Writing A Legal Memo – Things To Keep In Mind

1. Organization

It is crucial to stay organized when creating a long piece of writing on a complex subject matter. Before you write, construct a detailed outline to capture and order the points you want to make. Then, as you put pen to paper, generously use headings, subheadings, roadmap, point headings, topic sentences, and signposting. These will help your readers follow your argument and be able to engage with your work deeply.

One way to test your headings and topic sentences is to isolate them from the rest of the prose. Read the table of contents. Do the headings make sense when read together? Also, read the topic sentences of each paragraph. Individually, do they connect the paragraph to the big picture of the memo and introduce the contents of the paragraph? Consider how you can strengthen the topic sentences to create smooth transitions. Taken together, do the topic sentences make sense?

Try to organize the writing process as well. Giving yourself a rough timeline with built-in flexibility will keep you motivated and on track. I like to divide the writing process roughly into research, outlining, writing, revising, getting a second opinion, and proofreading, repeating stages as needed.

2. Clarity

After you’ve done hours of reading and thinking about your paper, you may feel like a subject matter expert ready to pour your heart out on the page. But remember that everything you know does not need to go into your memo. Your goal is to simply persuade your readers. In order to facilitate this, you shouldn’t hide your arguments. Define your research questions with specificity, and state your main conclusions upfront. Then, in the rest of the memo, only introduce the crucial facts, background law, and commentary that your audience needs in order to appreciate your analysis.

Some questions to ask yourself are:

• Did you clearly specify the issue(s) or question(s) you will address at the outset?
• Did you answer your questions with a “yes,” “no,” or “maybe”? Did you include the best reasons that a reader can understand without reading the rest of the memo?
• Did you include a summary of the facts, each of which is essential to understanding your memo?

3. Sentence level work

Don’t just focus on the high-level edits. Your audience will appreciate sentences that are succinct and to the point. Take a pass through your memo and read it out loud (or have your computer do it for you). Look for the following-

• Sentence length: Are there any sentences that seem to drone on? See if you can break it up into shorter sentences or cut out extraneous or repetitive words and phrases.
• Voice: Look for any sentences with the passive voice construction. Unless absolutely necessary, make them active voice.
• Footnotes: Readers may not read the citations and text in footnotes or think that they are unimportant. With that in mind, consider cutting footnotes or moving them to the text of the memo. Any excessively long footnotes should be cut down.
• Citation parentheticals: Citations are another part of a memo that is often ignored or skimmed through. Check that you have included important information in parentheticals and move it to the text.
• Transition phrases: Transitions are important, but do not overuse them. Count the number of times you use the words “however,” “moreover,” “therefore,” and “nevertheless.” Try to keep them to a minimum or use a broader range of transition phrases.
• Legalese: No lawyer, let alone a layperson, knows all the legal jargon in all the areas of legal practice. Short hands that come naturally to you may stop your reader and prompt them to consult a dictionary. Read your memo for any words in Latin or phrases that a non-lawyer would not understand, then substitute them with plain English.
• Block quotes: Unless essential to the memo—for example, you conducted interviews of people whose opinions are important to your analysis—block quotes are often unnecessary. Eliminate them and instead, choose the best part of the quote for your text.

4. Counterarguments and next steps

Remember to address the other side’s arguments, even if they seem weak or unlikely to come up. If there are no arguments on the other side, explain why.

At the end of your memo, include a “next steps” section for research or thinking on the topic. Explain why these topics were out of your scope and identify the conditions that would trigger the need for more research. Finally, where your research efforts did not yield results, state your research steps and describe your opinion on the appropriate resolution.

Legal memo writing can be a long, even painful process, but with patience and planning, you will soon be proudly holding your finished complex memo. You might be able to use it as your writing sample! For more guidance on effective legal writing, check out this post.