Week Three, Part 5 - Legal Writing: Memo Re Underage Drinking

I'm early to Legal Writing, a class which meets every Tuesday and Thursday. The professor is Teresa Phelps, who holds three degrees from Notre Dame (BA, MA, PhD). She's stylish, dressed in a silk jacket and long skirt, and looks to be about 50. Her blond hair is cut short over the ears and combed straight back in a style best described as “miniature Golden Dome.”

Last week on the first day of class, Phelps introduced herself. “I grew up in Philly and have three children, ages 30, 28, 26, and three grandchildren. And I’m probably the only person who’s been on both Jeopardy and American Bandstand.” She alluded to her son-in-law, baseball pitcher Jamie Moyer. “ERA has a whole different meaning in my discourse community than for him.” She neglected to mention her husband, ESPN commentator Digger Phelps. And she said nothing about her memoir, The Coach’s Wife, though it’s displayed front and center in a lighted bookcase outside the dean's office.

Today's topic is the "office memo," an analytical document mixing fact and law. Professor Phelps tells us we will write three of them during the semester.

“In a law firm, office memos are used to translate a client question into a legal one,” Phelps says. “They’re often written by associates to someone higher in the firm who will make a decision about how to handle the case.”

Using an overhead projector, Phelps shines a sample memo on the front screen. There’s an objective listing of facts, a paragraph stating the legal issue and answer, then a section of analysis.

Eureka! Facts-issue-holding-analysis. The pattern of an office memo echoes the case briefs we write for Torts, Crim, CivPro, and Contracts.

Phelps recites a series of hypothetical facts for us. “Teaching Assistant Mike Starzan invited his Legal Writing class over for a drink. They in turn told undergrads to come. Two hundred people showed up! Beer was sold at three dollars per cup. Nobody was checking ID’s. The law students discussed legal writing. After complaints by some neighbors, the police arrived and arrested 20 students for underage drinking. Mike Starzan comes to your office and asks two questions: ‘Am I personally liable?’ and ‘Is Notre Dame liable?’”

The class is silent. Phelps has draped the lawyer’s mantel on our shoulders. For the first time, a client wants our legal opinion.

Phelps points to a girl on the front row. “In this legal scenario, what’s your source of primary authority?”

“Some kind of liability law?”

“Good. An Indiana statute. Since this assignment is closed universe, I’ll give you a copy of the law. As you write your memo, be careful. There are ambiguities in the language.”

Phelps moves away from the lecture desk. “I operate on the assumption that all of you come to Notre Dame Law School with good writing skills. In no way is Legal Writing a remedial course.”

She's clever, I think, giving us both a compliment and a little warning.

Phelps adds, “'Office memo' is a deceptively simple title for a formal document. Writing it will be the hardest thing you do this semester.”

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