Sample Legal Office Memo
10 sample legal memo templates using a good memo template can shave off hours of paperwork in the operational day to day of running a business be it your standard corporate outfit or a legal firm.
Sample legal office memo. But in the heading the following parts are usual. Heading identifies author of the legal memo and receiver of the memo. An answer to the legal issue. Case matter number client name matter name subject of memo optional summary of assignment if you are in a busy firm with lots of lawyers and a constant churn of cases then it s probably not a bad idea to get into the habit of including a brief summary regarding the memo.
When laying out the format for a legal memorandum note that the following sections should be included. You are not writing to persuade a court but to predict how a court would apply the law to the facts of your situation. One final but important reminder. Therefore the facts section should always contain a full and coherent recitation of the relevant facts whether or not the principal reader of the memo already knows them unless of course you were instructed to do otherwise.
This means writing the research in a way that s easily comprehended and digested. A statement of the legal issue. At the same time bear in mind that the office memo should be a stand alone document that can fully inform any colleague in your law office who may read it. 1 the title 2 the name of the person to whom the memo is addressed 3 your name 4 a brief statement of the subject matter of the memo 5 the client s.
The suggested format for a law office memorandum structure for a working draft a sample memorandum and an advanced sample memorandum exemplify a conventional structure highlighting a specific legal question and its answer followed by a recitation of legally significant facts the facts upon which resolution of the legal question depends and. The particular form of your inter office memo commissioned by your senior colleague will of course be decided by your law firm. An office memorandum is a predictive statement of the law. A statement of the facts.
The formatting follows the visual rhetoric instructions on pages 57 59 of this supplement. Legal memorandum format sample on the following pages is a legal memorandum formatted the way your memos in this class should be formatted. The next step in creating the memorandum is deciding on a logical pattern of readability. A legal memo is composed of the following standard elements.
Therefore you need to maintain an objective tone and remember to address any counterarguments. A good legal memo presents key points to the issue and summarizes it to a compact one or two page memo. When memo is due.