Jagged Rocks of Wisdom - The Memo: Mastering the Legal Memorandum

This book focuses on one of the most complex aspects of professional work for a new attorney: researching, drafting, and refining the crucially important legal memorandum. It is difficult to convey to a non-lawyer just how stressful the world of the new law associate is-the nearest comparison is to that of the medical resident-and much of the reason for that stress is the legal memorandum, upon which a client's fate can rest (along with the associate's).

This book breaks the process of the legal memorandum into "21 Rules." By design these rules are conflicting and even internally inconsistent-just as with the practice of law itself (and one of Lund's first points about legal memoranda). In this, the only book available to the new attorney on the proper approach to legal memoranda, the mysteries are revealed. The process and survival will be no less arduous, but with this book the journey will not be nearly as treacherous.

Morten Lund is a partner in the Energy and Telecommunications group of Stoel Rives LLP, where his practice focuses on the development and finance of renewable energy projects. Previously, Lund was a partner at Foley & Lardner, LLP. Born in Oslo, Norway, Lund is a graduate of Yale Law School.

Lund is the author of Jagged Rocks of Wisdom: Professional Advice for the New Attorney.