legal memo 法律备忘录(6)

legal memo

Office Memo Format and Explanation

This handout sets out a short description of one way to put together an office memorandum. The format and structure may differ somewhat from law office to law office (and, here in law school, from professor to professor). Once you are in practice, you can adjust the format to your office's requirements.

You are writing this for the benefit of another lawyer who has asked you to address a specific question, and expects an answer to that question. Your reader may have a general familiarity with the law you are discussing but may not be familiar with specific cases (or, if applicable, statutory provisions) that you have found to be relevant to the analysis. Therefore, as you write, keep asking yourself: will the reader be able to follow my analysis? Have I organized my analysis to track all the steps in the "CRRACC" paradigm (conclusion-rule statement-rule explanation-application-counterargument-conclusion)? If your organization plan skips any steps of your thought process (for example, if you move directly from a bare statement of the rule to an application to your facts, without first discussing in greater depth the cases from which the rule is derived), your reader will not be able to follow your analysis and ultimately will not find your work to be useful. Remember to keep the needs and expectations of your audience (here, a legally-trained reader) in mind. One final but important reminder: an office memorandum is a predictive statement of the law. You are not writing to persuade a court but to predict how a court would apply the law to the facts of your situation. Therefore, you need to maintain an objective tone, and remember to address any counterarguments.

The standard office memorandum usually contains the following sections:

1. HEADING or CAPTION

2. QUESTION PRESENTED

3. BRIEF ANSWER

4. FACTS

5. DISCUSSION

6. CONCLUSION

HEADING OR CAPTION

Begin the first page as follows:

MEMORANDUM

TO: Name of person who assigned the research project

FROM: Your name

DATE: Date memo is turned in

RE: Name of client, and a short description of the subject matter of the memorandum

Put the title of each subsequent section of your memo at the beginning of that section, in all caps, and centered. QUESTION PRESENTED

The subject of the memo is a question: How does the relevant law apply to the key facts of the research problem? Thus, the question presented is analogous to the issue or question presented in a case brief. The question presented should be sufficiently narrow and should be objective. It is usually one sentence, and often begins: "Whether...." or "Does...." The question incorporates legally relevant facts as well as the rule involved. Although questions are usually framed so that they can be answered yes or no (or probably yes or probably no), sometimes they cannot (such as "Under New York law, has a retailer made a binding offer when...?"). Always include the name of the jurisdiction involved, e.g., New York, the Second Circuit.

BRIEF ANSWER

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