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&lt;p&gt;Blake Edwards is a self-proclaimed &quot;recovering lawyer covering law&quot;—a&#160;legal journalist for &lt;em&gt;Bloomberg BNA&lt;/em&gt;&#160;who was previously a Circuit Court clerk, covering the business of BigLaw.&#160;&lt;span&gt;I interviewed Blake about his legal and writing careers and how he ended up covering the law instead of practicing it.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What initially drew you to go to law school?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If I&#39;m honest I went in large part because I didn&#39;t know what else to do. There was no real desire to be a practicing lawyer. I was unsure of my future, unsatisfied with my college experience, unready to pick a career, and I thought my skill set was a match. A law degree is flexible. I suspect I&#39;m not the only one who&#39;s ended up in law school by some kind of default.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What did you see as your likely career path when you started your legal career?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;​I clerked for a federal judge my first year after law school. At that point, I was planning to practice law for a large law firm in a major market. I wanted to do this, or thought I did, for the same reason I&#39;d wanted the clerkship: I&#39;m competitive, and BigLaw practice was, I was told, the highest thing to aspire to.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you decide to become a journalist after a Circuit Court clerkship?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;First ​I decided, in the middle of the clerkship, for reasons I still can&#39;t seem to explain, that I wanted to become a writer, which isn&#39;t exactly the same thing as being a journalist, but pairs nicely. It seemed a lot of my heroes ​had used journalism as a way to pay the bills and sharpen themselves. I sent a resume and a cover letter to the &lt;em&gt;LA Times&lt;/em&gt; and told them I would mop floors or push a mail cart or whatever they wanted if they&#39;d give me a shot. Of course you don&#39;t start a journalism career at the &lt;em&gt;LA Times&lt;/em&gt;. They had no problem telling me this, and kindly referred me to the &lt;em&gt;Daily Journal&lt;/em&gt;, a legal publication just down the road. I didn&#39;t know it then, but they&#39;d done me a huge favor.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What was your job like at the &lt;em&gt;Daily Journal&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I started out covering California state courts and later profiled judges. Some journalists feel the paper&#39;s a dinosaur, a tough place to develop an internet presence. Still, it&#39;s a great place to get your feet wet. And my coworkers were good people. Some of the best I&#39;ve met anywhere, really.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How’d you make the move from the &lt;em&gt;Daily Journal&lt;/em&gt; to &lt;em&gt;Bloomberg BNA&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After the &lt;em&gt;Daily Journal&lt;/em&gt;, I spent a year traveling in Europe and the Middle East. My plan was to freelance. I opted instead to study Arabic and begin work on a really terrible novel I later lit on fire in a metal trashcan. When I came back to the States in January of 2015, I was thinking about easing back into law practice, but Casey Sullivan, who also got his start at the &lt;em&gt;Daily Journal&lt;/em&gt;, was looking for writers at Bloomberg. The Big Law Business site had just launched, so my timing was fortuitous, I admit, but the important lesson here is you can, it turns out, live with a gap in your resume.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What’s a typical day like for you at Bloomberg?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;​Well, I&#39;m a contractor, so most days I work from home. ​When I&#39;m assigned a daily—a shorter story on a current event I file the same day—it means I&#39;m on deadline, and on the phone a lot, and the pace is pretty fast. On quieter days, I&#39;m working on a GC profile or tinkering with a feature.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How does your legal background help you in your job?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was a big help, at least initially, because it meant I could pick up the phone and call a BigLaw partner or a Fortune 200 general counsel with extra confidence. I had done well in law school, and clerked, so I didn&#39;t feel inferior. Of course you&#39;re still the dummy when you&#39;re talking to the expert, but I never felt like I was on someone else&#39;s turf. I should note also that my legal background has been a hindrance at times. In law school they teach you to write like a lawyer.​ This will get you fired as a journalist.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I&#160;always found that legal writing and journalism have a lot in common: don’t bury the lead, avoid flowery language, rely on the facts. Why do you say that writing like a lawyer will get you fired as a journalist?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A lawyer is writing for other lawyers, but a journalist, even when writing for lawyers, will likely have a non-lawyer editor trained to write for a non-lawyer audience. The journalist will be expected to pause and explain in layman&#39;s terms all the things a lawyer would consider common knowledge. I also think lawyers have a tendency to &quot;wind up.&quot; Sure, lawyers aren&#39;t supposed to dawdle, but normally you&#39;ve got some room to make your point. In a standard news piece, you&#39;re expected to have made your point by the second or third paragraph. A lawyer expects a judge to read the entire brief, for example. A journalist can&#39;t count on that.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What advice would you give to an aspiring legal journalist?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Keep your lay reader in mind: explain everything.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Don&#39;t obsess over your prose.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Obsess over your reporting.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Deadline approaching? Remain calm, patient, friendly.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Apply for a job at the &lt;em&gt;Daily Journal&lt;/em&gt;.​&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pay attention to the work of other journalists.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;You can find Blake&#39;s &lt;/em&gt;Bloomberg BNA&lt;em&gt; articles &lt;a href=&quot;https://bol.bna.com/author/bedwards/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Follow me on Twitter&#160;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/VaultLaw&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;@VaultLaw&lt;/a&gt;&#160;and follow Vault on Instagram&#160;&lt;a href=&quot;http://instagram.com/vaultcareers?ref=badge&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;@VaultCareers&lt;/a&gt;&#160;and&#160;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/Vault&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read More:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/vaults-law-blog-legal-careers-and-industry-news/frei-pearson-interview/&quot;&gt;Why a Lawyer Would Leave BigLaw for Public Interest&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/vaults-law-blog-legal-careers-and-industry-news/from-biglaw-to-biglaw-an-interview-with-biglaw-novelist-lindsay-cameron/&quot;&gt;From BigLaw to BIGLAW: An Interview with Novelist Lindsay Cameron&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/vaults-law-blog-legal-careers-and-industry-news/leaving-the-law-an-interview-with-brewery-founder-eric-feldman/&quot;&gt;Leaving the Law: An Interview with Brewery Founder Eric Feldman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

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