489: A Legal Writing Makeover (Part 1 - The Issue Statement) - The Law School Toolbox Podcast: Tools for Law Students from 1L to the Bar Exam, and Beyond

Episode Transcript
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Lee Burgess (00:01):
Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast.
Today, we are starting a four-part"Quick Tips" series in which we will
complete a full legal writing makeover.
Your Law School Toolbox hosts are AlisonMonahan and Lee Burgess, that's me.
We're here to demystify the lawschool and early legal career
experience, so you'll be the bestlaw student and lawyer you can be.

(00:22):
We're the co-creators of the Law SchoolToolbox, the Bar Exam Toolbox, and the
career-related website CareerDicta.
Alison also runs TheGirl's Guide to Law School.
If you enjoy the show, please leavea review or rating on your favorite
listening app, and check out our sisterpodcast, the Bar Exam Toolbox podcast.
If you have any questions, don'thesitate to reach out to us.
You can reach us via the contactform on LawSchoolToolbox.com,

(00:42):
and we'd love to hear from you.
And with that, let's get started.
Welcome back.
This episode is Part 1 of a four-partseries called "Legal Writing Makeover".
In this complete series, we will takea poorly written piece of legal writing

(01:02):
and transform it into legal writingA+, one section of IRAC at a time.
We will also give you some generallegal writing tips that you can use
to self-edit your legal writing.
But before we jump into ourmakeover, let's set up the situation.
You are responding to a short-answerquestion on an exam that asks
whether there is an enforceablecontract against the buyer.

(01:25):
The facts indicate that the buyer andseller agreed via phone, that the seller
would sell the buyer a boat for $400,000.
However, after this phone conversation,the buyer sent a signed letter to the

seller stating (01:38):
"I have run into some financial difficulty and will not be able
to honor our agreement to buy your boatfor $400,000." The seller now wishes to
enforce the contract against the buyer.

Again, the prompt asks (01:51):
"Is there an enforceable contract against the
buyer for the sale of the boat?"
Let's take a look at our response tothis question that could use a makeover.

The response states (02:02):
"The issue is whether there is a contract
for the sale of the boat.
The formation of a contract requiresa mutual assent, which involves
both a valid offer and acceptance,consideration or a bargained-for exchange
involved, and a lack of any defensesto the formation of said contract.
The UCC Article 2 is thepresiding contract law concerning

(02:25):
any sale of moveable goods.
The UCC likewise has a statute offrauds provision, which requires that
a contract concerning moveable goods ofover $500 be written on paper in writing.
Here, the buyer and the seller had aconversation on May 1st, where they
agreed to the sale of the boat for$400,000 and agreed that the seller

(02:45):
would deliver the boat to the buyer'shouse on May 4th, which the buyer
would then pay the purchase price.
This agreement indicates a mutualassent and a consideration, and
has no defenses to formation.
However, because the boat is amovable good over $500, therefore
the statute of frauds requiresthe contract to be in writing.
The buyer signed a letter andmailed it to the seller, indicating

(03:09):
he did not want to buy the boat.
This letter satisfies the statute offrauds requirement and would be an
enforceable contract against the buyer."
Whew!
Okay, let's start with whatis working in this answer.
The author generally usedIRAC to structure the answer.
The author also stayed mostlyon topic and eventually answered

(03:29):
the exact question in the prompt.
Unfortunately, it is a bit ofa hull to get to that answer.
So, let's break this down usingIRAC and make it easier to
immediately spot that this authorknows the answer to the question.
Let's start with the "I" inIRAC, or issue statement.

The answer states (03:47):
"The issue is whether there is a contract for the
sale of the boat." Well, kind of.
Remember specifically what the promptasks: "Is there an enforceable contract
against the buyer for the sale ofthe boat?" Whether the question
asks about enforcing the contractagainst the buyer or the seller may

(04:09):
be an important detail in a questionthat raises the statute of frauds.
This brings us to our first generallegal writing tip: When you are
writing your issue statement, makesure to capture all details that
are relevant to your analysis.
Here, we are only analyzingthe enforceability of the
contract against the buyer.

(04:29):
And we must make sure to include thatdetail as part of our issue statement.
For example, we could amend this issuestatement to say: "The issue is whether
there is an enforceable contract againstthe buyer for the sale of the boat."
That issue statement is a perfectlyaccurate re-write of the question prompt,

(04:50):
but is there a way to make it better?
Absolutely!
Here is the bad news - if you are writinga law school exam or a bar exam answer,
the grader is unlikely to award pointsfor accurately re-writing the question.
So, rather than wasting time writinga sentence that does not earn points,
let's talk about how to earn points,or at the very least, earn the trust of

(05:11):
your grader with your issue statement.
This brings us to our second legalwriting tip: Use your issue statement to
identify the specific issues that you mustdetermine to answer the question prompt.
If you must determine more thanone issue, break each issue into
individual mini-IRAC sections.
We will talk more about how touse mini-IRAC in Part 2 of this

(05:32):
"Legal Writing Makeover" series.
But let's identify the majorissue or biggest potential
problem with this contract.
It is subject to the statute of frauds,so we must determine whether we have a
writing that satisfies the statute offrauds for the purposes of enforcing
the contract against the buyer.
Given the buyer's follow-up letter tothe seller, you could write your issue

statement as follows (05:53):
"The issue is whether the buyer's letter to the seller
is a sufficient writing to satisfythe statute of frauds and enforce the
contract against the buyer." Again,the simpler issue statement re-writing
the prompt is not wrong, and it isa fine issue statement to which to
resort if you are pressed for time.
But you will likely earn more pointsand make a better impression with

(06:16):
your grader by writing an issuestatement that identifies the specific
major issue raised by the prompt.
That wraps up Part 1 of our"Legal Writing Makeover" series:
how to fix your issue statement.
We hope that this episode helps youunderstand how to earn points on an exam
by writing specific issue statements.
In Part 2 of our "Legal WritingMakeover" we will continue working

(06:39):
through the answer given above,tackling our rule statement.
Rule statements are extremely important,because they impact the rest of your IRAC.
So, make sure to look out for Part2 of our "Legal Writing Makeover"

series (06:51):
how to fix your rule statement.
If you enjoyed this episode of theLaw School Toolbox podcast, please
take a second to leave a review andrating on your favorite listening app.
We'd really appreciate it.
And be sure to subscribeso you don't miss anything.
If you have any questions orcomments, please don't hesitate
to reach out to myself or Alisonat lee@lawschooltoolbox.com or
alison@lawschooltoolbox.com.

(07:13):
Or you can always contactus via our website contact
form on LawSchoolToolbox.com.
Thanks for listening, and we'll talk soon!

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489: A Legal Writing Makeover (Part 1 - The Issue Statement)

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