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Just Memos: Preparing for Practice, Seventh Edition

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Authors
  • Laurel Currie Oates
  • Anne Enquist
  • Jeremy Francis
  • Amanda Maus Stephen
Series / Aspen Coursebook Series
BOOKMARK
Book length
344 pages
Publication Date
2025-09-15
Edition
Seventh Edition
Description
Table of contents
Preface

Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on Casebook Connect, including academic lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities. Access also includes practice questions, an outline tool, and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes.



Focusing on the process of writing both formal and less formal legal memos, Just Memos employs the same accessible approach that makes the authors’ flagship title, The Legal Writing Handbook, a perennial bestseller. Just Memos will help students transition from academic writing to legal writing with an introduction to the U.S. legal system, legal research, and legal analysis and reading. In addition, this concise text walks students through the process of writing predictive memos, e-memos, and opinion letters.   

New to the Seventh Edition:

  • Updated and expanded sections on bias-free language throughout the book.
  • Updates and advice about the use of Generative AI in the legal writing classroom and the practice of law.
  • Revised sample memos.

Professors and students will benefit from:

  • Helpful overview of the U.S. legal system.
  • Step-by-step instruction on how to write formal memos, e-memos, and opinion letters.
  • Numerous examples, including examples of completed memos.
  • Provides unique coverage and focus on memo writing.
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Table of Contents
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

Contents 
Preface 
Acknowledgments 

Part I: Introduction 
Chapter 1: Making the Transition 
Chapter 2: The United States Legal System 
Chapter 3: Mandatory vs. Persuasive Authority 
Chapter 4: Reading Statutes 
Chapter 5: Reading Cases
Part II: Legal Research 
Chapter 6: Primary Authority 
Chapter 7: Secondary Authority 
Chapter 8: Finding Tools 
Chapter 9: Citators 
Chapter 10: Developing Effective Research Strategies 
Part III: Formal Memos, E- Memos, and Advice Letters 
Chapter 11: Drafting Memos 
Chapter 12: Getting the Assignment 
Chapter 13: Drafting the Heading and Statement of Facts 
Chapter 14: Drafting the Issue Statement and Brief Answer 
Chapter 15: Drafting the Discussion Section 
Chapter 16: Drafting the Formal Conclusion
Chapter 17: Revising, Editing, and Proofreading the Memo 
Chapter 18: Drafting Memos Requiring Other Types of Analysis 
Chapter 19: E- Memos 
Chapter 20: Drafting Advice Letters 

Glossary of Terms 
Index
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Preface
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About the authors
Laurel Currie Oates

Laurel Currie Oates is a professor of law at Seattle University School of Law and has been the director of Seattle University’s Legal Writing Program since 1984. With Professor Anne Enquist, Professor Oates has authored five books on legal writing: The Legal Writing Handbook, which is in its fifth edition, and Just Research, Just Memos, Just Briefs, and Just Writing, which are in the fourth edition. Professor Oates has also authored numerous law review articles, including articles on legal reading, writing to learn, the transfer of learning, and the outsourcing of legal work.

Professor Oates is also one of the co-founders of both the Legal Writing Institute and APPEAL, an organization that provides opportunities for academics in Africa and the United States to share ideas about helping students, lawyers, advocates, and judges improve their writing. During the last five years, Professor Oates has worked in Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Afghanistan, and India, providing workshops on effective writing.

In June 2007, Professor Oates received the Burton Award for Outstanding Contributions to Legal Writing Education at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and this year she received the Marjorie Rombauer award from the Association of Legal Writing Directors.

Anne M. Enquist

Professor Enquist has been a member of the legal writing faculty and the Writing Advisor at Seattle University School of Law since 1980. She serves as the Director of Seattle University's nationally ranked legal writing program. As the Writing Advisor, she works one-on-one with law students on their legal writing. She is the co-author of five books and the author of numerous articles about legal writing. She has served on the national Board of Directors for the Legal Writing Institute, and in 2007, she received the American Association of Law Schools Legal Writing Section Award. In 2014, she received the William Burton Award for Legal Writing Education. Her research and scholarly interests concern all areas of legal writing, particularly diagnosing student writing ability, critiquing law students' writing, and writing issues that affect ESL law students.

Jeremy Francis
Michigan State University

Professor Jeremy Francis is Clinical Professor of Law and Writing Specialist at Michigan State University College of Law. He works in tandem with MSU Law's Research, Writing & Analysis instructors to reinforce first-year students' grammar and punctuation skills and to teach students the conventions of legal style. His workshops, optional seminars, and one-on-one instruction sessions help prepare students to pass a required proficiency test by the end of their first year.

Professor Francis taught prospective English teachers through Michigan State University's Teacher Education and English departments before joining the MSU College of Law in 2006. He received his Ph.D. in Critical Studies in the Teaching of English from MSU in 2007 and an M.A. in Education from the University of Denver in 2003.

Professor Francis won the Legal Writing Institute's Deborah Hecht Memorial Writing Contest Award in 2010 for his article "Finding Your Voice While Learning to Dance" and again in 2014 for his article "The Silent Scream: How Soon Can Students Let Us Know They Are Struggling?" The award is given every other year to the legal writing specialist who publishes the best article or essay on the topics of effectiveness, clarity, and writing style.

Amanda Maus Stephen

Professor Stephen is an Assistant Teaching Professor at her alma mater, the University of Washington School of Law, where she teaches Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing to first-year law students. After graduating with honors in 2010, she clerked for several judges on the Washington State Court of Appeals. She also managed a solo legal practice, focusing on appellate law and providing freelance legal research and writing services for attorneys.

In 2019, Professor Stephen joined Seattle University School of Law as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Lawyering Skills, a position she held until joining the University of Washington faculty in 2022. She is an active member of the Legal Writing Institute and the Association of American Law Schools’ Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research Section. A frequent presenter at regional and national legal writing conferences, her scholarship includes articles and presentations on bias in legal writing, generative artificial intelligence, and promoting mindfulness in the classroom.
Product Information
Edition
Seventh Edition
Publication date
2025-09-15
Copyright Year
2026
Pages
344
Connected eBook with Study Center + Paperback
9798894107714
Connected eBook with Study Center (Digital Only)
9798894107721
LLPOD
9798894107745
Audiobook
9798899631665
eBook + Study Center + Audiobook
9798899632914
Subject
Legal Writing
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