Some lawyers never use one word when two or more will do.  Since the Norman Invasion of England, lawyers have used words of French and English roots to say the same thing, like “sell and convey”.

But it takes much more skill to condense than to ramble on.  The president of a company I worked for asked for an employment agreement from me and another lawyer.  He told me he selected the other lawyer’s agreement because it was 48 pages long and mine was 8 pages long.  I think he was paying for inefficiency, but I don’t blame him.  He is not a lawyer so he couldn’t tell the quality of the work.  He could only judge by its length.

I have encountered this issue many times in the practice of law, one lawyer’s 40 page contract to sell the assets of a business vs my one page bill of sale, one lawyer’s 30 page protective order vs my 2.5 page one, one lawyer’s 28 page motion vs my one page response, and one lawyer’s four page letters vs my one sentence reply.

So if you’re my client, and you want me to send 76 document requests because the other side sent 75, I’ll do it because you think it’s better and the client is always right.  The truth is, however, that’s it’s easy to push a button on the wordprocessor.  It is much harder, and more efficient, to think about the case, and ask for what you need to prove your case.