Lawyer's writings edited as an alternative (10)
I believe the answer is:
prosecutor
'lawyer's' is the definition.
(prosecutor is a kind of lawyer)
'writings edited as an alternative' is the wordplay.
'writings' becomes 'prose'.
'edited as' becomes 'cut' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'an alternative' becomes 'or'.
'prose'+'cut'+'or'='PROSECUTOR'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for prosecutor that I've seen before include "originator of suit" , "Court official" , "Legal official" , "Lawyer" , "One stating the case against a defendant" .)