Writing sample

[Anonymous]

Lawyers - Any advice on what to use as a writing sample? (It's an in-house position.) How many pages should it be? Is formal memo better than substantive email? If litigation, is motion better than memorandum? Any thoughts would be welcome. I have not been on the job market since I was a 2d year law student. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Pick something relatively short (3 to 8 pages, IMO, but I'm not in-house) that demonstrates your persuasive writing, including analysis and application of case law if that's relevant. Although it takes a good writer to lay out facts clearly and concisely, that alone is not enough for a writing sample; neither is the kind of "boilerplate" you sometimes see at the start and end of motions. If you've got a long document, excerpt the part that showcases your writing and put it under a cover paragraph/page explaining the context. Similarly, if you've got an email that meets the above, I would drop the text into a Word document under explanatory cover.

Remember, also, that if it's not a public document or something written for the same place you are applying, you will need to remove client names and probably change some facts. That's another argument for an excerpt.