Lego memos

 Why we write them?

 Who do we write them too?
o You want to know about the case law.
o Starting point for someone else to look for research.
o You have to know what the elements are in your complaint…you need a frame of
reference.
o Shelf life. No need to reinvent the wheel.
o Audience: someone who knows the law more than you do…. But someone who doesn’t
really know the facts. You might want to include some vocab words the partner may not
know.
o In a legal paper you are essentially a teacher in the memo. Memos are meant to provide
information.
o Certain amount of redundancy.

P. 38 LRW book

 Pg. 67 Lawyers craft

 Remind of three things: 1) who is our client? 2) why has the client come to the law firm? 3)
What your memo address.
 Facts: no bullet points! Be careful in including too many facts. Facts are issue indicators. Our
natural tendency is to think a fact is an issue indicator.
 Discussion then is the meat of your memo. You need to have a roadmap for the discussion. After
the roadmap, you are going to write: IRAC.

After slideshow:

 What is the major rule based on the invasion of privacy?

o Start: invasion of privacy has four subsets two of them are not recognized in North
Carolina law. Of the two that are left 1) misappropriation of one’s life for commercial
appropriations (don’t need to talk about this) 4) this leaves intrusion into seclusion.
Then, Webster does or does not have the ability to sue.
o One thing we learn about the law is how elastic words are.
o We need to have context for our rule: how has the court applied it in the past so we
understand what we are doing? Our rule then becomes a continuum. (Example in
class=”sexual relations” no/yes endpoints). You need to know the range of conduct. You
give a rule, and then endpoints. That’s why you need the entire rule (what happened in
all the case) then what is/is not actionable in the case.