My mother was not the kind of person to let the power imbalance of legal discourse beat her. My master solicitor might have been my master for a short while but there was no way he was going to be master of a trained nurse who knew what power was all about. My mother, bless her departed soul, reckoned that compared with her university-educated son she was uneducated. Yet I can’t remember one single night when she wasn’t reading a book and could hold her own in any discussion on politics and world affairs.

Language as power

For lawyers the message is clear - don’t be superior to non-lawyers by using legal language as a power trip. To communicate with their readers they should:

…place themselves in the position of the reader, investigating in what order the reader requires the information, through what language it can be most clearly and precisely communicated, and through what format the reader will gain most efficient access.³⁶

The contract my mother was asked to read some thirty years ago was the standard draft contract used by NSW lawyers in conveyancing transactions. It has since been redrafted in plain English, but I still doubt whether she would have been enticed to read it, unless Scott Turow or John Grisham had a hand in its drafting.

DOLLY CRUICKSHANK/ EMILY POST/ MISS SPELT

Collective conscience of writing etiquette

So what does Dolly Cruickshank have to do with changing Sparke Helmore’s writing culture? Dolly is the principal character of my novel in progress ‘Queens Park’. She, the secretary of an apartment building’s body corporate, dictates the rules of communal living etiquette - when to flush the toilet; when and when not to play music; how to wrap the disused newspapers; and not to slam doors or make love during certain hours. Every apartment building has its Dolly Cruickshank. She is the collective conscience of appropriate behaviour. Every time a resident comes home drunk and makes a large clatter trying to fit the key in the door, they will probably ask themselves ‘Now what would Dolly say?’

Dolly reminded me of another woman who made a lifelong practice of dictating the way in which people should behave publicly and privately. While in 2000 Dolly dictated the etiquette of behaviour and manners for a small block of units in Sydney, Emily Post in the 1920s dictated those for ‘people of position the world over’ on topics such as ‘What Makes a Young Girl a Ballroom Success’, ‘Personality of a Handshake’, ‘When a Gentleman Takes off his Hat’ and ‘The Bow of a Woman of Charm’.