a Uniform Law Commissioner, where he serves as Secretary and on the Executive Committee and is an ABA Presidential appointee to the Advisory Council of the ABA Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence and the Standing Committee on Lawyer Referral and Information Services. He is a member of the Joint Technology Committee, appointed by the National Center for State Courts, and is an Advisor to the American Law Institute’s RESTATEMENT OF LAW (THIRD) OF TORTS: REMEDIES project. Sam chairs Arizona’s Commission on Access to Justice, having previously chaired various Committees, Commissions and Task Forces for the Arizona Supreme Court and the State Bar of Arizona. In 2023, he received the James A. Walsh Outstanding Jurist Award from the State Bar of Arizona and, in 2021, he was named the Judge of the Year by the Arizona Supreme Court. Sam co-teaches evidence at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. He has presented at more than 500 law-related programs in more than 20 states and published 18 law review articles, six book chapters and nearly 70 other law-related articles. Sam served as a Judge on the Maricopa County Superior Court for five years; a partner at Perkins Coie Brown & Bain, P.A., Phoenix, and an associate at Arnold & Porter, Washington, D.C. He clerked for Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Stanley G. Feldman and Federal Judge David R. Hansen, Northern District of Iowa. Sam received a Master of Laws, Duke University School of Law (2020); J.D., Order of the Coif, University of Iowa College of Law (1988), and B.S., Iowa State University (1984), where he was a Truman Scholar.
Robert J McWhirter Related Seminars and Products
The Law Offices of Robert J McWhirter
Robert J. McWhirter has successfully tried over 100 criminal trials in Federal, state, and city courts. He is a nationally and internationally known speaker and author on trial advocacy, immigration law, and the history of the bill of rights. He is a frequent guest on Arizona Horizon and KJZZ as a Constitutional expert and historian. Mr. McWhirter is a Certified Specialist in Criminal Law. For over six years, Mr. McWhirter’s peers have elected him to serve on the Arizona State Bar Board of Governors.
Mr. McWhirter has published extensively:
His latest book is FIXING THE FRAMERS’ FAILURE: THE 13TH, 14TH, AND 15TH AMENDMENTS AND AMERICA’S NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM (2022).
The American Bar Association has publish Mr. McWhirter’s book BILLS, QUILLS, AND STILLS: THE HISTORY OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS (2015).
The American Bar Association has published his books THE CRIMINAL LAWYER’S GUIDE TO IMMIGRATION LAW: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, 2nd Ed. 2006 and THE CITIZENSHIP FLOWCHART, 2007. In the 2010 United States Supreme Court case of Padilla v. Kentucky Justice Alito extensively quoted from his book.
Mr. McWhirter has served on the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section and on the Standard Committee writing the CRIMINAL JUSTICE STANDARDS.
Mr. McWhirter has had published over 40 other articles in both English and Spanish on the history of the Bill of Rights, immigration law, and criminal practice.
Mr. McWhirter has international management experience having worked extensively in Latin America on justice reform:
In 2010-2011, Mr. McWhirter served in El Salvador administering an $11 million USAID project to reform the justice system where he successfully developed and oversaw programs and trainings for the Salvadoran courts, police, and prosecutors.
In 1989 Mr. McWhirter was a visiting professor of law at the Catholic University of Chile and the University of Chile teaching courses in Spanish on Comparative Criminal Procedure and Free Speech Privacy and the Internet.
Mr. McWhirter has taught trial advocacy in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Uruguay, Mexico, and El Salvador.
Mr. McWhirter still travels to Latin America, most recently he trained lawyers in Puebla Mexico.
Since 2009, Mr. McWhirter has been named a Southwest Super Lawyer.
Mr. McWhirter is a 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.
Mr. McWhirter is a 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from the Barrett Honors College.
He received the Frank X. Gordon Award for Excellence in the Practice of Law, Mohave County Bar Association in 2013 and the Saint Thomas More Award, Saint Thomas More Society in 2010.
Mr. McWhirter has been a president of Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice.
From March 2014 until July 2016, Mr. McWhirter was the supervising criminal attorney at the ASU Alumni Law Group, a teaching law firm serving underserved clients.
Mr. McWhirter continues his private practice in criminal defense, civil rights, and testifies and provides expert advice on Immigration Consequences of Criminal Conviction and citizenship issues.
Ann B Ching Related Seminars and Products
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Ann B. Ching is a Clinical Professor of Law at Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Prior to this appointment, Professor Ching served as Ethics Counsel for the State Bar of Arizona (2016-2019) and Assistant Professor of Law at Pepperdine University (2013-2015). Professor Ching began her legal career in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps (2001-2012), where she achieved the rank of Major and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for her service in Iraq. Outside of teaching, Professor Ching serves on the Arizona Supreme Court Ethics Advisory Committee, the State Bar of Arizona Ethics Advisory Group, and as a judge pro tempore for the East Valley Regional Veterans Court. Professor Ching frequently speaks and writes about ethics, legal writing, and appellate practice. Her book Contemporary Appellate Advocacy (Carolina Academic Press) was published in 2025. Professor Ching is a graduate of the University of Arizona (B.A.), the University of North Carolina (J.D.), the Judge Advocate General’s School of the Army (LL.M.), and Pepperdine University (M.B.A.).