Through Shape Legal Writing, Jennifer Murphy Romig offers flexible legal writing coaching, speaking, and consulting. With 20 years of coaching experience, Jennifer has worked with lawyers, paralegals, legal secretaries, and summer associates in a variety of firm sizes and practice areas. Jennifer brings a customized, up-to-date, and actionable approach to each of her coaching engagements.
Jennifer’s writing coaching is tailored to the individual, with several common themes drawn from decades of experience:
- identifying a writer’s current strengths and weaknesses
- using sample work to explore relevant writing techniques and alternative approaches
- giving concrete, relevant examples of good and not-so-good legal writing
- reinforcing foundational legal writing concepts in the context of real-world law practice
- creating custom checklists of writing techniques and tools
- following up on progress and implementation over time
Jennifer has taught legal writing to JDs since 2001. She started a blog, Listen Like a Lawyer, in 2013 and went on to co-develop an innovative course in blogging and social media for lawyers. Jennifer’s 2015 article Legal Blogging and the Rhetorical Genre of Public Legal Writing can be found here, and shorter articles here and here (scroll to page 68). Jennifer has written extensively about checklists for improving legal writing and is co-editor of The Indigo Book: A Manual of Legal Citation (2d. ed. 2021 with 2023 updates), a free and open-access legal citation manual available in HTML and PDF. She also teaches Advanced Appellate Advocacy and Legal Profession (Professional Responsibility).
Jennifer is the co-author of Legal Literacy and Communication Skills: Working with Law and Lawyers (Carolina Academic Press 2020), a first-of-its-kind research and writing textbook tailored for graduate students in Master of Legal Studies and Juris Master programs who seek legal knowledge and skills to enhance their work in law-adjacent roles. The second edition is forthcoming in late December 2024, with an excerpt available here and purchase available soon from Carolina Academic Press and Amazon.
Jennifer is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, and serves on the State Bar’s Formal Advisory Opinion Board and the newly formed Special Committee in AI and Technology.
If you’d like to learn more about legal writing coaching and presentations, please use the contact page on this website.