Dear 1L, No 1L wants to spend all weekend inside writing a legal memo, but many of you will be.

Please know that even seasoned lawyers get stuck when writing up a legal analysis that’s new to them.

—Courts’ words sound better than your words
—Courts’ full sentences should be quoted at length
—Courts’ reasoning will be more persuasive than your own

Instead, you should know:

Dear Legal Writer, If you think your reader wants sophisticated words, think
again.

Case in point:

“utilize” (aka, the most stilted, stupid word)

I also started a “book journal,” so I’d have someone to talk to.

It’s been a lonely road, so far.

Going round and round in my own head.
Listening to people who put me down.

The note said:

1: “We’re overworked.”
2: “We’re bored of being first in sentences.”
3: “We’d like to sit next to someone other than a comma for once.”

I told them I would see what I could do.
So here’s this to you, my dear legal writer:

better briefs.
better motions.
better petitions.
better letter briefs.
better client updates.
better law review articles.
better position statements.
better settlement agreements.
better responses to client RFPs.
better thought-leadership articles.

🔷 Remember the court scene in “A Few Good Men”?

Tom Cruise says, “I object,” and the court overrules.

But Demi isn’t satisfied.
She just has to get up & say: “I strenuously object.”

Dear 1L,

As you know, law-school ethics codes prevent anyone from assisting with specific, 1L writing assignments before final drafts are submitted.

I see these memos after-the-fact, when I help students with job applications.

There’s also CRAC, TRAC, and TREAC.

I could go on, but won’t.

And instead of explaining it to you in writing now, I’m working on finishing a fictional model “Memo” for you that illustrates the basic structure.

That’s someone just a few years above you.

{—Of course you must follow all your professor’s rules and style preferences, but otherwise, forget them as your Reader.}

Stay away from phrases like:

➖ “in this case”
➖ “in the present case”
➖ “in the instant case”
➖ “in the case at bar”

TBS, writing those phrases is not “wrong,” per se.

This is AFTER these resumes have been through multiple career-services-office reviews,

AFTER these resumes have been sent to hundreds of law firms and other prospective employers, and,

LONG AFTER the students have been through the formalized OCI process.

Here’s how I got a handle on things + chose which cases to use in my memos and briefs as a lawyer.

I hope it will help you come up with a system that works best for you!

***

🔹 I gathered my cases and divided them into 2 piles.

Do you question what I say?

Here’s a primer plus a question for my friends across the pond:

***

In the U.S., and in U.S. legal English:

📍 In light of the fact that
📍 Due to the fact that
📍 As a result of
📍 For the reason that
📍 On account of the fact that
📍 On the grounds that

All these ways take a roundabout route to get to your point.