That's like saying The Odyssey was written in plain Attic Greek, which is false. As an amateur linguist, I would say that legalese (like Homeric Greek) is a sp

That's like saying The Odyssey was written in plain Attic Greek, which is false. As an amateur linguist, I would say that legalese (like Homeric Greek) is a specialized dialect which is both hyperdefined and formulaic (except that lawyers call formulas "terms of art"). As a piece of interesting trivia, Calvert Watkins suggests that formulas of Roman legalese derive from pre-Roman liturgical, magical, and mythological poetics so there probably is a connection between the formulaic dialect of Homer's epics and the legalese of today to the extent that it is related to Roman legalese.