Professor Joy Kanwar Builds on a Legal Writing Legacy

Professor Joy Kanwar, who co-authored the standard-bearing textbook Writing and Analysis in the Law, attended the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting in San Francisco, where she was among the authors celebrated at the West Academic Authors’ reception. 

Professor of Legal Writing Joy Kanwar has been a longtime fan of the standard-bearing textbook Writing and Analysis in the Law, written by pioneers in the field whose ideas about the impact of words in the legal field inspired her own career. Now, she is the co-author of its latest edition, which was one of the books celebrated this month at the West Academic Authors’ reception in San Francisco, held as part of the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting in San Francisco.  

“In the almost 17 years I’ve been teaching at Brooklyn Law School, this is the only textbook I have chosen to use. There are other good books out there, but I have always loved the depth and precision of this textbook,” said Kanwar, who started teaching with the book’s newly released 8th edition this fall. The previous editions of the textbooks, which she keeps in her office, are well-worn and filled with colorful placeholders.  

Two of  the book’s original authors were the late Professor of Law Emerita Marilyn Walter and Associate Professor of Legal Writing Emerita Elizabeth Fajans, luminaries in the field who were also members of Brooklyn Law School’s esteemed Legal Writing program, which is consistently recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation’s top programs. Before Walter passed away, she asked Kanwar if she would ever be interested in coming onto the book as a new author. It was an honor, Kanwar said, to be asked by Walter, who led the department when Kanwar first joined the Law School as a visiting professor.  Betsy Fajans, another one of the original authors, was ultimately responsible for bringing Kanwar onto the series, just in time for the 8th edition. 

The new book, co-authored by Fajans, Kanwar and Professor Helene S. Shapo (of Northwestern Pritzker’s School of Law) was published by Foundation Press in April 2024. Kanwar and her co-authors chose futuristic artwork for the book cover to reflect the modern moment in legal writing, the latest nuances of the English language, and the issues that are important for aspiring attorneys. 

“We updated the book to reflect the modern practice of lawyering.  For example, we have information about cultural competency, which we think is a critical core skill for new lawyers and for law students. And we also added a section on generative artificial intelligence (AI), including AI exercises,” Kanwar said.  

The book’s two chapters on professional identity and cultural competency, as they relate to written communications, address skills that the American Bar Association now requires ABA-accredited law schools to teach under standard 303.  “This refers to not just the culture that you bring to the table as an attorney, but also understanding that your client may not share those characteristics with you, and that as a good attorney, you're trying to understand that person and their needs and point of view as well as possible,” Kanwar said. 

The AI section predicts that the new tools will grow in importance and become a fixture in the legal field in the future.  It also cautions that students should follow the usage rules of their law school or work settings.  For example, professors in the Brooklyn Law School program only ask their students to use AI when they have incorporated it into their assignments for their students. 

“We tried to bring home the idea that AI is going to be used more and more. It is particularly good at generating drafts or very first-pass documents.  However, it's still the responsibility of the lawyer to check over and finalize those documents, and what the attorney does with the drafts that are generated actually becomes the higher order thinking,” Kanwar said. “In Writing and Analysis in the Law, we emphasize a triumvirate, which is audience, purpose, and tone, all three. So, anything that you draft must meet each of those aims.” 

Tone, in particular, is currently an issue in AI-generated language, because different tones are used in legal documents, depending, for instance if they are directed toward a new client, opposing counsel, a judge, or a witness.  But, as with all things AI, “even this is likely to get better and better with time” says Kanwar. 

Assistant Professor Paige Snelgro, who is teaching at Sturm College of Law in Denver this year, has already used the AI exercise in the book in her class and reached out to tell Kanwar it was a hit with students.  Kanwar created the exercise with Professor Maria Termini, and it asks students to identify gaps or errors in an AI generated document for clients. 

“I used the 7th edition Writing and Analysis in the Law last year and I was very pleased with the 8th edition updates for my class,” Snelgro said. “The AI exercise in the new edition was very practical and timely; especially with social media encouraging more AI shortcuts and ‘hacks.’ It showed students where their own research and writing skills could be improved. It also showed how AI is limited by gaps in our own knowledge, giving students a real sense of where they need to grow.” 

The authors of the new edition also sought feedback from students, which is why the newest edition contains Bluebook exercises, which were left out of the last version for space reasons. Different shades of blue differentiate the exercises from the examples, making it easier for students to read and absorb what they are learning. “After asking my research assistants and students over the last couple of years about what would really enhance the book, we decided to put newly updated citation exercises back in,” Kanwar said.  She continued, “I always turn to students when I need to know what would work for them!”  She hopes to continue to keep the book modern, useful and accessible for students in future editions.