how to write a legal assignment

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Master the Legal Memo Format

September 20, 2022

[Bloomberg Law’s Essential Career Toolkit can help you excel in class and jump-start your legal career to successfully transition from law student to lawyer.]

What is the legal memo assignment?

The legal memo is an objective memorandum that provides you the opportunity to review and research relevant case law, investigate relevant facts using available resources, analyze those facts under that law, and impartially assess the potential outcome of a matter. The legal memo is an assignment that law firm associates are frequently asked to provide to senior attorneys.

Far too often, however, the assigning attorney takes one look at the result and replies, “I knew this already.” To prevent this outcome, it’s important to write a legal memo with sufficient understanding of audience, scope, purpose, and format. With proper planning, law firm associates can maximize the odds of favorable reception at the outset.

Bloomberg Law can help you understand and apply legal issues to your legal memo assignment, so your final product addresses all relevant points right out of the gate.

What’s the difference between a closed legal memo and an open legal memo?

A closed legal memo is an assignment where you are given the case law or other primary law to be used in your writing. Far more challenging is an open legal memo, where you will need to research and identify the relevant law, investigate and analyze the most legally significant facts involving a particular client, and provide a critical assessment of how the court may apply the law to the matter.

By extension, unlike a court brief, the legal memo is not the place to wager a legal opinion or argue facts. The legal memorandum serves as an objective standalone document and identifies the risks and any unknown facts that need investigation. It should maintain an impartial tone, with no implied preference for one side or the other.

What’s the standard legal memo format?

Generally, a legal memorandum comprises six sections, with the following information:

1. Heading or caption

A section, titled, “Memorandum,” identifies the recipient (To: _______), the author (From: ____), the assignment submission date (typically in MMMM DD YYYY format), and subject of the memo (Re: __________).

2. Question presented

A brief one-sentence statement that defines how the law applies to the legal question at hand, and the jurisdiction where the matter will be decided. The question presented is specific and impartial and doesn’t assume a legal conclusion.

3. Brief answer

A quick-hit legal prediction to the question presented, based on a short (four to five sentences) explanation that references relevant law and facts.

4. Statement of facts

A concise, impartial statement of the facts that captures the heart of the legal matter, as well as current and past legal proceedings related to the issue. The facts can be chronological or grouped thematically, whichever format presents the facts in the clearest manner.

5. Discussion

Restates the main facts and delineates the overarching legal rule. Several paragraphs outline the various legal topics to be addressed in the case and provide an analysis of the legal issues, usually ordered in subsections.

6. Conclusion

The assigning attorney will likely read this section first. It predicts how the court will apply the law, and how confident you are in your prediction based on the data. With an impartial advisory tone, you identify next steps and propose a legal strategy to proceed.

How to write a legal memo

Legal research memos can come in many forms—from broad 50-state surveys to more nuanced research on a particular point of law—but whatever the format, it’s important that you fully understand the task entrusted to you before you start typing.

If you tackle your assignment by following the recommended approaches in the legal memo example below, you’ll be more likely to find an appreciative supervising attorney, deliver better work product, cut down on the number of drafts required to arrive at a final product, and, most importantly, please the client.

Learn the essentials of litigation writing, research, and document review with our Core Litigation Skills Practical Guidance Toolkit , available to Bloomberg Law subscribers.

Legal memorandum sample assignment

Assignment:  Prepare an open legal memo on whether, under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, there is personal jurisdiction over a foreign car manufacturer involving a products liability case.

Step 1: Understand the legal issues

Review legal memo assignment materials.

In an open legal memo, you will be tasked with researching relevant primary and secondary resources, such as from national, single, or multiple state entities, as well as appeals circuits, to include in your analysis.

Locate secondary sources

Secondary sources, such as books, treatises, law reviews, legal analysis publications, and Practical Guidance are a great starting point to assist with your legal memo research. Although secondary sources are not binding on courts, meaning courts are not required to follow these sources, they are still helpful tools to use when you know little about a topic.

However, remember that while you may know little about a topic, the same may not hold true for your audience. Readers like law partners and assigning attorneys will already know general law. Identify your audience’s presumed level of knowledge, then the most mission-critical questions to address. These identified gaps will inform your fact-finding and research.

Use secondary resources to better fill in the main legal topics and issues as they relate to the facts in the legal memo assignment. Your legal research should help frame the issue and lead to other relevant materials, including cases and statutes.

Throughout, utilize legal memo space wisely. Remember, legal memo length varies by subject. Some topics require only a short summary, while others compel long-form treatment. For guidance, search your firm’s office document management system for previous legal memos.

Sample assignment – Step 1

Understand the legal issues:  Legal research depends on the right search terms. In the case, for example, you can use the keywords: (“personal jurisdiction” and manufacture!)) to locate relevant resources on the Bloomberg Law platform.

More broadly, while your search into secondary sources may span books and treatises, law review articles, and other legal analysis publications, make sure to vet all legal authorities for relevance.

[Research tip: It can be challenging to know all relevant keywords. Bloomberg Law provides a convenient search results page, where relevant article blurbs showcase additional keywords to explore. Based on targeted keywords, you can better gather the most relevant background information to assist with your analysis.]

Step 2: Develop a research plan

Identify primary law.

Primary sources can often be identified with research tools, such as court opinions searches for relevant case law. However, primary sources are not always apparent. In such cases, work your way backward. Reviewing secondary sources can help you identify a list of relevant primary law resources, like case law and related statutes. Keep your research organized and create a research plan to identify key resources. The research plan will list the relevant primary law and how the case or statute relates to your comprehensive legal analysis.

Stay organized

Save the relevant cases and statutes to a designated workspace. Bloomberg Law provides a streamlined and secure digital working area where you can add your notes as well as upload and store your drafts to keep organized.

Sample assignment – Step 2

Develop a research plan:  In the  assignment, some legal research may mention cases on what contacts a foreign defendant must have for the court to have personal jurisdiction over it, such as Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court .  Read through these articles to reveal additional relevant cases and statutes to support your analysis.

Step 3: Confirm your legal memo research

Once you have your research plan, you want to verify all your research to make sure you’re relying on the most current case law available. Bloomberg Law’s litigation tools like the BCite citator tool help you work smarter and faster to validate your case law research—specifically, to determine whether a citation still represents good law and can be relied upon—and helps you to conduct additional research to find more cases and resources that support your legal memo’s findings and conclusions.

Robust verification should ensure you know the following information:

• Composite analysis – the overall treatment of the cited case by other courts.
• Direct history – How a cited case has moved through the court system.
• Case analysis – Cases that have subsequently cited to the case.
• Authorities – Cases relied on by the court in the main case.
• Citing documents – Legal materials, such as court opinions, administrative decisions, and secondary sources that reference your case by citation.

Sample assignment – Step 3

Confirm your research:  To see whether  Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court  is still good law, you will of course need to pull up and review the case status. As part of this verification, you should review how other courts have treated the case. Once you have verified case status, you can better find additional secondary cases and other sources that cite to your case.

[Research tip: Carefully review whether case law citation can be relied on in your legal memo. While a legal memo is written for internal stakeholders like the assigning attorney, and not for the court system, it may nonetheless serve as a primer for future material.]

Attorneys may later incorporate any case law citations within the legal memo into court filings in support of their arguments. Given this broad potential reach, it’s imperative to verify all case law within your legal memo. Any unverified case law that later makes its way into public documents will result in an admonition from the court.

It is also important not to cherry-pick case citations. Remember the legal memo’s purpose is to inform, not to argue the facts. The legal memo must therefore provide an objective summary of all relevant case law and how it applies to the facts at hand. The omission of negative case law only compromises future legal strategy and heightens client legal exposure.

Step 4: Write an objective analysis

The legal memo showcases your critical legal thinking skills. Use your research plan and research materials to help organize your analysis. Remember to clearly state the law and the facts, in the active voice, and present your analysis in a logical manner.

Even with the IRAC legal memo format (Issue, Rule, Application, and Conclusion), it can be a challenge to write with precision. For example, it may not be clear which details to include in the statement of facts. Skilled legal memo writers often begin with the discussion. With complementary considerations of legal authority and factual criteria, this section clarifies the most legally significant facts and informs other earlier sections like the question presented and brief answer.

Across all stages, Bloomberg Law provides a vast trove of articles and resources to assist you in preparing your legal memo. Whether this is your first or fiftieth legal memo assignment, you can showcase clear and impartial legal analysis in your legal memo and other writing assignments in ways that establish you as a strong legal mind.

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How to Write a Law Assignment

Table of Contents

Mastering the Art of Writing Law Assignments

What types of law assignments exist, skills to succeed, how to write a law assignment stage-by-stage, pre-writing stage:, here is what your outline may look like:, let’s talk in detail about the exact process of law essay writing, how to avoid mistakes, additional sources.

Summary: Writing a law assignment involves a step-by-step process: introduction, body paragraphs, supporting evidence, counter-arguments, and conclusion. Proper citation, referencing, and proofreading are essential.

Legal studies were, are, and always will be an essential discipline for society and its development. Law students pursue a legal education to become lawyers, judges, advocates, or other legal professionals. They study various legal topics, including contracts, torts, criminal law, and constitutional law. Law students are typically required to complete various assignments as part of their coursework, including legal research papers, case briefs, law essay writing, and moot court arguments.

Law assignments are vital to legal education and are critical in helping students develop their skills. “The major law assignment styles aim to improve your analytical skills, your ability to apply legal principles and theory, and to write simply and concisely”. These tasks will for sure help in your future career. Therefore, it is important to understand how to write a law assignment properly.

This blog post provides tips and guidelines to help you confidently approach your law assignments and produce high-quality work that meets the standards of the legal profession. AssignmentBro is ready to help you understand how to write a clear and effective law assignment or can write your assignment for you.

There are a wide variety of law assignments. It all depends on the discipline and other details of your specific studies. Here are some examples:

• Case briefs involve analyzing and summarizing a specific legal case. Students are required to identify the key issues, relevant facts, applicable laws, the reasoning of the court, and the final decision.
• Research papers demand law students to delve deep into a specific legal topic or issue. They involve extensive research, analyzing relevant statutes and case law, and presenting arguments based on scholarly sources. Research papers often require a thesis statement, literature review, methodology, analysis, and conclusion.
• Essays in law focus on exploring and presenting arguments on a particular legal question or issue. Essays allow students to showcase their understanding of legal principles and ability to analyze and argue a position critically.
• Moot court briefs simulate the preparation of written arguments for a hypothetical appellate court case. Students must study the legal concerns, create compelling arguments, and reference pertinent legal sources to defend their position.
• Legal memoranda or legal analysis must contain a detailed analysis of the applicable laws and their application to the case. Memoranda are frequently used in legal studies, particularly for public law assignments.
• Case comments are when students are expected to summarize the key aspects of the case, discuss its implications, and provide their insights on the topic.

Sounds huge. No worries, though! AssignmentBro is right here to provide you with all the information you need to succeed in your law assignment writing and to provide you with law assignment writing help.

To work in law, you need different soft and hard skills to be a lawyer or an advocate. What about the specific skills for writing assignments? Let’s talk about them.

Writing and presenting excellent legal essays may require the following:

• Analytical Thinking: Law assignments require the ability to critically analyze legal issues, identify relevant facts, and apply legal principles to reach well-reasoned conclusions.
• Research Capabilities: Effective research capabilities involve using legal databases, understanding citation formats, and evaluating the credibility and authority of sources.
• Articulation of Arguments: Students should present their analysis and reasoning logically and coherently with excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Understanding of Legal Concepts: A solid understanding of legal concepts and principles is crucial for writing law assignments.
• Legal Writing Style: Adherence to a specific writing style that is concise, precise, and authoritative is vital. Proper citation of legal sources using recognized citation formats (such as Bluebook citation style, APA, or MLA) is also essential.
• Critical Analysis of legal arguments, evaluating strengths and weaknesses, and offering balanced assessments are often involved in law tasks.
• Attention to Detail: Careful attention to detail enhances the credibility and professionalism of the assignment.
• Time Management: The quality of the final submission is ensured by sticking to deadlines, leaving enough time for revisions and editing.

By honing these skills and applying them consistently, any student can improve their ability to write a law assignment more effectively.

The legal task must go through several critical stages to be well-structured and successful. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to write a law assignment:

• Carefully read and comprehend the assignment instructions provided by your lecturer or professor. Pay attention to the requirements, word limit, formatting guidelines, and specific questions or prompts.
• Choose your assignment subject. If you struggle with choosing the right one, glance at the law topics we created.
• Before starting the writing process, begin background research to become familiar with the subject and find pertinent legal statutes, cases, and theories. You can use this to develop a solid knowledge base to support your arguments.
• As you research, take notes! Record key points, relevant quotations, and references to legal authorities.
• Create a clear thesis statement or argument based on your initial research and grasp of the subject. It will be your writing’s direction. The thesis should present your main point or position on the discussed legal issue.

Create an outline to structure your thoughts and provide a roadmap for your assignment. 

An outline ensures a logical flow and allows you to arrange your thoughts. Include the main sections or headings you plan to cover, sub-points, and supporting evidence for each. Here are the elements that should be part of an outline:

• Hook or attention-grabbing statement to engage the reader.
• Background information on the topic to provide context.
• A thesis statement/main argument to clearly state your position/main points.
• Break down your main argument or topic into sub-points.
• Evidence, examples, or relevant legal authorities should support each main argument.
• Under each main argument or point, reference supporting evidence, such as legal precedents, case studies, or relevant legal theories.
• Include an analysis of the evidence, explaining how it supports your argument and strengthens your position.
• Address potential counterarguments or opposing viewpoints related to your main arguments.
• Refute counterarguments with solid reasoning, evidence, or alternative interpretations.
• Summarize the main arguments or points you have discussed throughout your assignment.
• Provide a sense of closure by reflecting on the significance of your findings.

Remember, the outline serves as a guide, and you can adapt it based on your assignment’s specific requirements and the topic’s complexity.

Let’s imagine that you write a criminal law assignment .

I. Introduction

• Definition and overview of criminal law.
• Purpose of the assignment.
• Thesis statement or main argument.

II. Elements of a Crime

• Actus reus: Discussing the physical act or conduct required for a crime.
• Mens rea: Explaining the mental state or intent necessary for criminal liability.
• Causation: Analyzing the causal link between the act and the harm caused.
• Concurrence: Discussing the requirement that the act and intent coincide.

III. Classification of Crimes

• Felonies: Explaining the characteristics and examples of felony offenses.
• Misdemeanours: Discussing the characteristics and examples of misdemeanor offenses.
• Infractions: Explaining the characteristics and examples of minor offenses.

IV. Criminal Defeses

• Justifications: Exploring defenses such as self-defense, necessity, and defense of others.
• Excuses: Discussing defenses like duress, insanity, and intoxication.
• Procedural Defenses: Analyzing defenses related to the rights of the accused, such as unlawful search and seizure, Miranda rights, etc.

V. Criminal Procedure

• Arrest and Search: Discussing the requirements and limitations for lawful arrest and search.
• Due Process: Exploring the constitutional rights of the accused, such as the right to counsel, the right to a fair trial, etc.
• Trial Process: Analyzing the steps involved in a criminal trial, including jury selection, opening statements, presentation of evidence, etc.
• Sentencing: Discussing the factors considered in determining an appropriate sentence for a convicted offender.

VI. Notable Criminal Law Cases

• Analyzing significant criminal law cases that have shaped legal principles or influenced the interpretation of criminal statutes.
• Discussing the impact of these cases on the development of criminal law jurisprudence.

VII. Contemporary Issues in Criminal Law

• Exploring current debates or challenges in criminal law, such as emerging technologies, cybercrimes, or criminal justice reform.
• Analyzing the potential implications and future developments in the field.

VIII. Conclusion

• Summarizing the main points and arguments presented.
• Assessing the effectiveness and significance of criminal law in maintaining social order and protecting individuals’ rights.

It’s important to follow the structure of the assignment:

• Begin with an attention-grabbing opening sentence or hook to engage the reader.
• Provide relevant background information to set the context of the topic.
• Clearly state the purpose of the assignment and what you aim to achieve.
• Conclude the introduction with a concise thesis statement that outlines your main argument or position.
• Ensure your thesis statement is concise, specific, and directly addresses the main focus of your assignment.
• Each body paragraph should focus on a single main point or argument that supports your thesis statement.
• Provide evidence, examples, or legal authorities to support your arguments.
• Break down complex legal concepts or theories into understandable terms.
• Support your arguments with well-reasoned analysis and relevant legal authorities.
• Cite relevant legal statutes, case law, regulations, or academic sources to support your claims.
• Ensure you accurately and appropriately cite your sources using the required citation style (e.g., Bluebook, APA, MLA).
• Anticipate potential counterarguments and address them directly and objectively.
• Summarize the main points or arguments discussed in your assignment.
• Avoid introducing new information in conclusion.
• Create a bibliography of your resources. It will help to avoid plagiarism. AssignmentBro supplies you with an incredible citation generator tool if you have trouble with quotations.
• Allocate sufficient time for proofreading and editing to eliminate spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. This stage is crucial and should not be avoided!
• Review the overall structure, coherence, and clarity of your writing.
• Ensure consistency in formatting, citation style, and referencing.

We want to highlight that strategy changes depending on the provided requirements. For example, there is also such a thing as an ACT essay. For the ACT essay, you’ll need an introduction, two to three body paragraphs (at least one paragraph for each perspective), and a conclusion.

By following these guidelines, you can succeed in law school essay writing!

Receiving help with legal studies assignments is helpful for developing analytical skills, applying correct legal principles, and writing tasks concisely.

It is not a regular task to write a legal paper. Thus, it’s completely acceptable for some students to make mistakes. We are humans, and we learn through making mistakes. However, it is best to avoid mistakes most students experience to succeed in your assignment.

The next common errors are highlighted:

• Writing in the passive;
• Using ambiguous pronouns;
• Unnecessary wordiness;
• Over-using legalese;
• Neglecting to proofread.

Other mistakes include: making an essay too long or short, drafting a legal essay without arguments, submitting an essay without a bibliography , fluffing the conclusion, etc.

The only way to eliminate mistakes is a dedication to your work and continuous practice! For this reason, It’s crucial to learn how to write a law assignment properly.

Learning more is never too late. Below, we added a few extra resources to help you learn more about legal writing:

• Many Birds, One Stone, Michael R. Smith;
• Legal Writing, Linda H. Edwards;
• Legal Writing in a Nutshell, L.Bahrych and J.Merino;
• Law Assignment Techniques.
• Writing Law Essays, M.Salter and J.Mason.

We hope it will ease your way to success in your legal education. Write a law assignment easily with AssignmentBro!

Our team can aid you with any kind of legal writing. Whether it is a contract law assignment, international law research, or any other kind of legal assignment, we are here to lend you a hand!

Law assignments help develop analytical skills, apply legal principles, and write concisely. They involve various types of writing, including case briefs, research papers, essays, and memoranda.

The pre-writing stage is vital. Even selecting a topic has a significant impact on your paper. For instance, topics in business Law can be really broad, so you should choose wisely.

Avoid mistakes by studying how to write a law assignment. AssignmentBro is always there to help you with any law task!

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How to Write a First-Class Law Essay

Studying law at university entails lots of essay writing. This article takes you through the key steps to writing a top law essay.

Writing a law essay can be a challenging task. As a law student, you’ll be expected to analyse complex legal issues and apply legal principles to real-world scenarios. At the same time, you’ll need to be able to communicate your ideas clearly and persuasively. In this article, we’ll cover some top tips to guide you through the process of planning, researching, structuring and writing a first-class law essay with confidence. 

1. Start In Advance

Give yourself plenty of time to plan, research and write your law essay. Always aim to start your law essay as soon as you have the question. Leaving it until the last minute does not only create unnecessary stress, but it also leaves you insufficient time to write, reference and perfect your work.

2. Understand The Question

Do not begin until you fully comprehend the question. Take the time to read the question carefully and make sure that you understand what it’s asking you to do. Highlight key terms and annotate the question with definitions of key concepts and any questions that you have have. Think about how the question links back to what you’ve learned during your lectures or through your readings.

3. Conduct Thorough Research

Conducting thorough research around your topic is one of the most fundamental parts of the essay writing process. You should aim to use a range of relevant sources, such as cases, academic articles, books and any other legal materials. Ensure that the information you collect is taken from relevant, reliable and up to date sources. Use primary over secondary material as much as possible.

Avoid using outdated laws and obscure blog posts as sources of information. Always aim to choose authoritative sources from experts within the field, such as academics, politicians, lawyers and judges. Using high-quality and authoritative sources and demonstrating profound and critical insight into your topic are what will earn you top marks.

4. Write A Detailed Plan

Once you’ve done your research, it’s time to plan your essay. When writing your plan, you’ll need to create an outline that clearly identifies the main points that you wish to make throughout your article. Try to write down what you wish to achieve in each paragraph, what concepts you want to discuss and arguments you want to make.

Your outline should be organised in a clear, coherent and logical manner to ensure that the person grading your essay can follow your line of thought and arguments easily.  You may also wish to include headings and subheadings to structure your essay effectively This makes it easier when it comes to writing the essay as starting without a plan can get messy. The essay must answer the question and nothing but the question so ensure all of your points relate to it.

Start Writing Like A Lawyer

Read our legal writing tips now

5. Write A Compelling Introduction

A great introduction should, firstly, outline the research topic.  The introduction is one of the most crucial parts of the law essay as it sets the tone for the rest of the paper. It should capture the readers attention and provide the background context on the topic. Most importantly, it should state the thesis of your essay.

When writing your introduction, avoid simply repeating the given question. Secondly, create a road map for the reader, letting them know how the essay will approach the question. Your introduction must be concise. The main body of the essay is where you will go into detail.

6. Include A Strong Thesis Statement

Your thesis should clearly set out the argument you are going to be making throughout your essay and should normally go in the introduction. Your thesis should adopt a clear stance rather than being overly general or wishy-washy. To obtain the best grades, you’ll need to show a unique perspective based upon a critical analysis of the topic rather than adopting the most obvious point of view.

Once you’ve conducted your research and had a chance to reflect on your topic, ask yourself whether you can prove your argument within the given word count or whether you would need to adopt a more modest position for your paper. Always have a clear idea of what your thesis statement is before you begin writing the content of your essay. 

7. Present the Counter-argument

To demonstrate your deeper understanding of the topic, it’s important to show your ability to consider the counter-arguments and address them in a careful and reasoned manner. When presenting your counterarguments, aim to depict them in the best possible light, aiming to be fair and reasonable before moving on to your rebuttal. To ensure that your essay is convincing, you will need to have a strong rebuttal that explains why your argument is stronger and more persuasive. This will demonstrate your capacity for critical analysis, showing the reader that you have carefully considered differing perspectives before coming to a well-supported conclusion.

8. End With A Strong Conclusion

Your conclusion is your opportunity to summarise the key points made throughout your essay and to restate the thesis statement in a clear and concise manner.  Avoid simply repeating what has already been mentioned in the body of the essay. For top grades, you should use the conclusion as an opportunity to provide critical reflection and analysis on the topic. You may also wish to share any further insights or recommendations into alternative avenues to consider or implications for further research that could add value to the topic. 

9. Review The Content Of Your Essay

Make sure you factor in time to edit the content of your essay.  Once you’ve finished your first draft, come back to it the next day. Re-read your essay with a critical perspective. Do your arguments make sense? Do your paragraphs flow in a logical manner? You may also consider asking someone to read your paper and give you critical feedback. They may be able to add another perspective you haven’t considered or suggest another research paper that could add value to your essay. 

10. Proofread For Grammatical Mistakes

Once you’re happy with the content of your essay, the last step is to thoroughly proofread your essay for any grammatical errors. Ensure that you take time to ensure that there are no grammar, spelling or punctuation errors as these can be one of the easiest ways to lose marks. You can ask anyone to proofread your paper, as they would not necessarily need to have a legal background – just strong grammar and spelling skills! 

11. Check Submission Guidelines

Before submitting, ensure that your paper conforms with the style, referencing and presentation guidelines set out by your university. This includes the correct font, font size and line spacing as well as elements such as page numbers, table of content etc. Referencing is also incredibly important as you’ll need to make sure that you are following the correct referencing system chosen by your university. Check your university’s guidelines about what the word count is and whether you need to include your student identification number in your essay as well. Be thorough and don’t lose marks for minor reasons!

12. Use Legal Terms Accurately

Always make sure that you are using legal terms accurately throughout your essay. Check an authoritative resource if you are unsure of any definitions. While being sophisticated is great, legal jargon if not used correctly or appropriately can weaken your essay. Aim to be concise and to stick to the point. Don’t use ten words when only two will do.

12. Create a Vocabulary Bank

One recurring piece of advice from seasoned law students is to take note of phrases from books and articles, key definitions or concepts and even quotes from your professors. When it comes to writing your law essay, you will have a whole range of ideas and vocabulary that will help you to develop your understanding and thoughts on a given topic. This will make writing your law essay even easier!

13. Finally, Take Care of Yourself

Last but certainly not least, looking after your health can improve your attitude towards writing your law essay your coursework in general. Sleep, eat, drink and exercise appropriately. Take regular breaks and try not to stress. Do not forget to enjoy writing the essay!

Words by Karen Fulton

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Writing a law school research paper or law review note

• Books and articles

Basics of Format & Content

Research papers are not as strictly structured as legal memos, briefs, and other documents that you've learned about in legal writing and drafting courses. For example, there is no prescribed content/format similar to to the Questions Presented, Brief Answers, etc. that you learned for a legal memo.

A general approach to thinking about the content of a research paper is:

• Introduction in which you give some background and a clear statement of your thesis
• Status quo -- what is the existing law and why is it a problem
• Proposals for change

See this blog post by Jonathan Burns , an IU McKinney alum, for more on basic content.

If you're writing for a law review or seminar, you should get formatting instructions regarding things like margins, font size, line spacing. If you don't, or if you're doing an independent study, here are some basic guidelines to follow:

• Times New Roman or similar, 12 pt font.
• Double spaced lines.
• One inch margins all around.
• Footnotes in academic Bluebook style (use the rules on the main white pages instead of the light blue pages at the front of the Bluebook).
• Footnotes in same font as text, 10 pt font.
• Use Roman numerals and/or letters on headings and subheadings or style the fonts so that the difference between headings and subheadings is clear.   
• Page numbers in the footer, preferably centered, especially on first page. You could do bottom center on first page and then upper right in the header thereafter. Use the header and footer functions for this. If you don't know how to use headers and footers in Word, here is help:  https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/word2016/headers-and-footers/1/ . 

Headings and subheadings

Research papers should have headings and subheadings. These help your reader follow your logic--and a logical structure is very important. Headings and subheadings can also help you keep your thoughts organized. Just don't overuse them--you don't want every paragaph to have a subheading. 

Road map paragraph

Often, research papers will also include a paragraph at the end of the introduction that narrates the road map the paper will follow.   Here is an example of this kind of paragraph:

"The section that follows [this introduction] sets the stage by recounting two scenarios from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, with discussion of the knowledge and implementation of accessibility features in online instructional materials. The next section provides an overview of various impairments and their effects on a user's experience of the online environment. Next is a review of the laws relevant to accessibility with attention to their potential application to online instruction, along with standards used to guide accessibility compliance. The article then explores the concept of universal design and its guiding principles, followed by a discussion of how to use the universal design principles to organize and better understand accessibility standards and practices. The final section briefly summarizes the discussion and encourages law librarians and professors to become knowledgeable and skilled in universal design for online materials to benefit all their students."

Table of Contents

A table of contents can also be helpful, though it's not necessary. If you add a table of contents to your papers, put it right at the beginning, before the introduction. Here's part of the table of contents for the same paper the paragraph above was taken from--it really just lays out the heading and subheadings with page numbers: 

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Legal Writing Basics

Read on for ideas about how to approach your Legal Research and Writing class , some must-know legal writing basics , and more advanced content on using different legal research options and on the specifics of constructing legal arguments .

Best of luck!

• First-Hand Guide to 1L Courses -- Legal Research & Writing It's a good idea to go into your first year courses with a general understanding of what you should expect from them. Click here to learn a bit about Legal Research and Writing!
• How to Outline a Complex Legal Research Memo Here are some steps to take in outlining a memo.
• Five Things Professional Readers Expect from Legal Writers This post identifies 5 qualities considered by busy PR’s when holistically assessing or grading the quality of a written legal instrument.
• Three Cs of Legal Writing...And One T The Three Cs of all good writing are clarity, concision, and coherence. And for legal writing, especially for law school writing , you have only to add one T to that list: Technical writing.
• Six Legal Writing Tips to Help You Stand Out This Summer Here are six legal writing tips to help you prepare and truly stand out in an unusual summer experience.
• Five Secrets of Effective Legal Writing Legal writing can inform, persuade, argue, intimidate, notify, and serve all kinds of other functions. Fortunately, the mechanics of legal writing are mostly the same regardless of what kind of document you are producing. Here are a few tips to help all of your legal writing stand out.
• The Art of Rule Synthesis Now you’re in law school and there are a whole bunch of rules you have to memorize that may have nothing to do with how you live your life. But you have to know these rules cold so they can come to you at the right moment during a law school exam. But wait, now you’re told there is a whole new category of rules. These are rules you have to create yourself in your legal writing class. This requires something called “synthesis.” So, what exactly does that mean?
• 5 Tips for Citing Web-Based Sources in Legal Writing Did you know that the Bluebook has a way to cite social media? With web-based resources growing in popularity and respectability, it's important to know how (and when!) to cite to these sources.
• Ahead of the Curve: From Undergrad to Law School -- Making the Transition, Part Two One of the most challenging parts of moving from an "undergrad" to a "law school" mindset is adapting your writing style. Here are some things to consider as you start your 1L year.
• Should Your Law School Essay Be Wearing Sweatpants or a Suit? Students sometimes tell us that their professor said typos don’t matter on an exam. Is that an excuse to ignore the most basic rules of grammar and spelling, and write like a slob? Definitely not!
• The Art of the Case Name (and 8 You Should Know) When you start law school, you may be surprised how often case names are used not only as shorthand for their holdings, but also as terms of art that represent fundamental legal concepts. Read this post if you want to get a jump start on learning some of the most important ones.
• 7 Tips to Improve Your Legal Writing Let's face it. Legal writing is as hard as it is important. Here are some simple tips that will help you strengthen your written work product and impress your professors.
• Is Your Open Memo Research Finished? You’ve been researching your open memo, experiencing frustration, relief, and maybe even exhilaration along the way. But now you’re feeling fatigue and an unsettling sense that you’re not sure whether you’re done. What to do?
• How to Get Answers From the Bluebook Need some help navigating the Bluebook. Get tips here.
• The Elusive Mini-IRAC: A Key to Law School Exam Success IRAC, the notorious structural underpinning of many a law school final exam is a relatively straightforward concept. But how do you handle an exam or practice essay when it isn’t that simple? The Mini-IRAC is the key.
• Why Legal Citations Are Important and Should Not Be Ignored In this post we share with you why citations are important and how you should approach your assignment to make sure that citations don’t get ignored (as this often leads to easy missed points come grading time).
• Five Tips for a Great Legal Writing Assignment Many first-year students are struggling with their legal writing assignments. As you continue to work on developing your legal writing skills, here are some tips to keep in mind.
• Podcast Episode 11: Legal Writing 101 What is it about the term Legal Writing that makes law students cringe? In this episode we talk about what makes legal writing so difficult, and how you can improve your writing skills, and more!
• Podcast Episode 68: Top 10 Legal Research and Writing Disasters to Avoid Almost every 1L in the country will take some sort of legal research and writing class. Today, we’re discussing the top ten LRW disasters we see again and again, so you can avoid them!
• Podcast Episode 156: Our Top 10 Academic Podcast Episodes Today, we’re doing a recap of our top 10 academic episodes, plus a few bonus ones. These aren’t necessarily the most popular episodes, but the ones we think are the most useful!

How to Approach Your Legal Research and Writing Class

• Could You Explain This Legal Concept to a 5-Year-Old? The next time you encounter a super-confusing legal topic, ask yourself one question: could I explain this concept to a reasonably intelligent 5-year-old? If the answer’s no, it’s time to simplify! Here's how.
• Legal Writing Tip: Imagine You’re Talking to Your Grandma The first few times you try to write a legal memo, it’s going to be a little awkward. Don’t worry, that’s normal. While you may be trying to sound like a super smart lawyer, here’s another idea: imagine the client is your grandmother.
• Be Ready to Throw Your Writing Style Out the Window in Law School It doesn't matter if you think you're a great writer going into law school. Legal writing has its own style. What matters is that you learn how to do it the right way (or at least the way the professor wants it)!
• Embrace the Difference of Legal Writing One of the biggest transitions you'll make as a 1L is writing like a lawyer. Here's why legal writing is different from what you've done before.
• Law School Toolbox Experts Share: Tips for Conquering Legal Writing Are you stressed out about taking Legal Writing? We have all been there! The Law School Toolbox experts share their tips for conquering Legal Writing.
• The Link Between Legal Writing and Final Exams What's the difference between legal writing for your LRW class and writing on your final exams? Find out more about the what's the same, and what's different.
• Four Legal Writing Tips from the Theatre Legal writers can learn a lot from writing for the theatre. Don’t believe me? Watch a good litigator in court.
• Approaching Your Legal Writing Assignment Like a Jazz Solo Jazz standards and legal writing are really quite similar. They’re both vehicles for expression that channel creativity into a few common forms.
• Keep the Train on the Tracks: Independent Writing and Research in Law School There are lots of reasons independent research and writing can be great for a law student, but it's important to make sure you're staying focused and on schedule. We're offering some ideas for doing your best with independent work.

Legal Research Resources and How to Use Them

• What Can Your Law Library Offer You? If you detest studying in the library at your law school, don’t do it ! It’s not required to do well on your exams. That said, though, did you know that law libraries often house some fantastic resources that many law students never take advantage of? If you’re just starting out exploring your law library, or want to get more out of navigating the library you know and love, here are some resources to check out.
• Dos and Don'ts for Using Sample Documents in Legal Writing What you should and shouldn't do when you are using sample documents in legal writing.
• A Law Student's Perspective: LexisNexis Tips LexisNexis is one of the three major legal databases (others:  Westlaw  and  Bloomberg ) which you will become familiar with throughout your legal career. Each person has their own preference on what database they will use. Do not feel obligated to choose one that someone else suggests. Nevertheless, these are the cool things Lexis has to offer which may be useful!
• "Good Law" vs "Bad Law" Explained There are plenty of landmines in law school legal writing, but whether you are citing “good law” is a fundamental step of legal analysis that will be crucial to your success in law school and beyond. This post won’t cover every possible scenario, but hopefully it will provide a strategy for thinking through your good law/bad law analysis and make that Shepard’s report just a little less daunting.
• 15 Latin Legal Terms Every 1L Should Know Along with mastering complicated legal concepts, enduring the Socratic method, learning to outline, and tackling legal writing, law school forces you to learn an entirely new vocabulary. Learning the language of the law is a real hurdle that cannot be overlooked just because it is not covered on the syllabus. This post will give you 15 Latin legal terms frequently encountered, but rarely translated or discussed. Without further ado –
• Law Librarians Explained: Everything a 1L Should Know Many 1Ls think of the law library as simply a place to study. If that's you, you're overlooking one of the most important resources in law school: the law librarian. Read on to learn more!
• Dealing with Dicta: 10 Questions Asked and Answered Whether researching case law or reading an assigned case, understanding and identifying dicta in a judicial opinion is a must. You probably know that you can’t rely on dicta as binding precedent in a future case, but what is it and how can you be sure to recognize it? If the concept of dicta seems complicated, it is. Here are ten frequently asked questions and answers to help you to successfully deal with dicta.
• Bluebook Oddities: 10 Unlikely Citations Love it or hate it, The Bluebook is an unavoidable fixture of the law school experience. No matter how fluent you become in The Bluebook, it seems to always be full of surprises. Here is a list of some of our favorite citations you never knew you could find in the deep recesses of your Bluebook.
• Your First Guide to Secondary Sources Researching and legal writing are two central tasks that attorneys perform frequently. There are three major legal databases: LexisNexis ,  Westlaw, and Bloomberg. This guide will focus on a great first step to research: secondary sources.

Different Approaches to Constructing Legal Arguments

• How and Why: Deepening Your Legal Reasoning Melissa L. Greipp, Associate Professor of Legal Writing at Marquette Law School, talks about how to deepen your legal reasoning by using two simple words: how and why.
• If X, Y, and Z, then A: Legal Analysis is Simple Professor Joel Trachtman who teaches International Law at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, shares some tips on conquering legal analysis.
• How to Construct a Policy Argument Policy arguments make many law students uncomfortable. You may panic when you’re expected to argue policy in an exam answer or legal writing assignment. Why is this, and how can you overcome it?
• A Formula for Rule Analysis Success Law school gives you formulas like IRAC to help you through the process of learning legal analysis and writing. In a recent post, we shared with you a formula for the “R” section of IRAC that was developed by Professor Hollee S. Temple of the West Virginia College of Law. Now, let’s take a look at Professor Temple’s formula for the “A” section of IRAC.
• From Objective to Persuasive Writing, Part 1: Law The classic LRW curriculum introduces objective (or predictive) writing, in the form of an office memorandum, in the fall, then switches to persuasive writing, typically an appellate brief (less often, a trial brief) in the spring. Many students struggle with this transition, feeling as if they’ve barely mastered one approach before being asked to change gears.
• From Objective to Persuasive Writing, Part 2: Facts We’ve recently discussed the shift from objective to persuasive writing, focusing on drafting persuasive legal arguments. Your approach to the facts will change from objective to persuasive as well.
• Podcast Episode 84: Using Rules Effectively in Legal Writing (With Guest Jason Jones) Today, we’re talking with Law School Toolbox tutor (and former law professor) Jason Jones about a very important aspect of law school exam success – using legal rules.

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Course Overview

First-Year Legal Research and Writing Program

1 North   Griswold Hall 1525 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge ,  MA 02138

Before you begin your studies in the First-Year Legal Research and Writing Program (LRW), it will help you to situate the course in the broader context of your legal education and your future law practice. To follow is a brief overview of the program, and an introduction to several themes that will recur throughout the year.

Program Overview

LRW uses a series of writing, research, and advocacy projects to engage you in the process of legal reasoning. The course instructs you in basic methods of legal analysis, effective written and oral communication of your analysis, and essential legal research tools and methodologies.

The first semester of LRW focuses on the writing of two predictive memos, in which you assess the arguments on each side of the issue and predict which side would prevail.  In the spring, you will learn how to write an appellate brief, in which you present your client’s best arguments to a court. For all three assignments, you will produce both a draft and a final version, the better to respond to feedback and hone your writing and analysis.  In practice, as in LRW, the writing process will help you take your internal understanding of an issue and make it external, so that you may hold it at arm’s length and examine it critically. As novice lawyers become expert lawyers, they develop greater ability to monitor their own level of understanding, and may resort somewhat less frequently (although not infrequently) to a formal written product like a predictive memo. Nevertheless, even when they eschew a formal written memo, they continue to apply the same analytical steps that are required to complete the writing assignments you will undertake in this course.

Lawyers cannot provide effective representation unless they master the necessary research skills. At a minimum, lawyers must be able to find and update the constitutional provisions, statutes, regulations, and cases that determine their clients’ rights and obligations. To that end, the legal research component of LRW will introduce you to core tools and methodologies that will be essential in your internships next summer, as well as in your future law practice. Indeed, without such skills you will have a difficult time satisfying your employers and competing with fellow students in summer practice and the early years of law practice. More advanced research instruction is available in upper-level elective courses.

LRW’s learning model depends on the substantial feedback that we provide on your work. LRW will likely be the first law school course in which you receive any feedback on written work, and it will be the course in which you receive the most individual feedback by far. Keep in mind that our goals for your achievement are quite high, in keeping with your potential. Our feedback will naturally focus on areas for improvement, so you ought not interpret this emphasis negatively. Our feedback is intended not to discourage you, but to facilitate your learning.

LRW meets weekly in the fall and spring semester of your first year. LRW is graded Honors, Pass, Low Pass, and  Fail.

In the fall semester, you will complete two major writing assignments. The first is a  “Closed Memo,” in which you write a predictive memo based on a set of research materials that are provided for you. The second is an “Open Memo,” in which you must research the applicable law and write a predictive memo based on your own research.

In the spring semester, the major course assignment is the First-Year Ames Moot Court Program. Working in pairs, you will research and draft an appellate brief concerning a simulated case set in a federal or state appeals court. At the end of the semester, you will argue your case before a three-judge panel. Judges are drawn from Harvard Law School faculty, practicing lawyers, and upper-level law students. With this course overview in mind, we turn next to a discussion of several recurring themes in LRW.

The Conventions of Legal Discourse

Any discourse community has its own discourse conventions, and lawyers have done a particularly thorough job of developing theirs. LRW is intended to familiarize you with these discourse conventions.

LRW introduces you to the generally accepted modes of legal reasoning: rule-based reasoning; analogical reasoning; and policy reasoning. As you progress through the course assignments, you will see the interdependence among these three modes of legal reasoning. When LRW turns to advocacy, you will learn how lawyers use narrative devices to complement the conventional modes of legal reasoning and make their arguments more persuasive.

Discourse conventions govern not only the modes of argument, but also the authorities that frame the argument. You will learn what types of materials constitute acceptable sources of authority in legal discourse, as well as the different hierarchies within which those authorities exist.

Most concretely, LRW will introduce you to two basic forms through which lawyers communicate their legal reasoning. You will learn the conventions applicable to a predictive memo and an appellate oral argument.

Of course, you will be learning the conventions of legal discourse in all of your first-year courses, indeed in all of law school. LRW, however, is intended to focus very specifically on the conventions themselves, more so than in your other courses.

Legal Reasoning and Judicial Discretion

Throughout your legal education, you will encounter a debate over the role of judicial discretion in adjudication. At the extremes, some would suggest that adjudication is rationally constrained by the available legal authorities, while others would argue that adjudication is effectively constrained only by the judge’s own beliefs and values. LRW is not intended to resolve that debate. Nevertheless, your work in this course should illustrate several different concepts about the degrees to which legal authorities can constrain judicial discretion.

Over the course of the year’s projects, you should see that a series of authorities applying the same rule can restrict–at least to some degree–the decision in a future situation governed by that rule. For example, if a statute says “No vehicles in the park,” and the state’s highest court interprets the statute to mean no “motor vehicles,” you can be pretty sure that the statute won’t prohibit you from riding your elephant through the park.

One might think that the ever-increasing number of decisions necessarily increases the degree of constraint. That may be so in some situations, but several factors can have a destabilizing influence. One such factor is the contingent nature of language. You may have seen in other contexts, and you will surely see in your legal career, that saying more about a topic often creates more uncertainty, not less. Each new opinion creates the potential for misstatement and misunderstanding, enabling future lawyers to reinterpret the pre-existing rule. A second destabilizing factor is the social context of our legal system. Authorities rest on a foundation of policy, of societal goals and values, even if those values are not always stated explicitly. As societal goals and values shift, a body of law resting on the discarded goals and values may become obsolete, and eventually reoriented in support of a new rule.

Finally, you should recognize that the limits on judicial discretion are often less substantial than they might seem at first. Each of the major projects in LRW should demonstrate that, with regard to a given legal problem, there is usually more than one possible outcome, even if one outcome seems more likely than the others. Skilled lawyers read authorities with a critical eye, constantly on the lookout for the gap of ambiguity within a seemingly solid wall of legal authorities.

Tension Between the Abstract and the Concrete

To complete any substantial task of legal analysis, the lawyer must at some point bridge the boundary between the abstract and the concrete. Rules rarely, if ever, cover every situation imaginable. For example, the “No vehicles in the park” statute could simply list every make and model of car and truck in existence, to clarify that they are all prohibited from the park. But the rule would be unmanageably long, and new makes and models would come into existence after the rule’s enactment. So the drafters would instead choose a term to describe the category of situations to which their rule was addressed. Rules that denote categories rather than specific situations necessarily involve a degree of abstraction, whether a moderate degree (e.g., “motor vehicle”) or a substantial degree (e.g., “best interest of the child”).

Fortunately for us, this inherent uncertainty is one of the things that makes law practice a creative endeavor. For example, if the vehicles in the park statute referred to “motor vehicles,” would that include airplanes? Mopeds? Golf carts? The “Segway” personal scooters? Lawyers and judges would try to use the policies underlying the rule and analogies to prior decisions to decide each example. But the jump from abstract to concrete would involve a measure of uncertainty, and it is this uncertainty that allows lawyers to make plausible arguments on both sides of a case.

Your Audience

In the oral and written communications that you undertake in this course, you must focus not only on the substantive ideas that you try to communicate, but also on the way in which your audience will receive those ideas. Communication is a two-step process, and even brilliant arguments suffer if the audience is distracted by substandard prose. That is why the feedback in this course will consider the form and style of your writing.

Additionally, you must recognize that your audience has a particular task before it, and will be using your communication (i.e., your memo, brief, or oral argument) as an instrument in completing that task. The audience’s task will often be to decide how to advise a client or rule in a case. To be effective, your communication must be suited to your audience’s needs. So in a memo addressed to an attorney who must decide how to advise a client, simply stating your prediction is not enough. You must also help the attorney understand the applicable legal standard and its likely application, as well as any plausible counter-arguments and the reasons why those arguments would not prevail. Only then will your communication allow the attorney to make an informed decision about how to advise the client.

You are at the start of a fascinating journey. We in the First-Year Legal Research and Writing Program wish you great success and enjoyment as you begin your legal education.

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Law Search Guide: Write Law Assignments

• Get ready for my first semester
• Build a search strategy
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eBook- Exams and Studying

• Assignment Scheduler

Throughout your law studies , you will need to complete a variety of different assignments. See below to explore four different forms of assignments ​​​​​​.

• What goes into a case note?
• Tips by Students
• Step-by-Step
• Case Note Examples

A case note is a summary or a summary and critical analysis of a case.

 A case note will usually include:

• Citations details-   include the full citation details. 
• Procedural history-   write about how the matter came to court if there is a history, e.g. is the case on appeal?
• Facts-   Explain the main points of the dispute or the reason the parties are in court. What orders or decision as they asking the court to make?
• Legal Issues-  Explain what the legal issues are and how they apply to the facts. 
• Decision summary-  What did the court decide and why? What was the ratio (the rule of law on which the decision is based) and was there any obiter (the Judge's opinion that isn't essential to the decision).  Also include and dissenting Judges where applicable. 
• Critical Analysis-  Some case   notes will also require you to critically analysis the case, this will involve looking at the case in the wider body of law and discuss the merit or importance of the points of law raised in the case.   

You usually have a strict word count for your case note, because of this limit the detail that you have for the background information and focus on the analysis.  

Tip:  Always read through your assignment instructions for specific information that will apply to your assessment task.  

Read advice from other law students on how to survive law school. These links come from the  Survive Law Blog .

• How to Write a Case Note
• Case note assignments This online tutorial from Monash University will take you step by step through writing a case note.
• Case Note: Betting Across Boarders This case note examines the recent High Court decision of Betfair Pty Limited v Western Australia.
• Case Note: Australian Securities and Investment Commission v MacDonald Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Macdonald [No 11] required the New South Wales Supreme Court to determine whether company directors and officers of James Hardie Industries Ltd had breached their duties.
• Case Note: Giller v Procopets This casenote deals with the claims concerning the videoing of the sexual encounters between the parties and the exhibition and/or distribution of the video to third parties.
• Essay Template
• A Visual Guide to Essay Writing
• eBooks on Legal Writing
• Reading Cases
• Tips Written by Law Students
• CDU Honors Research Papers

• AGLC Template You can use this template to help you with formatting.

This resource uses a visual approach to take students through the process of essay writing for University. Although not law specific this resource will demonstrate formulating, refining and expressing academic essay writing:

One of the best ways to develop your writing skills is to read. Reading will expose you to different styles of writing and through reading you will form your own style. Think about the reports and cases that you read that frustrated you in finding out what the main ratio was. Compare that to this recent well written coroners report: 

• Inquest into the deaths of William George Scott [2015 ] NTMC 022 & Lanh Van Tran [2015] NTMC 023

Read advice from other law students on how to survive law school. These links come from the  Survive Law Blog :

• Five Tips for Writing Awesome Assignments
• Tips from your Tutor: How to Write the Perfect Law Essay Introduction
• Writing Convincing Assignments: Critical Analysis Checklist

This is a list of CDU student papers that were submitted for the Honours Research Papers. These are excellent examples of legal writing. 

• Double Jeopardy Reform: Political Expediency of Much Needed Change?
• The Euthanasia Fallacy: Why it is time to regulate in Australia
• Everybody Knows: Snowden's NSA Leaks, Metadata And Privacy Implications For Australia
• Intellectual Disability in the Australian Criminal Justice System
• New South Wales Right To Silence Reforms: Maximum Admissions, Minimum Silence
• Same-Sex Parents: Won't Somebody Please Think Of The Children!
• Testamentary Capacity & Rational Suicide: the Law, Medicine & Safe-guarding your Intentions
• Problem Solving Questions
• eBook on Problem Solving

• Tips from your Tutor: 10 Ways to Improve your Problem Solving Assignment
• Using IRAC to Answer Problem Solving Questions
• Introduction
• Preparing for a Law Exam
• Past Exam Papers from CDU

Exams come in different formats, they can be:

• Invigilated open book exam
• Invigilated closed book exam
• Take home exam

Read advice from other law students on how to survive law school. These links come from the  Survive Law Blog : 

• Advice from your Tutor: Law Exam Preparation and Technique
• Exam Countdown: Making the most of the Last 24 Hours
• How to Make an Exam Answer Template
• How to Make a Study Timetable for Exams
• How to Study for a Closed Book Exam

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Legal Assignment: Everything You Need to Know

A legal assignment occurs when a party assigns their contractual rights to a third party. 3 min read updated on September 19, 2022

A legal assignment occurs when a party assigns their contractual rights to a third party. The benefit that the issuing party would have received from the contract is now assigned to the third party. The party appointing their rights is referred to as the assignor, while the party obtaining the rights is the assignee.

Assignment of Contract

A legal assignment occurs when:

• The rights in personal or real property are transferred from one party to another
• The transfer also gives the new owner the rights to the property that the prior owner held prior to the transfer occurring

In the Purman Estate case, the court stated that a legal assignment is a transfer of property, or of some right or interest, from one person to another. It also stated that it must be the proper transfer of one whole interest in that property.

An assignment of rights occurs when an assignor gives up or transfers their rights of a future benefit to another party. In other words, an assignment is the act of one party transferring, vesting, or causing to vest their interest in a property to another party. A valid legal assignment only occurs when all underlying elements of a lawfully binding contract are included in it, including intent. A trial court can determine if an assignment has occurred. To prevent disputes or miscommunications, it's important that the subject matter is clearly identified in the assignment.

A contract assignment occurs when a party assigns their contractual rights to a third party. The benefit the issuing party would have received from the contract is now assigned to the third party. The party appointing their rights is referred to as the assignor, while the party obtaining the rights is the assignee. Essentially, the assignor prefers that the assignee reverses roles and assumes the contractual rights and obligations as stated in the contract. Before this can occur, all parties to the original contract must be notified.

How Assignments Work

The specific language used in the contract will determine how the assignment plays out. For example , one contract may prohibit assignment, while another contract may require that all parties involved agree to it before proceeding. Remember, an assignment of contract does not necessarily alleviate an assignor from all liability. Many contracts include an assurance clause guaranteeing performance. In other words, the initial parties to the contract guarantee that the assignee will achieve the desired goal.

When Assignments Will Not Be Enforced

The following situations indicate when an assignment of a contract is not enforced:

• The contract specifically prohibits assignment
• The assignment drastically changes the expected outcome
• The assignment is against public policy or illegal

Delegation vs. Assignment

Occasionally, one party in a contract will desire to pass on or delegate their responsibility to a third party without creating an assignment contract. Some duties are so specific in nature that they cannot be delegated. Adding a clause in the contract to prevent a party from delegating their responsibilities and duties is highly recommended.

Three Steps to Follow if You Want to Assign a Contract

There are three main steps to take if you're looking to assign a contract:

• Make sure the current contract does not contain an anti-assignment clause
• Officially execute the assignment by transferring the parties' obligations and rights
• Notify the obligor of the changes made

Once the obligor is notified, the assignor will effectively be relieved of liability.

Anti-Assignment Clauses

If you'd prefer not to allow the party you're doing business with to assign a contract, you may be able to prevent this from occurring by clearly stating anti-assignment clauses in the original contract. The three most common anti-assignment clauses are:

• Consent required for assignment
• Consent not needed for new owners or affiliates
• Consent not unreasonably withheld

Based on these three clauses, no party in the contract is allowed to delegate or assign any obligations or rights without prior written consent from the other parties. Any delegation or assignment in violation of this passage shall be deemed void. It is not possible to write an anti-assignment clause that goes against an assignment that is issued or ordered by a court.

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How to write a case brief for law school: Excerpt reproduced from Introduction to the Study of Law: Cases and Materials,

Third Edition (LexisNexis 2009) by Michael Makdisi & John Makdisi

C. HOW TO BRIEF

The previous section described the parts of a case in order to make it easier to read and identify the pertinent information that you will use to create your briefs. This section will describe the parts of a brief in order to give you an idea about what a brief is, what is helpful to include in a brief, and what purpose it serves. Case briefs are a necessary study aid in law school that helps to encapsulate and analyze the mountainous mass of material that law students must digest. The case brief represents a final product after reading a case, rereading it, taking it apart, and putting it back together again. In addition to its function as a tool for self-instruction and referencing, the case brief also provides a valuable “cheat sheet” for class participation.

Who will read your brief? Most professors will espouse the value of briefing but will never ask to see that you have, in fact, briefed. As a practicing lawyer, your client doesn’t care if you brief, so long as you win the case. The judges certainly don’t care if you brief, so long as you competently practice the law. You are the person that the brief will serve! Keep this in mind when deciding what elements to include as part of your brief and when deciding what information to include under those elements.

What are the elements of a brief? Different people will tell you to include different things in your brief. Most likely, upon entering law school, this will happen with one or more of your instructors. While opinions may vary, four elements that are essential to any useful brief are the following:

(a) Facts (name of the case and its parties, what happened factually and procedurally, and the judgment)

(b) Issues (what is in dispute)

(c) Holding (the applied rule of law)

(d) Rationale (reasons for the holding)

If you include nothing but these four elements, you should have everything you need in order to recall effectively the information from the case during class or several months later when studying for exams.

Because briefs are made for yourself, you may want to include other elements that expand the four elements listed above. Depending on the case, the inclusion of additional elements may be useful. For example, a case that has a long and important section expounding dicta might call for a separate section in your brief labeled: Dicta. Whatever elements you decide to include, however, remember that the brief is a tool intended for personal use. To the extent that more elements will help with organization and use of the brief, include them. On the other hand, if you find that having more elements makes your brief cumbersome and hard to use, cut back on the number of elements. At a minimum, however, make sure you include the four elements listed above.

Elements that you may want to consider including in addition to the four basic elements are:

(e) Dicta (commentary about the decision that was not the basis for the decision)

(f) Dissent (if a valuable dissenting opinion exits, the dissent’s opinion)

(g) Party’s Arguments (each party’s opposing argument concerning the ultimate issue)

(h) Comments (personal commentary)

Personal comments can be useful if you have a thought that does not fit elsewhere. In the personal experience of one of the authors, this element was used to label cases as specific kinds (e.g., as a case of vicarious liability) or make mental notes about what he found peculiar or puzzling about cases. This element allowed him to release his thoughts (without losing them) so that he could move on to other cases.

In addition to these elements, it may help you to organize your thoughts, as some people do, by dividing Facts into separate elements:

(1) Facts of the case (what actually happened, the controversy)

(2) Procedural History (what events within the court system led to the present case)

(3) Judgment (what the court actually decided)

Procedural History is usually minimal and most of the time irrelevant to the ultimate importance of a case; however, this is not always true. One subject in which Procedure History is virtually always relevant is Civil Procedure.

When describing the Judgment of the case, distinguish it from the Holding. The Judgment is the factual determination by the court, in favor of one party, such as “affirmed,” “reversed,” or “remanded.” In contrast, the Holding is the applied rule of law that serves as the basis for the ultimate judgment.

Remember that the purpose of a brief is to remind you of the important details that make the case significant in terms of the law. It will be a reference tool when you are drilled by a professor and will be a study aid when you prepare for exams. A brief is also like a puzzle piece.

The elements of the brief create the unique shape and colors of the piece, and, when combined with other pieces, the picture of the common law takes form. A well-constructed brief will save you lots of time by removing the need to return to the case to remember the important details and also by making it easier to put together the pieces of the common law puzzle.

D. EXTRACTING THE RELEVANT INFORMATION: ANNOTATING AND HIGHLIGHTING

So now that you know the basic elements of a brief, what information is important to include under each element? The simple answer is: whatever is relevant. But what parts of a case are relevant? When you read your first few cases, you may think that everything that the judge said was relevant to his ultimate conclusion. Even if this were true, what is relevant for the judge to make his decision is not always relevant for you to include in your brief. Remember, the reason to make a brief is not to persuade the world that the ultimate decision in the case is a sound one, but rather to aid in refreshing your memory concerning the most important parts of the case.

What facts are relevant to include in a brief? You should include the facts that are necessary to remind you of the story. If you forget the story, you will not remember how the law in the case was applied. You should also include the facts that are dispositive to the decision in the case. For instance, if the fact that a car is white is a determining factor in the case, the brief should note that the case involves a white car and not simply a car. To the extent that the procedural history either helps you to remember the case or plays an important role in the ultimate outcome, you should include these facts as well.

What issues and conclusions are relevant to include in a brief? There is usually one main issue on which the court rests its decision. This may seem simple, but the court may talk about multiple issues, and may discuss multiple arguments from both sides of the case. Be sure to distinguish the issues from the arguments made by the parties. The relevant issue or issues, and corresponding conclusions, are the ones for which the court made a final decision and which are binding. The court may discuss intermediate conclusions or issues, but stay focused on the main issue and conclusion which binds future courts.

What rationale is important to include in a brief? This is probably the most difficult aspect of the case to determine. Remember that everything that is discussed may have been relevant to the judge, but it is not necessarily relevant to the rationale of the decision. The goal is to remind yourself of the basic reasoning that the court used to come to its decision and the key factors that made the decision favor one side or the other.

A brief should be brief! Overly long or cumbersome briefs are not very helpful because you will not be able to skim them easily when you review your notes or when the professor drills you. On the other hand, a brief that is too short will be equally unhelpful because it lacks sufficient information to refresh your memory. Try to keep your briefs to one page in length. This will make it easy for you to organize and reference them.

Do not get discouraged. Learning to brief and figuring out exactly what to include will take time and practice. The more you brief, the easier it will become to extract the relevant information.

While a brief is an extremely helpful and important study aid, annotating and highlighting are other tools for breaking down the mass of material in your casebook. The remainder of this section will discuss these different techniques and show how they complement and enhance the briefing process.

Annotating Cases

Many of you probably already read with a pencil or pen, but if you do not, now is the time to get in the habit. Cases are so dense and full of information that you will find yourself spending considerable amounts of time rereading cases to find what you need. An effective way to reduce this time is to annotate the margins of the casebook. Your pencil (or pen) will be one of your best friends while reading a case. It will allow you to mark off the different sections (such as facts, procedural history, or conclusions), thus allowing you to clear your mind of thoughts and providing an invaluable resource when briefing and reviewing.

You might be wondering why annotating is important if you make an adequate, well-constructed brief. By their very nature briefs cannot cover everything in a case. Even with a thorough, well-constructed brief you may want to reference the original case in order to reread dicta that might not have seemed important at the time, to review the complete procedural history or set of facts, or to scour the rationale for a better understanding of the case; annotating makes these tasks easier. Whether you return to a case after a few hours or a few months, annotations will swiftly guide you to the pertinent parts of the case by providing a roadmap of the important sections. Your textual markings and margin notes will refresh your memory and restore specific thoughts you might have had about either the case in general or an individual passage.

Annotations will also remind you of forgotten thoughts and random ideas by providing a medium for personal comments.

In addition to making it easier to review an original case, annotating cases during the first review of a case makes the briefing process easier. With adequate annotations, the important details needed for your brief will be much easier to retrieve. Without annotations, you will likely have difficulty locating the information you seek even in the short cases. It might seem strange that it would be hard to reference a short case, but even a short case will likely take you at least fifteen to twenty-five minutes to read, while longer cases may take as much as thirty minutes to an hour to complete. No matter how long it takes, the dense material of all cases makes it difficult to remember all your thoughts, and trying to locate specific sections of the analysis may feel like you are trying to locate a needle in a haystack. An annotation in the margin, however, will not only swiftly guide you to a pertinent section, but will also refresh the thoughts that you had while reading that section.

When you read a case for the first time, read for the story and for a basic understanding of the dispute, the issues, the rationale, and the decision. As you hit these elements (or what you think are these elements) make a mark in the margins. Your markings can be as simple as “facts” (with a bracket that indicates the relevant part of the paragraph). When you spot an issue, you may simply mark “issue” or instead provide a synopsis in your own words. When a case sparks an idea — write that idea in the margin as well — you never know when a seemingly irrelevant idea might turn into something more.

Finally, when you spot a particularly important part of the text, underline it (or highlight it as described below).

With a basic understanding of the case, and with annotations in the margin, the second read-through of the case should be much easier. You can direct your reading to the most important sections and will have an easier time identifying what is and is not important. Continue rereading the case until you have identified all the relevant information that you need to make your brief, including the issue(s), the facts, the holding, and the relevant parts of the analysis.

Pencil or pen — which is better to use when annotating? Our recommendation is a mechanical pencil. Mechanical pencils make finer markings than regular pencils, and also than ballpoint pens. Although you might think a pencil might smear more than a pen, with its sharp point a mechanical pencil uses very little excess lead and will not smear as much as you might imagine. A mechanical pencil will also give you the freedom to make mistakes without consequences. When you first start annotating, you may think that some passages are more important than they really are, and therefore you may resist the urge to make a mark in order to preserve your book and prevent false guideposts. With a pencil, however, the ability to erase and rewrite removes this problem.

Highlighting

Why highlight? Like annotating, highlighting may seem unimportant if you create thorough, well-constructed briefs, but highlighting directly helps you to brief. It makes cases, especially the more complicated ones, easy to digest, review and use to extract information.

Highlighting takes advantage of colors to provide a uniquely effective method for reviewing and referencing a case. If you prefer a visual approach to learning, you may find highlighting to be a very effective tool.

If annotating and highlighting are so effective, why brief? Because the process of summarizing a case and putting it into your own words within a brief provides an understanding of the law and of the case that you cannot gain through the process of highlighting or annotating.

The process of putting the case into your own words forces you to digest the material, while annotating and highlighting can be accomplished in a much more passive manner.

What should you highlight? Similar to annotating, the best parts of the case to highlight are those that represent the needed information for your brief such as the facts, the issue, the holding and the rationale.

Unlike annotating, highlighting provides an effective way to color code, which makes referring to the case even easier. In addition, Highlighters are particularly useful in marking off entire sections by using brackets. These brackets will allow you to color-code the case without highlighting all the text, leaving the most important phrases untouched for a more detailed highlight marking or underlining.

Highlighting is a personal tool, and therefore should be used to the extent that highlighting helps, but should be modified in a way that makes it personally time efficient and beneficial. For instance, you might combine the use of annotations in the margins with the visual benefit of highlighting the relevant text. You may prefer to underline the relevant text with a pencil, but to use a highlighter to bracket off the different sections of a case. Whatever you choose to do, make sure that it works for you, regardless of what others recommend. The techniques in the remainder of this section will describe ways to make full use of your highlighters.

First, buy yourself a set of multi-colored highlighters, with at least four, or perhaps five or six different colors. Yellow, pink, and orange are usually the brightest. Depending on the brand, purple and green can be dark, but still work well. Although blue is a beautiful color, it tends to darken and hide the text.

Therefore we recommend that you save blue for the elements that you rarely highlight.

For each different section of the case, choose a color, and use that color only when highlighting the section of the case designated for that color. Consider using yellow for the text that you tend to highlight most frequently. Because yellow is the brightest, you may be inclined to use yellow for the Conclusions in order to make them stand out the most. If you do this, however, you will exhaust your other colors much faster than yellow and this will require that you purchase an entire set of new highlighters when a single color runs out because colors such as green are not sold separately. If instead you choose to use yellow on a more frequently highlighted section such as the Analysis, when it comes time to replace your yellow marker, you will need only to replace your yellow highlighter individually. In the personal experience on one of the authors, the sections of cases that seemed to demand the most highlighter attention were the

Facts and the Analysis, while the Issues and Holdings demanded the least. Other Considerations and

Procedural History required lots of highlighting in particular cases although not in every case.

Experiment if you must, but try to choose a color scheme early on in the semester and stick with it. That way, when you come back to the first cases of the semester, you will not be confused with multiple color schemes. The basic sections of a case for which you should consider giving a different color are:

(b) Procedural History

(c) Issue (and questions presented)

(d) Holding (and conclusions)

(e) Analysis (rationale)

(f) Other Considerations (such as dicta)

Not all of these sections demand a separate color. You may find that combining Facts and Procedural History or Issues and Holdings works best. Furthermore, as mentioned above, some sections may not warrant highlighting in every case (e.g., dicta probably do not need to be highlighted unless they are particularly important). If you decide that a single color is all that you need, then stick to one, but if you find yourself highlighting lots of text from many different sections, reconsider the use of at least a few different colors. Highlighters make text stand out, but only when used appropriately. The use of many colors enables you to highlight more text without reducing the highlighter’s effectiveness. Three to four colors provides decent color variation without the cumbersomeness of handling too many markers.

Once you are comfortable with your color scheme, determining exactly what to highlight still may be difficult. Similar to knowing what to annotate, experience will perfect your highlighting skills. Be careful not to highlight everything, thus ruining your highlighters’ effectiveness; at the same time, do not be afraid to make mistakes.

Now that we have covered the basics of reading, annotating, highlighting, and briefing a case, you are ready to start practicing. Keep the tips and techniques mentioned in this chapter in mind when you tackle the four topics in the remainder of this book. If you have difficultly, refer back to this chapter to help guide you as you master the case method of study and the art of using the common law.

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