“Formal writing” does not mean gratuitously fancy writing; it means clean, clear, maximally considerate writing.
-David Foster Wallace
It took me a while to figure out that the client letter differs entirely from the legal research memo. The memo, typically aimed at a legal audience, is intended to convey a thorough, impartial, nuanced explanation of the law on a particular legal issue.
The client letter is a different animal. Assuming the client is not themselves a lawyer,* they likely do not want or need to gain a complete understanding of your full legal analysis. They are busy. They have their own lives and businesses to run. They assume you have the requisite knowledge. That’s why they hired you.
So the purpose of the client letter is not to convey everything you know but to help the client meet their objectives, whatever those may be. To achieve that purpose, I like to aim for “clean, clear, maximally considerate writing.” I believe the ideal client letter is:
Written in language your client understands;
Only as detailed as needed to help the client decide on their next step; and
Focused clearly on the client’s issues, as opposed to the law in general.
Below are my tips — honed after many years of writing overly lawyerly opinions — on how to write a client-focused client letter.
*Note that my advice here is less applicable when writing to clients who are lawyers or those (like claims examiners) who manage litigation for a living. That category of client may want to see your full analysis so that they can draw their own legal conclusions.
Scope
First off, you need to decide on scope. What kind of client letter will you write? A 2-pager, a 5-pager, a 10 pager? Just an email? Or a short letter that introduces and attaches a research memo?
To answer that question, think carefully about your client’s needs. What will your client need to do after reading your letter? Must they make a decision? Search for documents? Persuade a board of directors of a particular course of action? Set a budget? Adjust their expectations?
Choose a length and format that will most efficiently help the client to take that next step.
Opening
Your first sentence should state, in very plain English, exactly why your busy client should bother reading your letter. Announce, right off the bat, how your letter is going to help them with their legal problem.
I like openings like these:
I am writing to explain __
This letter sets out ____
You have asked for my opinion on ____
Here is a summary of ____
I am responding to _____
Your opening paragraph should also state — ideally in just a couple sentences — what your conclusion is going to be. This will help to orient your reader and prep their brain to digest the analysis that will follow.
Consider also a sentence or two to set the context. If you haven’t communicated with the client for awhile, or the client is managing multiple pieces of litigation, you’ll want them to get their bearings before they dive into the analysis. Something along these lines may help:
In our phone call last month, you asked for my opinion on ______.
Now that we have filed your response to civil claim, it is time to decide on ______.
As you know, the trial is scheduled for _____.
Facts
Your letter will need some facts to set the context for your analysis. The length of this section will depend on your client’s needs and objectives.
In a straightforward case where the facts are unlikely to be in issue, a short factual summary may be appropriate.
But in a factually messy case, a thorough chronology will serve several important purposes:
Set the context for your opinion;
Clarify the facts in the client’s mind (as this may be the first time the client sees the facts written out in chronological order); and
Reveal areas where facts are missing or unclear.
Preparing a chronology may feel burdensome, but you will probably use it again and again throughout the litigation (for preparing pleadings, applications, affidavits, future letters, etc.).
Discussion
Your discussion section should in no way resemble the analysis section of a research memo. Remember, your client knows you know the law. Don’t waste time trying to demonstrate the depth of that knowledge. Instead, use the analysis section to convey to the client what they need to know to achieve their objectives and nothing extra.
Aim to include enough detail so the client sees the logical basis for your conclusion and can make informed decisions about case strategy. But do not attempt to educate them on every aspect of the law. They probably do not want to pay you to do that.
Here are a few examples of legal nuance that your client may not require:
The name of the judge who decided each case
Whether an appellate decision involved a majority or unanimous opinion
The fact that leave to appeal a decision was denied by the SCC
The legislative history of a statutory provision or the name of predecessor legislation
The full text of the statutory provision (unless it’s short or highly relevant)
Orient your analysis to the client’s circumstances
We lawyers like to begin with a general statement of authority, followed by a discussion of how that authority has been applied in other cases, followed by the application of the law to the facts of the present case. Our brains are accustomed to digesting information in this fashion. But the non-lawyer client probably doesn’t want to read about an authority for several paragraphs before understanding how it affects their interests.
So before you discuss any case or statute, explain why it is relevant to the client.
Instead of:
In the 2021 case of _____, the Supreme Court of Canada determined that _____.
Try:
Your case depends on establishing that ____. Just last year, the Supreme Court of Canada addressed this issue in _____.
Instead of:
The tort of defamation has three elements …
Try:
To succeed on a defamation claim, you will have to show …
Instead of:
The Real Estate Development Marketing Act sets out the a developer’s obligations with respect to pre-sale agreements. .
Try:
You may have grounds to rescind your pre-sale agreement if you can show that the developer breached its obligations under the Real Estate Development Marketing Act.
Pare down the case law
Not every relevant case needs to go in your opinion letter. Before discussing a case, think about why you are including it and whether your client will find it helpful. For example:
If a case merely sets out a guiding principle, you might not have to mention it at all. Just state the guiding principle.
If several cases establish a line of authority, you might not need to name them all. Perhaps discuss the first one and then summarize the others. For example: “That decision has been followed in several other cases, including ___, which involved facts similar to your case.”
If there is nothing on point and just a bunch of potentially analogous cases, resist the urge to set out all the subtleties of the law in order to demonstrate why the outcome is so unclear. Most clients don't want that level of detail. They’d prefer a straightforward explanation of why you cannot accurately predict the result of their case. After a summary of the law, try something like this:
"Judges look at past decisions to determine how they should decide present cases. Here, there is no past decision that involves issues and facts that are the same as yours. That will require us to argue that your case is analogous to the ___ line of cases. Unfortunately, your case is uncertain because it’s difficult to predict whether a judge will agree your case is truly similar to those cases.”
If a guiding authority is based on a long history of cases, you can probably avoid getting into that history. Just discuss the most current authority.
For the junior lawyers reading this, I know what you're thinking. When you write a client letter, you're writing not just for the client but also for the senior lawyer who is going to review the letter and send it out under their name. Unless you’ve already written a research memo, one of the purposes of the letter is to communicate the law to the senior partner. It’s easy to fall into the trap of writing for the instructing lawyer rather than for the ultimate client. I’ve been guilty of this many times. I would suggest this: discuss your approach with the senior lawyer. If you want to memorialize your legal research, but feel that detailed legal analysis would clutter up your client letter, suggest that the in-depth analysis go either in an accompanying memo or in lengthy footnotes (the footnoted version would be for the file, the clean version would go to the client).
Make it readable
For some clients, your letter is one of the only pieces of legal analysis they will ever read. Be considerate of their time and energy by using these tools to help them follow your chain of reasoning:
Plain language — Use legal terms sparingly and define them where necessary. Avoid clunky legalisms, like “hereinafter” and “aforementioned”. Eliminate the formal language: remember that “car” is better than “vehicle” and “signed” is better than “executed”.
Headings — As with any type of legal writing, headings provide a useful roadmap for your reader as she navigates your legal analysis.
Topic sentences — To make your analysis flow, begin every paragraph with a topic sentence. That topic sentence should do two things: telegraph what the paragraph is going to be about, and signal how the paragraph relates to the last one. This will help the reader to move easily from one idea to the next.
Of course, these tools are helpful for any reader, including judges and other lawyers. In my view, they are particularly important in a client letter.
Omit the citations
This is my favourite part of client letters - you can (and usually should) omit the citations.
For lawyers, citations provide a lot of information in a tidy package — the date of the decision, the level of court, and where the case can be found. But for those without legal training, citations are meaningless and confusing and do nothing but slow them down. So get rid of them! If you do want to convey some case information, do it in an explanatory way: e..g., “This is a recent decision of the Court of Appeal, BC’s highest court.” Wordier than a citation, yes, but also more comprehensible.
If, on the other hand, you happen to have a client who is interested in the law and likes to look up cases, then by all means, include the citations (and be sure to insert hyperlinks to CanLII).
Closing
I like to call this section “Conclusion and Next Steps” or “Conclusion and Recommendations.”
This section should contain not only your legal conclusions but also your practical recommendations. Identify the client’s next steps that they should take after reading the letter (even if that’s just to set up a phone call with you).
Be thoughtful with your tone. Convey that you understand your client’s goals or needs and that you have their best interests at heart. If you’re delivering bad news, acknowledge that the client will be disappointed. In short — it’s okay to show you are a human being! The client (or their representative) is a human being too, and the opinion letter is an opportunity to connect with them.
As the great Bryan A. Garner has said, a thoughtful opinion letter in plain English that “shows both care and warm interest in the client’s affairs … can help cement the lawyer-client relationship.”
