How to produce a Legal Report ( Regarding its Framework )

In the legal profession, specially in the advisory field, it is a fact most of the times a lawyer will be required to undergo a legal analysis of a concrete operation or a client investment opportunity which can potentially acquire legal relevance should compliance issues confront it.

In such scenario, in my experience as a junior, I have come up with a general understanding on what the legal department seeks to find in these kind of reports, which kindly , but in a rush, end up in your to-do tasks.

As such, I will be dividing this discussion into different blog entries studying the main points to consider when writing a legal report.

Regarding the Framework

• Know the Purpose of the report.

In order to set the aim of the report, it is required to clearly understand what line of argumentation you will legally support. However, as of every legal question, different perspectives to the same case are a fact. In this scenario, you do not want to produce a legal analysis built around opposite interests to your client's needs, you want to state such probable obstacles by stating them while including legal arguments to override such hypothetically happening conclusions. In addition, you must seek for strong legal arguments to support the view of the client, and connect it with the legal trend and legislation, which translates into displaying case law and sustantive law, with the aim to cover feasibly and legally every risk associated to the operation being studied.

• Know the Deadline to produce it.

As obvious as it might seem, deadlines in our profession are crucial. Setting a hierarchy on the tasks you must do will allow you to organize and perform great on an activity like this one which takes a huge investment of time on learning about the topic and how to engage it from a legal point of view. You always want to be a step ahead your client needs, specially if the operation involves two parts, and you are looking to ask for concrete documents to the counter party to complete more proficiently your report.

• Know the Target's report.

Although similar in content, directing the report to a sponsor or to another lawyer from your firm will be radically different in form and style than that directed to the in-house department of the client's company. It is crucial to know in advance to whom the analysis will be sent, and adopt in consequence the correct speech, style, form, and conclusions, even the inclusion of slide presentation alongside the report.

Next post will be dealing with the Structure of the Report.