Be a Good Storyteller

Preparing research memoranda is an important part of the early career of most young associates. Here are some suggestions to consider as you gear up for your first writing assignment. Make sure you understand the assignment. During the initial meeting with the assigning partner, take copious notes and ask plenty of questions to clear up what you don’t understand and to confirm what you think you do understand. Find out the specific purpose of the assignment and the ultimate destination of your memo. What does the client want or need? Are we looking to avoid trouble or seize some opportunity? In short, what is at stake here?

Even if your assignment is but a fragment of some enormous deal, find out how it fits in � into the larger transaction involved, as well as into the work that the department does for the client. Get the names of other associates you can consult, and find out how to get access to important files and documents.

Don’t be afraid to ask for advice about what direction you should take. Where should you start? What should you avoid? You also should find out what form the partner wants the assignment to take and where you can find recent samples of similar memos or documents.

Once you take an assignment, it’s your responsibility to complete it. The time to decline work is when it is offered. Consult with your assignment manager or other supervisor before making any decision. But it is much better to turn down work from the beginning than to start an assignment and not be able to finish it. It’s even worse to hand in a second-rate product because you did not have time to do it justice.

Be sure you know when the partner is expecting the memo. In this regard, find out what priority your assignment has in the partner’s scheme of things.

KEEP THE PARTNER INFORMED

Don’t disappear. Ask the partner if the two of you can schedule a follow-up meeting, so you can report on your preliminary findings and ask any questions that have since emerged. Don’t avoid this process for fear of annoying the partner or raising doubt about your competence. You are a smart, new associate who was hired by the firm based on your abilities. Deal with your fears now rather than missing a key point in the assignment or a chance to adjust it in light of early findings. Most partners just want assurance that you are on top of the assignment and headed in the right direction. Let the partner know if you have spotted any roadblocks or have stumbled upon a new idea that might be useful. Such insights may signal your need for further instructions. (“No, don’t address that issue. Focus on this.”) Or they may trigger a new, important question for the partner. (“Very interesting. I’ll ask the client and get back to you.”) In either case, you’ve gained.

Hit the books. Too often young associates rely solely on computer research and forget that the firm has a whole library full of books that can teach you the law. If a statute lies at the heart of your problem, begin with an annotated code or digest that summarizes the cases decided under the statute. Learn to scan the table of contents of a digest or resource, such as “ALR” or “Words and Phrases”; a good table of contents presents a history and index to the law on a particular issue. While the specific issue you are researching may be narrow, developing a broader understanding of the law surrounding the issue will go a long way in helping you fully understand the issue.

When your research has narrowed the field to several key terms, factors or circumstances, it’s time to consult computerized research for that dream case “on point.” Meanwhile, the process of defining and refining your set of search words also will sharpen your grasp of the problem.

Don’t hesitate to get help from the library staff. They are paid by the firm to help you. Many of them may be familiar with your issue and are experts about which resources deal with your precise problem.

TAKE GOOD NOTES

Learn to take good notes, especially in preparation for a preliminary oral report to the partner. Make sure that you know what you are going to say before you walk into the meeting. If you are going to discuss authorities that you have found, be sure that you can articulate the relevant facts, issues and findings that are presented in the cases. You can arrive at the meeting with a file containing copies of the relevant authorities. But have in hand a set of succinct notes that you can flip through quickly. For example, you could prepare one index card for each relevant case, with its essential facts, issues and findings, and the court’s reasoning clearly spelled out; you could then have a second set of cards, one for each issue or sub-issue, with a list of all the authorities that bear upon it.

During the meeting and as you continue to work, keep focussed, but also learn to free associate in a useful way, moving your thoughts back and forth between the authorities you uncover and the facts of your assignment. Be able to explain how or why a case is relevant. In short, be able to address the practical consequences of what you’ve found.

A research memo tells a story based on law and fact. A good lawyer tells good stories in a manner that the listener can understand. A memo structured according to a logical progression and flow is easier to understand than a memo that circles around issues in a stream of consciousness.

Before writing, collect and order your thoughts in some form of plan or outline. Impose some structure on your notes before you head into your first complete draft. To be effective, your outline should do two things: identify the key issues and sub-issues, and the relevant facts; and highlight how one point relates to another in terms of logic, chronology, complexity, importance or some other system of priority.

Drawing a preliminary outline is not a mechanical exercise and should not generate mechanical results. As you start to draft, the outline may change, since at this stage, writing is more a process of discovering what you have to say than just transcribing something prerecorded in your mind. Know that you are writing the first, second and maybe third draft primarily for yourself.

REVISE CAREFULLY

Take revision seriously. Revision means what it spells. You have to turn a document written for yourself into a document for someone else to rely and act upon. A good way to begin this process is to think about the “goal” or “purpose” of your document, clarifying what you want the document to accomplish. Then, read the draft and ask yourself whether it accomplishes your goal or purpose.

Now test the contents of your memo for substance. Are the law and the facts accurately stated? Is the memo comprehensive, treating each issue point by point and each point element by element? Leave out, or relegate to a few good footnotes, issues that arguably are remote from the immediate issues at hand.

Make sure the memo is well organized, which means checking for how material is ordered and how it is focused. Have you arranged your ideas so they unfold in a logical way, one point from another; and do the points also move forward in a smooth way, one point to another? Which points get more emphasis and why? For example, is the longest point justified by its complexity or importance? Does your first point belong in first place because of its priority?

Now check for readability. Think hard about your audience. For whose eyes and ears do you write? Tune your text to the reader’s level of understanding. This step is important in situations where your memo will be sent to a client who may not have a sophisticated grasp of the law. If you write so that the client understands what you say, so will the partner and anyone else who has to rely on your work.

Your job in revising is to clarify and simplify. If a problem is complex, the better lawyer you are, the simpler you can make it. One of the best ways to test for clarity and simplicity is to read your work aloud. Your own voice easily can alert you to cumbersome language, wandering syntax, spelling errors and typos. Reading aloud also helps you test your work for conciseness; that is, economy of expression on the word and sentence level. You also should test for what we call “vitality” � the capacity your words have to move the reader not only through your text, but also to some conclusion and action. Passive voice, too many abstractions, dense blocks of quotations and citations � all these things slow the eye and slow the mind. Eliminate or reduce them now.

Make your words precise. Be critical of your sentences. If you read a sentence that is vague in its meaning, revise it. If you read a sentence and find yourself saying, “In other words . . . ,” sit down and rewrite the sentence in those other words.

Turn in your best written work and take full responsibility for it. Be neither surprised or chagrined if the final memo has undergone some revision � but be sure to find out why. Compare your version with the final one, and seek criticism from the partner directly or from an associate involved in the case. It is crucial for you to know when a change was made to correct an omission or mistake and when a change was made to reflect someone’s style.

Remember, a lawyer’s job is to tell a story based on fact and law. The best lawyers take complex concepts and communicate them clearly to the client or the judge. Sitting in a courtroom or a meeting, you can pick out the best lawyers by listening for the ones who can tell a story in a simple, clear way. No matter how much a lawyer knows, if the story is too complicated for the judge or client to understand, the lawyer has failed. Memos are no different. Your goal in writing a memo is to tell that simple story.