Legal
Writing Class Notes
A visit from Lexis
How
can you do research with Lexis? Search
Advisor is cheaper than some other searches.
Start
out with secondary sources. Don’t rehash
some analysis that has already been done.
Research
the law while focusing on the facts.
Focus on the law of the jurisdiction you’re interested in.
The initial searches focus on finding the appropriate terms of art that you’ll
need to find the right cases.
Never
stop with the Search Advisor! Make sure
you haven’t missed anything!
Once
you find a good case, there are five ways to find more supporting
authority. You can search by headnotes,
for example.
When
you Shepardize a case, you want to answer the question: “Is this case citable
for my reasons?”
A
law firm would expect you to make sure there is no stone unturned. Pick the smallest source you can because it
will save you money.
The office memo assignment
Sheets is important. Don’t look for statutes. Just look at case law. An office memo is informative, not
persuasive. You’re just trying to advise
the supervising attorney of the law. How
many cases does she want us to cite?
Five or six.
You
must synthesize the rule of law. Take
the synthesized rule from the various cases and then apply it to the current
set of facts.
Start
with an umbrella rule. This rule very briefly explains all of the rules you’re going to
discuss. When you get to your
discussion, start out with an abbreviated discussion of the components of the
rule you’re going to discuss in your outline.
Then go through your outline like A, B, C. Do the rule for each component, then the rule
explanation, and then the analysis. Then
go to your second component, rule explanation, and analysis.
But
the umbrella rule, if separated into three things, should synopsize the rule of
law you’re about to discuss in the discussion.
What
other questions? The conclusion doesn’t
need to be a long section. What’s the
difference between the “brief answer” and the “conclusion”? The brief answer is shorter.