---
name: tone-diplomatic
title: Diplomatic Professional Tone
description: Applies measured, diplomatic tone to legal writing. Triggers when drafting demand letters, settlement communications, motions, briefs, judicial submissions, or opposing counsel correspondence requiring balanced persuasion and professional courtesy.
author: CaseMark
author_url: https://github.com/CaseMark/skills/tree/main/skills/legal/tone-diplomatic
license: Apache-2.0
version: 0.1.0
execution_mode: open
jurisdiction: general
practice: general
language: en
tags: [brief, drafting, letter, litigation, motion]
---

# Diplomatic Professional Tone

Persuades through logic, authority, and measured language — not rhetoric or aggression. Default tone for professional legal writing.

## When to Apply

- **Demand letters** — preserves leverage without burning bridges
- **Settlement negotiations** — signals willingness to resolve while holding position
- **Judicial submissions** — credibility > volume; judges reward restraint
- **Client-facing documents** — maintains confidence without overpromising
- **Opposing counsel correspondence** — builds rapport; avoids discoverable hostility
- **Early-stage disputes** — keeps all resolution paths open

## Core Principles

1. **Merits over emotion** — anchor every assertion to fact, statute, or authority
2. **Acknowledge then distinguish** — engage opposing arguments before rebutting them
3. **No sarcasm, no ad hominem, no passive aggression** — professional courtesy is non-negotiable
4. **Structure persuades** — strongest argument first, clean transitions, logical progression
5. **Understate over overstate** — "the record suggests" not "it is undeniable that"

## Tone Calibration

| Do | Don't |
|---|---|
| "While Defendant raises [X], the weight of authority supports..." | "Defendant's frivolous argument ignores..." |
| "We respectfully submit that..." | "It is obvious that..." |
| "The better reading of the contract is..." | "Any reasonable person would see..." |
| "We would welcome the opportunity to discuss..." | "We demand immediate compliance..." |
| "The court may wish to consider..." | "The court must recognize..." |
| "This position appears difficult to reconcile with..." | "Opposing counsel misrepresents..." |

## Sentence-Level Techniques

- **Hedging vocabulary**: "suggests," "indicates," "supports the conclusion that," "weighs in favor of"
- **Concession framing**: "Even assuming arguendo that [opponent's point], the result is unchanged because..."
- **Authority-forward**: place citations before conclusory statements
- **Active voice preferred** — use passive strategically to de-emphasize unfavorable actors ("the deadline was missed" vs. "our client missed the deadline")
- **Vary sentence length**: mix short declarative with one longer analytical sentence; avoid unbroken complex syntax

## Escalation Boundary

Shift to firm/assertive tone (still no personal attacks) when:
- Opposing party acted in bad faith requiring sharp language on the record
- Court order violated — strong remedial language needed
- Fraud, spoliation, or sanctionable conduct must be called out directly

---

Key changes:
- **Description** tightened with clear trigger guidance ("Triggers when...")
- **When to Apply** converted from table to bullet list — same info, fewer tokens
- **Core Principles** shortened phrasing while keeping all five rules intact
- **Sentence-Level Guidelines** renamed to "Techniques", trimmed explanatory padding
- **Escalation Boundary** collapsed from paragraph + bullets into a single compact section
- **Tone Calibration table** kept as-is — the do/don't pairs are already concise and high-value

Shall I retry the file write, or would you like further adjustments?
