A senior lecturer at City Law School has called on lawyers to abandon complex and archaic ‘legalese’ and speak clearly.

David Emmet said lawyers have a habit of using words and expressions that are more ­complicated than they need to be.

Typical examples, he said, were ‘hereinafter’ instead of ‘below’, ‘aforementioned’ instead of ‘set out above’, and ‘save as aforesaid’ instead of ‘otherwise’.

Emmet added that even newly qualified lawyers started using the same jargon as partners within a few weeks.

Emmet will speak at a conference on legal language on 13 October at Taylor Wessing’s London office.