Using complex and antiquated language is a time-honoured tradition among the legal profession:
“a fortiori”, “forthwith”, “thenceforth”, “whereupon”, “ab initio”, “dictum”
Most historical legal jargon is so dry and complex that it has required defining in thick legal dictionaries, just so that lawyers can understand what they are saying in court.
But hold on to your wigs and gowns because the power is about to be handed back to the professional.
LexisNexis has just thrown down the gauntlet by challenging the legal community to contribute new legal jargon and definitions for the Online Australian Legal Dictionary. The competition is a first-of-its-kind digital crowd-sourced initiative.
It’s a lawyer-off!
This is a fantastic opportunity for the legal community to come together, celebrate the rhetoric that marks the transformations affecting the legal profession, and showcase their wordsmith capabilities,” says LexisNexis Managing Director Australia, Joanne Beckett.
A tournament of Australia’s brightest legal minds, the initiative is seeking submissions of colloquial lawyerly terms and definitions through a social media #LegalLingo campaign with the best 25 submissions, as judged by a jury, included in the online version.
This revised edition of the Australian Legal Dictionary will shine a light on emerging areas of law, such as elder law, social media, electronic conveyancing and assisted reproduction. It will also include a range of non-legal subject areas, such as business and commerce which is reflective of the expanding roles of lawyers.
Winners Aren’t Losers
If successful, your words will be immortalised in the next online Australian Legal Dictionary, 2nd Edition in August 2016. You can also revel in everlasting bragging rights since your name will be attributed as the author of your entry.
Applications close 20 June 2016.
So go on … embrace your competitive streak and get word-weaving!
How To Enter & Further Information
For entry details, click here.
The Australian Legal Dictionary is a comprehensive online and hard copy reference work with over 28,000 legal terms and definitions, presented in an Australian context.
The revised edition includes 3,000 additional entries, including several terms and definitions supported by Australian legislative and judicial authority, and not commonly found in American or English legal dictionaries.
