Dear 1L, There is a secret to the memo: You must pretend your professor knows NOTHING.

—She doesn’t know any of the facts.
—He doesn’t know any of the research.
—They don’t know any of the legal rules.

NOTHING.

Your professor is just some random lawyer from the street who happens to pick up your memo to read.

Could that random lawyer follow your memo?

The answer needs to be “yes.”

So you need to SPELL IT OUT.

Here’s what I mean by that:

🔷 Put every single fact and little detail that matters in your Facts section. Don’t paraphrase. Describe what happened.

—Remember, your prof knows nothing about your memo.

Can a new reader follow your facts?
Can they visualize what happened as well as you can now do?

Those are the questions you want to be answering “yes” to.

Rule: You can’t argue about a fact in your Discussion if it wasn’t expressly included in your Facts section.

🔷 In terms of the “E” in CREAC, describe each of the example cases completely, including every fact that mattered to those courts’ conclusions.

—Remember, your prof has read NONE of these cases.

Can a new reader visualize what happened in the example case as well as you can?

Can they feel confident in your description so they don’t have to go read the case on their own to understand it?

Answer “yes” to those questions.

Rule: You can’t compare a fact from an example case to a fact in your hypo unless you’ve already told the reader what that fact was.

👇

RECAP:

Your professor is just a random lawyer who picks up your memo to read.

They need to be able to understand everything you write w/o having to look at any other document.

So spell it out so they can follow you!

**
Sending you good luck and godspeed.

💌 Amanda

#Dear1L