One of the foundations of the practice of law is the legal memorandum. Legal memos provide an objective summary and analysis of relevant legal principles, statutes, regulations, case law, and other legal content when applied to a specific set of facts.
Legal memos involve extensive research, legal reasoning and meticulous drafting. Moreover, lawyers are typically juggling multiple cases and client deadlines at once, which often makes the time-consuming process of writing legal memos feel like a heavy burden on the day’s project list.
The rise of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) tools within the legal profession is poised to significantly impact how we write legal memos. These Legal AI products — Gen AI tools trained for the legal profession — can empower lawyers to draft legal memos faster and more efficiently.
Anatomy of a Legal Memo
Legal memos can be instrumental for lawyers to organize their thoughts, conduct in-depth legal research and present their findings in a clear, concise manner. These documents play an important role in making informed strategic decisions, preparing for negotiations or litigation, or advising clients on the potential outcomes of their matters.
As a general rule, a good legal memo will include five key elements. First, a statement of the legal issue involved that provides a concise description of the specific legal problem that needs to be addressed. Second, a similarly concise description of critical facts. Third, an outline of applicable legal standards and rules. Fourth, an analysis of relevant laws and precedents, which is the crux of the memo and provides a comprehensive understanding of the legal landscape surrounding the issue at hand. Fifth, a conclusion that effectively summarizes the key takeaways.
Streamline Legal Memo Writing with Lexis+ AI
The process of drafting legal memos is an excellent use case for Legal AI tools. This presents an opportunity for you to reduce time spent on repetitive drafting tasks, freeing up more time to focus on core legal strategies, higher-level analysis, creative problem solving and client engagement.
Lexis+ AI offers advanced drafting capabilities that are specifically designed to assist lawyers in creating accurate and well-structured legal memos. Here’s how Lexis+ AI can help you streamline the way you write legal memos:
- Reduced drafting time
Lexis+ AI can analyze vast amounts of legal data to identify relevant case law, statutes, regulations, or other legal content, and then deliver a first draft of a memo that you can use as a starting point.
- Enhanced research capabilities
Lexis+ AI efficiently scans through legal documents, case law and other relevant materials to extract key points and identify supporting references. This expedites research and ensures objective analysis is backed by strong evidence.
- Improved consistency and accuracy
Lexis+ AI leverages a host of large language models in order to ensure consistent and reliable generative outputs grounded in the best and most comprehensive collection of legal content.
- Legal analysis
Lexis+ AI allows legal professionals to input narrow case details and legal questions, prompting the tool to conduct personalized legal analysis with the assistance of secondary materials and expert guidance materials. This produces a draft memo that addresses the specific aspects of the matter at hand.
The best Legal AI tools, such as Lexis+ AI, will make it easier for you to draft a well-structured legal memos in minutes. For example, you merely prompt Lexis+ AI with a fact pattern or context-driven legal issue and then watch as it seamlessly synthesizes key issues, facts, legal standards, and rules to deliver crucial analysis for your legal matter. The draft will even conform to standard formatting conventions, simplifying the design process so you can focus on substance.
Lawyers can leverage Legal AI to assist with legal memo writing by using the technology for efficiency and accuracy, while exercising their legal judgment and expertise to refine the final product. Click here to watch a brief video about how to draft a legal memo with Lexis+ AI.
Write Legal Memos Faster with Lexis+ AI
Lexis+ AI is our breakthrough Gen AI platform that we believe will transform legal work by providing a suite of legal research, drafting, and summarization tools that delivers on the potential of Gen AI technology.
Lexis+ AI pairs our unsurpassed legal content with breakthrough Gen AI technology in a way that could redefine the way that legal professionals work. Its answers are grounded in the world’s largest repository of accurate and exclusive legal content from LexisNexis with industry-leading data security and attention to privacy.
To learn more, view a video demonstration or request a free trial of Lexis+ AI, please go to www.lexisnexis.com/ai.
