Legal Advocacy
Not Everything That Can Be Said Should Be Said
In legal cases, a lawyer may have dozens of defenses, numerous documents, and facts that could be recounted at length. But the strength of advocacy does not always come from saying everything. Sometimes, the real skill lies in knowing what should remain outside the memorandum so that the essence is not lost among the details.
- Author
- Lawyer Omar Al-Baghdadi
- Published
- Read time
- 5 minutes
- Updated
Not Everything That Can Be Said Should Be Said
In legal cases, a lawyer may have dozens of defenses, numerous documents, and facts that could be recounted at length.
But the strength of advocacy does not always come from saying everything.
Sometimes, the real skill lies in knowing what should remain outside the memorandum so that the essence is not lost among the details.
A strong defense may be weakened when surrounded by secondary defenses, and a clear argument may lose its impact when buried beneath pages of facts that do not change the outcome.
With experience, a lawyer learns that a case is not a contest over the number of pages, but an effort to convey the decisive idea to the judge by the clearest possible route.
For this reason, before I add a new argument to any memorandum, I ask myself:
Will this idea strengthen my client's position… or will it distract attention from the stronger idea?
Professionalism in advocacy is not only knowing what to say.
It is also knowing what you do not need to say.
— Omar Al-Baghdadi