This legal writing book is designed to help students learn the basic elements of writing a legal memo.

Legal memoranda are business documents, in which the writer communicates information to help the reader make a decision about one or more aspects of a legal matter they are addressing. This book explains how to organize and write legal memoranda that will communicate information to the reader clearly and effectively. It is written primarily for first-year law students, but upper-class law students and practicing attorneys can also use it, to produce more effective legal memoranda or written legal analyses generally. Professors and students will benefit from: The book’s emphasis on the basic rule for organizing business documents effectively—to state the most important information first—which applies to the legal memorandum as a whole, to its parts and subparts, and even to most of its paragraphs and individual sentences. The book’s reader-focused orientation, which anticipates information that a reader will find helpful in a memorandum and explains how, and where, the writer should include it. The individual chapters on the different parts of a legal memorandum, which provide concise but specific instruction about the purpose, format, organization, and effective presentation of each one. The separate chapter on informal and e-mail memoranda, which adapts the skills and strategies for organizing and writing formal legal memoranda to the shorter and less formal memoranda that attorneys frequently write. The chapter on How to Write Clearly, which contains specific guidelines for writing clear sentences and paragraphs, presenting related information clearly, and using correct grammar, precise word choice, and a clear, professional style. The extensive, annotated examples throughout the book, which illustrate how to organize and write the different parts of a memorandum—and how not to organize and write them.

This powerful how-to guide focuses exclusively on the proper way to write legal memos. Equally useful for independent study or alongside any standard Legal Writing text, JUST MEMOS: From The Legal Writing Handbook, gives first-year students the extra help they need to master this critical skill.This short paperback text offers instruction that has been proven effective in the classroom: - the text is adapted from the authors' THE Legal Writing HANDBOOK, one of the bestsellers in the field - the authors explain the features unique to memo writing, plus how to apply them in practice - introductory chapters explain the basics of the American legal system and the difference between common and enacted law - a chapter on reading and analyzing statutes and cases is followed by three chapters on how to write a memo and an all-new concluding chapter covers client letters - helpful examples of both simple and more complex memoranda give students insight into the expectations for the finished product - uses the straightforward, step-by-step approach that has made the authors' texts so successfulWhen you want information on memo writing, why use a text that covers other material? Direct your students to Just Memos: From The Legal Writing Handbook, by the authors who are known for their exceptional abilities in this area, and see how effective this new reference can be.

This collection of essays written by The Curmudgeon, offers practical, honest and you need to know this advice for surviving and thriving in a law firm. The book covers the basics of law practice and law firm etiquette, from doing effective research and writing to dressing for success, dealing with staff and clients and building a law practice. Concise, humorous and full of valuable (albeit curmudgeonly) insight, this is a must-read for every newly minted law school graduate or new lawyer.