Dear Legal Writer, I worked 20 yrs as a litigator without anyone ever explaining to me how to put together a brief.
So I came up with this new framework: M-A-D-E
M = Master the material
A = Arrange the material
D = Draft the sections
E = Edit in stages
(This is for trial-court briefs.)
Here are the details:
1️⃣ First you must MASTER the material.
This stage includes:
-mastering your Case Chron (the timeline of events and key docs you should be keeping and updating) and designating which facts and documents you want to include
-creating Case Cards for each helpful authority (i.e., a case where the party similarly situated to your client won), including:
1/ deep issue (key facts + legal question);
2/ outcome (i.e., who won);
3/ key quotes w/ pinpoints;
4/ any key ideas to emphasize or watch outs to guard against
-figuring out what legal points you must make in order to prevail, based on the precedential cases with the governing legal standard.
2️⃣ Second you must ARRANGE the material.
This stage includes matching Case Cards and designated Facts/Documents with the discrete legal points that you must prove, followed by ordering the points to maximize the reader’s ease in digesting.
Then set up the brief document and dump everything into its correct section of the Argument.
3️⃣ Third, you will DRAFT each of the sections.
Use my 6-paragraph framework for each Argument section, and follow my guidance on what to include in your Introduction & umbrella paragraphs (which should always be done last).
4️⃣ Finally, EDIT the brief in stages.
[yet to be built out, but will include my P-E-N-C-I-L tool]
***
I adapted the 4-part Flowers Paradigm* — which I’ve found doesn’t fit that well beyond the appellate context (especially its first two parts).
As with Flowers, the key to M-A-D-E is doing ONE STAGE AT A TIME.
I’m thinking we call this: “The Well-MADE brief.”
What do you think?
I presented this framework yesterday in a legal-writing presentation I did for the litigators at Morris James LLP , and it was a hit!
Thank you so much to Tara Pakrouh Evans for inviting me!
📬 What approach do you follow when preparing a trial-court brief?
Might you give my M-A-D-E framework a try?
💌 Amanda
#DearLegalWriter
