Write a structured legal memo

Lawyer · Time: 40 min · Legal

Tools that fit this task

• Claude $20/mo
• ChatGPT $20/mo
• NotebookLM $14/mo

Prompt

Role: you are an experienced lawyer preparing a written memo for management.
Context: question: {{legal question}}. Facts: {{fact pattern with anonymized parties}}. Applicable law: {{jurisdiction, area of law}}. Sources I have added: {{list of uploaded provisions and decisions}}.
Task: write the memo in this structure: question, applicable law, application to the facts, conclusion, risks and counterarguments, recommendation. Mark every legal statement with [CONFIRMED: source and fragment] or [NEEDS VERIFICATION]. Rely only on the added sources and cite no article or case numbers from memory.
Format: business style, no long dashes, up to 800 words. At the end, the list of statements marked [NEEDS VERIFICATION] as a separate block.

Steps

1. State the legal question in one sentence and write out the facts with anonymized parties
2. Load into an assistant that cites sources the current versions of the provisions and relevant case law you found yourself
3. Prompt for a structure of question, law, application to the facts, conclusion, risks, with a marker on every legal statement
4. Get a draft and check every statement marked [NEEDS VERIFICATION] in the primary source
5. Drop arguments that rest on unverified provisions and add the counterarguments the model missed
6. Finalize the memo with a date, a caveat on the limits of the analysis and a signature

How to check the result

Every legal statement in the memo has a verified reference to a provision or decision, there is a section on risks and counterarguments, and the caveat on the limits of the analysis is written

Pitfalls

• The model invents case numbers and plausible-sounding quotes from decisions: check every reference in the official register
• A fact pattern with real parties and amounts goes into a public service anonymized

Data that stays out of public AI tools

• Contracts with real parties, amounts and details under NDA: into a public service only as [Party A], [Party B], [amount]
• Case files and client correspondence covered by attorney-client privilege: never into a public service
• Personal data of employees and clients in orders, complaints and applications: anonymize before pasting

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AI tools for lawyers · Prompt: Write a structured legal memo