Legal Research Memorandum

Overview

A large component of your course grade is the Legal Research Memorandum. For this component, prepare a detailed analysis of approximately 6-8 pages, exclusive of citations and introductions, of a major appellate opinion and an important legal matter (changes in the law, new regulations, etc.) as if you were briefing a senior management echelon concerning this issue.

Select a field of law of personal interest to you (professionally or simply personally) that also relates to our overall course objectives, that is, somehow relating to any matters concerning the professional obligations and/or expectations and/or business activities of engineers. Please note I do NOT assign any specific field or case to you; I encourage you to do your own selection albeit I am available to confer and assist.

Use any search engine you are comfortable with to locate a suitable appellate opinion. You are also strongly encouraged to actually visit (virtually or in person) a law library or general reference library containing legal reference selections (e.g. legal encyclopedia or regional case reporters). Even Google Scholar, let alone www.findlaw.com and many others, can quickly locate current, interesting materials. Locating an abundance of suitable cases, in the cyber era, is easy and direct once you have identified an area of interest.

Appropriate judicial holdings include those of the US Supreme Court, highest appellate tribunals of the states or state intermediate appellate courts, or of the Federal courts of appeal. I recommend that you NOT select “landmark” cases for which there is either too much complexity or too much scrutiny already (e.g. Roe v. Wade). If you locate a case from a more obscure tribunal (e.g. Board of Contract Appeals), reach out to me first.

I do not reward verbosity or prolixity! Concise analyses, properly crafted and lucidly discussed, are preferred. Your entire project need not (and should not!) exceed 6 to 8 pages, double- spaced typed, exclusive of footnotes, if any. Longer papers should be on a par with Oliver Wendell Holmes and John Grisham. “Filler” will meet with an icy, cold reception!

Guidelines

Your objective is to prepare a legal memorandum at the request of the senior management echelon of your employer. You have been asked to brief your peers and colleagues on an important legal case. But to keep it in layman’s terms, you, and not the employer’s attorney, are to prepare a memorandum which in turn will serve as the basis for an oral presentation. Your audience, therefore, are non-lawyers. Presentation slides are not required for this assignment, albeit you may prepare a few if you wish.

Please prepare your opinion analysis along the following briefing lines, more or less:

1. Identify the case clearly (including tribunal and date).
2. Summarizethefactsverybriefly:o What is the basis for the legal dispute before the court?o In sum, what is this case all about in its distilled essence?
3. Discuss the court’s holding.
4. Analyzethetribunal’sanalysis:

o How did the court justify its holding (and were there any dissents filed?)?
o What was the stated relationship between the key facts cited and the applicable law used by the majority court opinion?

5. What does this case have to say to us about the legal “big picture”, that is, how does this case conform to or fit into the wider body of relevant law and precedents. Lessons learned? Impact on employer or governmental behavior? Clearly, items #4 and #5 are the heart of this memo and should be the focus of your major efforts. In other words, what is the significance of this case?

Writing Style

While you are expected to adhere to the usual rules of academic integrity, especially attribution of sources, you may select any writing style with which you are comfortable, including APA (guide provided in Module 3). I am agnostic to afford you the latitude you require to fortify your best writing techniques. Please note there are formal legal rules of citations used in legal proceedings; you see them in the text and cases. For purposes of my course and legal citations, you may use a “shorthand” if you are quoting directly from a case repeatedly and don’t wish to restate the entire citation. For example, Tom v. Jerry, p. 12. Otherwise, please use whatever conventions you have adopted.