Logographer (legal)

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The title of logographer (from the Ancient Greek λογογράφος, logographos, a compound of λόγος, logos, 'word', and γράφω, grapho, 'write') was applied to professional authors of judicial discourse in Ancient Greece. The modern term speechwriter is roughly equivalent.

In the Athens of antiquity, the law required a litigant to make his case in front of the court with two successive speeches. Lawyers were unknown, and the law permitted only one friend or relative to aid each party. If a litigant did not feel competent to make his own speech effectively, he would seek the service of a logographer (also called a λογοποιός, logopoios, from ποιέω, poieo, 'to make'), to whom he would describe his case. The logographer would then write a speech that the litigant would learn by heart and recite in front of the court. Antiphon (480–410 BC) was among the first to practice this profession; the orator Demosthenes (384–322) was also a logographer. Many logographers built a foundation for a later career in politics by defending people who were the targets of politicized prosecutions.