Re: Technical writing in the legal field

Subject: Re: Technical writing in the legal field
From: "Ginny Hupp" <ghupp -at- directcon -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 12:45:41 -0700


One place that can combine the two worlds might be the IT or legal department of a software company. I'm just completing a manual about how to use the document management database for the legal group of a large software (games) company. This company has a large and extremely busy international legal department because they have to license every aspect of any celebrity, literary character, or product that appears in any games. So the audience for this manual is attorneys and paralegals who are users of the database system that stores and indexes all the documents they produce.

I believe that the paralegals in this company write a lot of contracts. But I suspect (as others have said) that it is mostly a matter of doing research, and putting together sections of boilerplate language, with some tweaks here and there.

I've also worked in a large law firm in the (somewhat distant) past. The large ones usually have an IT group that can include trainers and might have need for a technical writer, for either training material or system documentation. I'm not sure how much law firms outsource that type of work these days, versus doing it in house.

I'm about to begin a position writing NIAP certification documents for a large software company. (NIAP = National Information Assurance Program). NIAP is a government program that evaluates the security aspects of submitted IT products, and issues a security certification at various levels. The company going for the certification has to submit its software to an independent testing lab, which is where the writing comes in. There is a series of formal documents that must be submitted for each product, showing how the software and the development process meet the established requirements. I believe there will also be written documentation of test configuration, implementation and expected results. I haven't done this kind writing before, but it looks like it will involve a combination of software technical documention and interpreting and applying the government requirements, in a prescribed format. It looks to me like a type of specialized technical writing work that will be around for the long run. If your friend is interested in this, the NAIP website is at http://niap.nist.gov/. That's where I learned everything I know about it so far. >:-)

Ginny


----- Original Message ----- From: "Lisa Wright" <lisawright -at- mail -dot- utexas -dot- edu>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 10:30 AM
Subject: Technical writing in the legal field



Is there anyone on the list who works in the legal arena? I met a young woman today who is thinking about writing as a profession, is interested in law, and is wondering what sort of preparation that might involve and what the work is like. I've strictly been a technology and business process person, so I'm not sure what advice to give about work in the legal area.


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References:
Technical writing in the legal field: From: Lisa Wright

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