law firm case study examples

Legal Case Study Interviews

Many commercial law firms require candidates to undertake a case study at the final interview stage. read our tips on how to shine.

There is not one single format, so it is worth asking the recruitment team what you can expect. Below are some general points and tips which have been put together from feedback from students who have gone through the process and what we have learned from law firms. If you need reasonable adjustments in the legal case study exercise, for health or disability reasons, make sure you talk to the recruitment team in advance about that. 

Legal Case Study and Commercial Awareness Exercises

Bear in mind that recruiters are always trying to improve their processes so it is likely that they will find new ways to assess candidates each year. It is therefore unlikely that you will find comprehensive resources to practise legal case studies in the same type of ways that you might for management consultancy case studies (in the consulting industry, case studies are extremely well established and follow a broadly similar format during the interview).

Generally speaking legal case studies are not intended to test out technical legal skills – this is partly because they need to be fair to both law and non-law students.  Instead they are more likely to test the skills required to be an effective lawyer within the world of (private practice) work. So focus your efforts on your specific law firm research, ways to demonstrate your motivation, and the practice of skills they are seeking rather than on preparing for specific types of exercises.

What Is Being Tested?

The following skills and attributes are likely to be tested throughout the interview process:

• commercial awareness – for example, are you thinking about the client and the issues they may be facing? Are you thinking of the law firm as a business?
• logical thinking – are you able to think in a structured way and use your common sense to arrive at a practical solution?
• analytical skills – can you identify the key issues from a lot of information, perhaps under time pressure?
• judgement – can you summarise the main points of the arguments and come to a conclusion given a certain set of facts?
• time management – can you manage your time effectively? Can you prioritise information and activity? Will you get flustered if presented with a large volume of unfamiliar  information to read?
• dealing with pressure  – can you work under time pressure and stay focused and effective? Can you deal with unfamiliar facts or people and stay calm?
• resilience  – how do you respond to being challenged? How do you respond when something does not go your way or in the face of a difficult problem? Can you defend your point of view?
• interpersonal skills – are you confident in what you are saying, are you collaborative, can you develop a good rapport and productive working relationships, do you listen well, are you open to feedback, do you have a positive attitude?
• communication – can you communicate equally effectively on paper (e.g. in writing a letter/email to a client) and face to face ( e.g. in making a presentation to a group)? Are you clear? Do you think about the tone and the reader/audience? Do you have a high standard of general literacy? Is your answer well structured, communicated in plain English and to the point?
• negotiation skills – are you clear about what you are trying to achieve and what, if anything you are prepared to negotiate on?  If you are acting on behalf of someone, are they clear about what you are doing?
• motivation – are you enjoying this even if you feel slightly nervous?

Types of Exercise and Tips for Managing Them

These exercises vary from firm to firm and can be part of an individual interview or a group exercise. The material could be given to you in any of the following formats:

• a paragraph which may be about a current affairs issue or something specifically legal: read and then discuss
• an article from, for example, the Financial Times : read and discuss/answer questions
• a one or two page client scenario with a question posed at the end. For example, 'should this new client be taken on?'
• Summary of the situation – could be in the form of an email or letter
• Client or competitor strategy
• Financial statements
• Information about employees/equipment/other assets (property)
• Contracts, leases, licences
• Litigation, possible actions, non disclosure
• Regulatory information

Tips for the paragraph and article exercises

• Read carefully
• Think about how you would summarise what the article is about in two or three sentences
• Think about the argument/point of view that is being voiced throughout the article. What would be the counter argument if you had to make it?
• Identify two or three key issues – think about political and economic aspects
• There may not be an obvious connection to the law firm. The interviewer may be wanting to stretch you intellectually and see how you think, and find out whether you have an opinion that you are able to defend
• If the article has been reproduced by the firm and is set out in numbered paragraphs, this is so that you can refer to the paragraphs by number in the discussion.

Tips for the client scenarios

Possible scenarios may include a client (or a potential client) who is considering merging or acquiring another company, or a client who is being acquired by a competitor or who is looking for some legal services. The amount of material and time you are given will determine the level of detail you are expected to cover.  In general it is advisable to cover as many aspects as you can broadly, rather than cover only one or two in great detail.

You may be asked a general question such as ‘what advice would you give to the client?’ or three or four specific questions. For the latter it is most important to address all the questions rather than focusing on the detail of one and ignoring others.

It is also very useful to have researched the firm carefully. By doing do you will know facts such as where the firm has offices located (useful when there are several jurisdictions involved in the scenario) and which practice areas it has (allowing you to suggest bringing in expertise from elsewhere in the firm if appropriate).

Tips for “bundle of document” exercises

Some firms will give you anything between 5 and 20 documents to read and answer one or more questions. You may be asked to give a short presentation followed by a discussion with the interviewer(s).

• Read the question(s) carefully and follow instructions
• Flick through quickly to establish the contents and make sure you look at the back page. You may even find an index to help you
• Take a minute to plan your time and leave enough to produce a presentation or at least review your thoughts before the interview
• Use a highlighter
• Identify key elements relevant to the question(s)
• Don’t forget to consider whether the deal should even be done. Is there a deal breaker? Is there another option?
• Consider risks to the client and/or to the firm. For example are there any reputational issues associated for either party? Is there any 'conflict of interest' for the firm?
• Structure the presentation: beginning, middle and end which should be short summary with recommendations. Be close to the maximum time allowed
• Be confident in your recommendations, even if you feel that your chosen line of argument is marginal. You can assess the pros and cons of a given situation, but conclude with “on balance, I recommend xyz”. Remember that solicitors are paid to make decisions and that clients need to trust their legal advisers to make them!
• Consider your audience
• Imagine this was actually a real situation at work where you were involved in working with this client – what would you really say to them?
• Check your grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Preparation

Here are some suggestions to help make you feel ready and confident to tackle these exercises:

• Make sure that you research the role of a solicitor carefully such that you have a realistic view of their daily work (in the relevant setting), their responsilbilites and activities and even an awareness of the SRA's Code of Conduct for legal service firms and individuals.
• Have a clear idea of the firm’s practice areas, what type of work they specialise in, where their offices are located, how they differentiate themselves from their key competitors and the challenges that law firms face.
• Read the firm’s annual report or review (and compare it to a competitor), follow their news on social media in the weeks ahead of the interview.
• Be aware of what is happening in the legal world.
• Keep up to date with current affairs including areas of business that interest you.
• Learn some basic business language, have a broad understanding of mergers and acquisitions and how they are structured. Know how to read a balance sheet.
• Be clear on the importance of technology for all businesses.
• Practise reading business articles in a set time and then summarise the key points.
• You may find it useful to become familiar with some basic analysis tools used in business such as SWOT and PESTLE as they may help you think of areas to consider in some responses.  Don't go overboard with these though as they might hinder your ability to write a clear and appropriate response if they are used incorrectly.
• Candidates can only be awarded marks for thoughts that are expressed in the interview, so get in the habit of talking through your thought process: thinking aloud. 
• Complete some of the exercises that firms offer in their online work experience/online internship schemes. Many are listed on Forage.

Resources for Building Commercial Awareness

All You Need To Know About The City by Chris Stoakes, and Commercial Law Handbook by Jake Schogger are useful preparation for understanding business terms, how deals work and general commercial awareness as it applies to the legal industry.

Useful websites include:

• LawCareers.Net commercial awareness hub and weekly round ups 
• Chambers Student: Commercial Awareness Resources - Legal Blogs
• Chambers Student: Legal industry trends
• UK Government guidance on how to set up a business
• BBC News: Business
• The Guardian's glossary of business terms
• How to Read a Balance Sheet (The Non-Boring Version)
• Virtual work experience programmes for several law firms including Linklaters, White & Case and Pinsent Masons are available on the Forage platform.
• legalfutures.co.uk – has a free newsletter rounding up key changes and news in the legal sector.
• Our self directed learning information pages contain resources for free online courses 

Building Your Commercial Awareness Skills at Oxford

• Attend skills sessions run by law firms online as well as those run by The Careers Service , the  Oxford Law Society , the Oxford Bar Society and the Law Faculty
• The Oxford Strategy Challenge – ideal for building up team work, commercial awareness and skills in working with business clients. Run regularly throughout the year (online).
• Develop your employability skills  – includes many ideas for building these at Oxford including practical suggestions for developing your “business awareness”.
• Presentation and other assessment centre skills advice
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Case Studies

Explore case studies of previous cases which Allan Rouben has represented. Find examples of case studies in all focus areas of law.

Legroulx v. Pitre: Striking Jury Notice, Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Rules of Civil Procedure

Background: A complicated action was proceeding in Ottawa before Justice Denis Power and a jury. The plaintiff’s injuries, arising out of a car accident, raised difficult issues of causation and required that complex medical evidence be heard. The plaintiff’s lawyers considered the medical issues were too complex for the jury and brought a motion to …

Legroulx v. Pitre: Striking Jury Notice, Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Rules of Civil Procedure Read More »

Lucia’s Case: Appeal, Civil Litigation, Jurisdiction and Forum non Conveniens

Background: Lucia resides in Ontario with her family, and was involved in a car accident in Michigan. She brought suit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against the driver and owner of the vehicle, as well as her own insurer given that the Michigan defendants claimed the accident was caused by an unknown vehicle. …

Lucia’s Case: Appeal, Civil Litigation, Jurisdiction and Forum non Conveniens Read More »

Patrizia’s Case: Appeals, Civil Litigation, Negligence and Minimum Maintenance Standards

Background: Patrizia was driving to work early on a snowy morning in April. The roads in Milton were snow covered and slippery. Weather forecasts from the day before predicted an 80% chance of snow, yet the Town of Milton had not scheduled an evening patrol to monitor the roads and clear the snow. Tragically, as …

Patrizia’s Case: Appeals, Civil Litigation, Negligence and Minimum Maintenance Standards Read More »

F.A.’s Case: Criminal Law, Appeals, Sexual Assault and Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

Background: F.A. worked in a medical facility with a much younger female co-worker. There was flirting between them. They went out together one evening, meeting up in a park and later driving around in F.A.’s car. He said he had a surprise for her at the office so they parked close by. Instead of going …

F.A.’s Case: Criminal Law, Appeals, Sexual Assault and Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Read More »

Clare’s Case: Labour Law, Duty of Fair Representation and Ontario Labour Relations Board

Background: Clare had been working for General Motors for 23 years before his termination. The company claimed that he had threated a supervisor after being told that a urine sample he had given was diluted. Clare denied the allegation and asked the Union, Canadian Auto Workers Local 222, to grieve the termination. He communicated frequently …

Clare’s Case: Labour Law, Duty of Fair Representation and Ontario Labour Relations Board Read More »

From blah to ah-ha! How to write law firm case studies that win new business

This post was first published on Law Journal Newsletters .

Visit any law firm’s website and you’ll find bulleted lists of representative matters and deals that look like this:

• Represented leading international retailer and several of its officers and directors in securities class action and shareholder derivative suits.
• Represented an investment fund in connection with a $500 million secured credit facility.

This might be the most wasted opportunity in the land of wasted opportunities called Law Firm Marketing. While laundry lists of every single matter an attorney has ever touched may be helpful on a resume, it’s much less effective for law firm marketing goals. 

Why is this? Buyers of legal services want to know:

• What a law firm or lawyer has done
• Who they’ve done it for
• Whether the law firm or lawyer can meet their specific needs
• How the firm is different than other competing firms

While the standard lists of representative matters and deal sheets may answer the first two questions, they fail on the last two (arguably the most important ones).

Instead of the “Did X for X” format, law firms must embrace a more strategic — and effective — approach by writing case studies in a “mini story” format that focuses on typical client pain points and illustrates the firm’s unique value propositions.

Consider the following examples. ( Full disclosure : My agency wrote these for one of our law firm clients .)

Law firm case study examples

Typical format:

• Filed patent applications for Fortune 500 company for a new product.

Revised format:

Drafting and Filing Five Patent Applications in Five Days

One of our large Fortune 500 clients came to us with a unique problem — a new product was shipping in a week and not a single patent had been prepared or filed for this invention. Our team quickly responded by traveling to the client’s office to collaborate with the inventors and in-house counsel. The technical expertise of our IP attorneys made it easy to get up to speed on the complexities of this unique technology and devise a patent strategy with a clear understanding of the client’s objectives.

Between the initial draft, review by inventors and in-house counsel and revisions, writing one patent application usually takes about two to three months and more than 20 hours. Our team tenaciously worked to complete five applications in less than one week. All five applications were turned into patents and since that time, foreign patents have also been filed. The product shipped on schedule and fully protected.

Yes, the firm filed patent applications. However, they did so under a tight timeline by drawing upon the unique background of their IP attorneys. Prospective clients are now aware of the firm’s nimbleness and ability to quickly turn around patent applications when needed.

Here’s another example:

• Expanded client’s patent portfolio in two key technology areas.

​Strategic Approach Enables Client to Dramatically Increase Annual Patent Filings

Our clients’ patent filing expectations change each year. Sometimes, they can change dramatically in response to product releases, mergers, acquisitions and the like. Recently, a client drastically increased its annual filing target in two key technological areas and turned to us to achieve its goal.

Our plan included leveraging two of the firm’s offices located close to the client’s site and identifying a select team of six attorneys well-versed in the client’s technology and procedures.

Our hand-picked team of attorneys converged on the client’s site for multi-day visits with inventors to fully develop filing strategies based on existing invention disclosure documents. In addition, our attorneys conducted extensive mining sessions with technology group leaders to identify additional patentable subject matter in key technological areas. By using this two-prong approach, we were able to rapidly expand the client’s patent portfolio in the key areas to accomplish its strategic goals. 

Takeaway: 

This case study allows the firm to showcase its ability to help clients when their business development needs change, as well as its strategically located offices and practice of digging deep to identify additional patentable inventions. 

3 best practices for writing law firm case studies

What do the above case studies do that most law firms’ representative matters lists fail to do? They are written according to three key best practices: 

1) Address the “how”

When writing a case study, dig to find out what was unique, innovative or beneficial to the client. 

Did any interesting, uncommon or complicated legal issues arise? Did the lawyers approach the work in a unique or particularly effective manner? How did the firm handle the matter in a way that another might not be able to? Why was the firm particularly well suited to solve the problem?

By showcasing how the work is done — versus simply stating that the work was done — law firms can illustrate their competitive differentiators in a powerful way.  

The 2019 Altman Weil Law Firms in Transition Survey found that “almost half of the firms in America cannot point to a compelling differentiator that would significantly elevate them above other firms in clients’ eyes.”

The finding isn’t surprising. Law firms are notorious in their inability to demonstrate how their services differ from peer firms competing for the same work. (A commitment to quality service and good client relationships are not differentiators). By addressing the “how” in your case studies, you’ll uncover — and communicate — competitive advantages that clients value. 

2) Follow the “so what” principle

People encounter hundreds of marketing messages every day. Senior executives are especially bombarded with countless sales pitches and bids for their attention. 

To ensure you are addressing a prospective client’s needs when writing a case study, ask yourself, “So what? Why would my client care? What’s in it for them?” By doing so, you’ll force yourself to consider the client and write from their point of view. This is the same question that reporters and editors ask when considering whether or not to cover a potential story. If there’s no answer to the “so what?” question, the story doesn’t get covered. 

The same Altman Weil study mentioned above, for example, found that 96% of law firm leaders agree that “a focus on improved practice efficiency is a permanent trend in the profession.” With such industry-wide agreement, it’s a pretty good bet that your clients care about efficiency, too. What case studies can you write that demonstrate your firm’s efficiency? What processes or structures do you have in place that you can describe?

That said, concerns vary from client to client. While most clients want relevant expertise, professional service and good communication, others might have different pressing priorities. In order to successfully answer “so what?” you must understand your clients’ individual priorities and concerns. 

3) Tell a story

I know you’ve heard this advice a gad-zillion times by now, but stories work. In fact, our brains are wired for them . 

When we read a bulleted list of facts (i.e., typical law firm representative matters), one part of our brain is activated: the language processing part, where we decode words into meaning. Nothing else is activated.

However, when we read a story, not only is the language processing part of the brain activated, but also every other area that would be activated if we experienced the story firsthand.

Consider the case study examples above. While the revised version is longer, which is more engaging? Is it the one with the narrative that pulls you in, or the one that states basic, dry facts of an engagement? The answer is pretty clear. 

To write in a story format, consider the journey or the steps the firm took to solve the client’s problem. This is where readers begin to identify and empathize. Whether we’re considering what to cook for dinner or a problem at work, we think in narratives — cause and effect. We’re constantly making up short stories in our heads.

So engage your prospective clients’ brains and tell them a story. They might actually read your case study, remember it and take action. 

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Michelle Calcote King is an award-winning marketer with nearly 20 years of expertise in all things marketing, content, media and public relations. Specializing in highly complex industries, she leverages superior writing skills, media savvy and a love of all things digital to move her clients' businesses forward.

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Case Studies

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Commercial Law Academy

Interview case studies.

This course talks you through 14 case studies based on actual commercial law interviews, including questions, answers and advice covering the role of law firms, pitching, written exercises, contract and legislation analysis, disputes, M&A, and more.

Course curriculum

Introduction to interview case studies.

What can case studies involve?

Structuring answers to case study questions

Introduction to case study frameworks

SWOT Analysis: reviewing a business' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

PESTLE Analysis: assessing the impact of external factors

Profitability Framework: understanding revenue, costs and profit

Porter's Five Forces: analysing the competitive landscape

Business Situation Framework: analysing businesses and their markets

M&A case study: a law firm's role on a transaction

Acquisition of a famous central London hotel

The key advisors involved

Private equity vs venture capital

Structuring your answer

Real estate

Intellectual property

Competition

Dispute resolution

Pitching a law firm to a client

Pitching Freshfields to FIFA - Question

Pitching Freshfields to FIFA - Answer

Why clients choose law firms: introduction

Why clients choose law firms: capabilities

Why clients choose law firms: reputation and experience

Why clients choose law firms: value for money

Why clients choose law firms: approach to building client relationships

Why clients choose law firms: values

Written exercises

Introduction to written exercises

Written exercises: case studies and commercial scenarios

Written exercises: writing and proofreading tests

Proofreading techniques

Proofreading checklist

Proofreading exercise: correcting typos

Proofreading exercise: spelling and grammar

Contract-based case study

Joint venture shareholders' agreement - Question

Joint venture shareholders' agreement - Answer

Joint venture shareholders' agreement - Advice

Legislation-based case studies

Dangerous Dogs Act - Question

Dangerous Dogs Act - Answer & Advice

Clean Air Act - Question

Clean Air Act - Answer & Advice

Dispute-based case studies

Commercial Law Books - Question

Commercial Law Books - Answer & Advice

Resolving a dispute - Quesion

Resolving a dispute - Answer

Scenario-based case studies

Scenario involving teamwork and conflict resolution - Question

Scenario involving teamwork and conflict resolution - Answer & Advice

Scenario involving balancing competing responsibilities - Question

Scenario involving balancing competing responsibilities - Answer

Other scenario-based interview questions and advice

Business case study

Setting up a football league in the Middle East

Strategy case study

GoodBattery - Question

GoodBattery - Answer

Market sizing and brainteaser case studies

Introduction to market sizing and brainteaser questions

How to approach market sizing and brainteaser case study questions

Market sizing case study example

Brainteaser case study example

Recommended resources

Training Contract Handbook

E-guide to commercial awareness

• 1.5 hours of video content

14 interactive law firm case studies

With background materials, model answers, detailed guidance, and animated video explanations

Why is this the best law firm interview case study resource?

In short, because we offer unparalleled detail and variety, covering a broad range of example case studies and key commercial topics.

Our case studies are closely based on those that City law firms have previously set candidates.

Includes a broad range of example questions and background materials, detailed model answers, and extensive advice on how to approach similar questions.

We’ve incorporated input from a range of City law firm partners/ex-partners, offering unique expert advice and insights.

Animated videos are used to explain complex concepts in a clear, memorable, and easily-digestible manner.

Offers practical advice on how to structure answers to case study questions, and insights into various case study frameworks.

Instructors

Commercial Law Academy Founder & Ex-Freshfields Lawyer Jake Schogger

Business writing expert John Trimbos

Ex-City law firm partner Laura Brunnen

Success stories.

Discover how our courses transformed Amy's approach to writing applications and helped her to secure a training contract

Course reviews

Hear what subscribers have said about this course

Just what I needed!

This course was just what I needed to prep for a partner case study. All the examples stuck in my mind vividly when I was prepping on the day and I'd highly ...

This course was just what I needed to prep for a partner case study. All the examples stuck in my mind vividly when I was prepping on the day and I'd highly recommend going over it a couple of times if you have a case study interview coming up.

The most helpful resource I've ever used.

Chloe taylor.

I previously struggled with how lawyers can practically solve their client's issues in case study exercises and this explains it all. I had a mock interview ...

I previously struggled with how lawyers can practically solve their client's issues in case study exercises and this explains it all. I had a mock interview after I'd done half of this course, and I really impressed my interviewer!

Excellent course

Eva burkhart.

This course is like a breath of fresh air: concise, informative, constructive and easy to understand. Having watched the first two lectures, I have acquired ...

This course is like a breath of fresh air: concise, informative, constructive and easy to understand. Having watched the first two lectures, I have acquired more knowledge than from the events I have attended and books I have read over the past 2 years. Thank you, Jake!

A great overview

Salma patel.

The course was in-depth yet concise at the same time and the info can be applied to any law firm case studies. Thank you.

Very useful for assessment centre preparation

Netty yasin.

This course provided really helpful explanations for how to approach a case study task and presentation. The section on a law firm's role in transactions was...

This course provided really helpful explanations for how to approach a case study task and presentation. The section on a law firm's role in transactions was particularly useful in understanding the roles of lawyers from different practice areas.

Concise, Informative, Essential!

Jonathan royal.

It can be really difficult to find a succinct and clear way of understanding exactly what different law firm departments will do on a transaction, in one pla...

It can be really difficult to find a succinct and clear way of understanding exactly what different law firm departments will do on a transaction, in one place. This course was so useful to clearly break down what each department will do, how they will coordinate with other departments, and the challenges they face. Completing this course helped me to understand the entire process, and allowed me to speak about this confidently at assessment centres, I would and do recommend this course to anyone!

Very useful

Costanza mosca.

Excellent course to help you approach case studies and analyse news articles

Fantastique!

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Legal case studies and written exercises

As part of the recruitment process, in this kind of exercise you are given a set of papers relating to a particular situation and asked to make recommendations in a brief report. The firm will pick a case study relevant to the work they do. You are provided with a large amount of factual information. 

The most common written exercise is writing a letter to a client on whether or not to proceed with a business proposal, once you have read the relevant documents. You may be asked to present advice to the client (usually played by a partner) or answer questions on the case. You are being tested on your ability to: 

• Analyse information
• Think clearly and logically
• Exercise your judgement
• Express yourself on paper/ present yourself to a client

Examples of exercises

• Investment project - given a bundle of documents including letter from the bank, background information on accounts. Should the client invest?
• Write a report summarising the information given about an energy firm wanting to take over an urban community regeneration scheme. Look at the strengths, risks, obstacles to scheme and suggestions about whether it should move forward.
• Given a lengthy consultant's report with half an hour to read and then draft a presentation recommending whether to go ahead on buying the company - followed by questions.
• The client, a steel company, is losing money due to a rival. There's also a proceeding against your client. The rival company is thinking of merging with / acquiring your client's company. Look at the extract of a contract between the client and the steel supplier and advise your client of the pros and cons regarding the proceeding.
• Given an accident and medical report and photos - written answers to a series of questions.
• Proposed M&A - pick out the relevant parts to read and then present to the interviewers on what you feel is the correct course of action.
• Legal interpretation question based on fictional health and safety legislation.
• Interpret a section of the mental health act - answer questions from the interviewer.
• Employment service contract - review in order to answer 10 set questions.
• Five passages to rewrite in layman's terms.
• Draft a letter of complaint to a local electrical store regarding faulty goods.
• Read a case study on police ill treatment and then draft a report on the legal matters arising from it.

Individual tasks

Candidates generally work independently on such an exercise and their recommendation or decision is usually to be communicated in the form of a brief written report and/or a presentation made to the assessors. Ensure your thought processes are clearly articulated and available for the scrutiny of the assessors. Of paramount importance, if the brief requires a decision to be made, ensure that a decision is made and articulated.

Group tasks

You may be asked to do a case study as a group. It is likely to be along the lines of the first two exercises in the example with information given to the group to sift through and pull out the key facts. At the end the group will be asked to present to the interviewers, outlining the issues involved and key recommendations and then take questions as a group.

Letter drafting criteria

If in the exercise you are involved in drafting a letter, as part of the assessment the interviewer will check that it:

• Protects the interests of the client
• Meets the client's objectives
• Addresses all relevant factual and legal issues
• Identifies relevant options
• Is logically organised
• Is consistent and coherent
• Is clear and concise

Other preparation

In addition to the general preparation your course provides, you could also:

• Find out what sort of cases your employer specialises in
• Practice a Watson Glaser test, a critical reasoning test often used by firms at assessment centres
• Practice 'skim' reading which is an important skill. This feedback from a candidate demonstrates this: 'The exercise was very time-pressured and I made the mistake of reading all of the information given before starting to write anything down. I got the impression that not all of the info was supposed to be relevant and that they were testing our ability to sift through written material to extract the most important things.'

Don't focus on the technicalities

Non-law students often do well on these exercises as they do not have the relevant knowledge of the law and so focus on sifting the information, whereas law students often get too involved with trying to understand the information in legal terms.

Useful Information

Related topics.

• All about law
• Chambers student
• The Law Society

Süleyman Beyaz Department of Social Policy

Law Careers

Applications and interviews for students with disabilities

February 13 2018

Law and legal services Information for LLM students

Law and legal services Providers of postgraduate courses in law

Law and legal services In-house law

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Law Firm Case Studies

From the courtroom to the boardroom, Cummins & White, LLP consistently wins cases.

Our team of experienced and talented lawyers share a breadth of knowledge and expertise that make us well-suited for most any kind of case, and our firm’s continued dedication to legal education means that we never stop learning how to tackle the evolving challenges of a constantly changing legal world.

Still, showing you how successful Cummins & White, LLP has been over the past six decades is a lot more effective than telling you. Our case studies — within the fields of Commercial Litigation, Commercial Transactions, Criminal Defense, Healthcare, and Insurance — help illustrate our diverse abilities and depth of creative solutions.

Commercial Litigation

Commercial Litigation encompasses a wide range of business-related disputes, including issues within the fields of Real Estate, Contracts, Business Liability, Employment, Class Action lawsuits, and much more. In our long history, Cummins & White, LLP has found inventive solutions both for businesses and for those adversely affected by them. As these case studies show, no case is the same, and neither are the strategies we’ve used to win for our clients.

Commercial Transactions

The intricacies of Commercial Transactions can make selling and acquiring assets, obtaining financing, or protecting one’s business into a complicated process. We help our clients obtain the results they need while ensuring the future of their businesses and investments. As our case studies show, we can help businesses big and small accomplish their goals.

Healthcare Legal

Healthcare is an industry that is constantly changing, and Cummins & White, LLP has the ability to navigate this evolving field with a balanced approach for all stakeholders. As these case studies show, we’ve tackled everything within the Healthcare Industry, from wrongful termination and breach of contract to defending the licenses of medical professionals and much more.

Insurance Legal

From defending our clients against fraudulent insurance claims to reclaiming property subrogations, Cummins & White, LLP has successfully defended and lead our clients through all aspects of Insurance Law. As our case studies show, our team’s extensive experience and applicable legal knowledge has consistently led us to success.

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About Harvard Law Case Studies

Case studies at harvard law school.

"[In 2004], Harvard Law School embarked on a major curricular review aimed at determining what changes might help us to prepare our students even more effectively for the complex global challenges of this new millennium."

--Supreme Court Justice and former HLS Dean Elena Kagan, 2007

One of the major initiatives that came out of this review was the Problem Solving Workshop, a required first-year program aimed at practical lawyering skills. View this short video about the Problem-Solving Workshop:

Harvard’s curricular review in 2004 challenged the accepted way of teaching law. In 2007, HLS Dean Martha Minow and Professor Todd Rakoff published these findings, "A Case for Another Case Method," in the Vanderbilt Law Review.

The Langdellian case method , which focused on "a retrospective view of facts," was falling short in teaching critical problem solving skills. What law school needed, according to Minow and Rakoff, was a new way to simulate “legal imagination.”

Minow and Rakoff wrote: "What [students] most crucially lack ... is the ability to generate the multiple characterizations, multiple versions, multiple pathways, and multiple solutions, to which they could apply their very well-honed analytic skills."

To that end, Harvard Law School instituted the Problem Solving Workshop, a required first-year course that teaches problem solving skills through the case study method . The Problem Solving Workshop encourages the use of case studies throughout the HLS curriculum.

Now, several faculty initiatives produce case studies at Harvard Law School.  

The Case Development Initiative 

The Case Development Initiative   creates case studies for J.D. and Executive Education classes. HLS faculty use case studies to teach a variety of legal topics, including career dilemmas that lawyers face and management issues that law firms and professional service firms experience. These case studies expose participants to real-world problems that lawyers and firm leaders confront, and help them work through possible approaches and solutions. CDI was founded by Professor Ashish Nanda and is now directed by Dr. Lisa Rohrer.

Great for: discussion-based case studies, law and business, management , professional development

Sample Teaching Units: Professional Development for In-House Counsel , Professional Development for Law Firms , Leadership

Additional Information:   The Case Development Initiative at Harvard Law School

Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program

The Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program , directed by Professor Robert Bordone , developed several role plays for an advanced negotiation workshop at HLS. The course, Multiparty Negotiation, Group Decision Making, and Teams , enables students to participate in and conduct complex, multiparty negotiations. "Lawyers and other professionals, irrespective of their specialty, find themselves party to negotiations with multiple (more than two) principals all the time," explains Bordone. "This course combines theory and practice to give students an opportunity to hone their skills in multiparty settings."  Students work in teams to address complex, global, and professional issues. The advanced workshop integrates intellectual and experiential learning by combining readings, lectures, and discussions with frequent exercises, extensive review, live and filmed examples, individual and small group reviews, and analysis of the negotiation process and the process of learning from experience.

Great for: role plays, multiparty negotiation, DVDs , mediation

Sample Teaching Units: Critical Decisions in Negotiation

Program on Negotiation 

Program on Negotiation materials use real events or fictionalized versions of events to teach negotiation and mediation theory, issues, and practice. These materials can take the form of a discussion exercise, a role playing game, a dilemma-based case study, or a factual account of a negotiation event. Events and historical contexts, such as the rise of organized labor in the United States, the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, and the history of Zionists and Arabs in the Middle East, catalyze discussion and debate on negotiation and dispute resolution.

Great for: role plays, historical case studies, negotiation, value-based conflict resolution, water rights and environmental management, examples of Great Negotiators

Sample Teaching Units: Mediating Value-Based Conflict

Problem Solving Workshop 

Problem Solving Workshop materials immerse students in the type of real-world problems faced every day by practicing lawyers. The case studies present the problem at hand and provide readings on related theory, excerpts of relevant law, and other illustrative documents, such as contracts and leases. Students complete team assignments and exercises that include tasks such as drafting a press release as general counsel of a toy company in trouble; determining, as an associate at a law firm, the possible actions open to a client facing a harassment change from a tenant; or deciding, as a new Assistant U.S. Attorney in New York, whether—and how—to charge someone with Section 8 housing fraud. Professors   Todd Rakoff   and   Joseph Singer lead the PSW teaching group, which develops new materials yearly.

Great for: workshop-based case studies , 1Ls, J.D. programs, lawyering, problem solving , free materials

Sample Teaching Units: Problem Solving Workshop , Advanced Problem Solving Workshop: Cyberlaw, Intellectual Property, and Internet & Society

Additional Information: Information Law and Policy: Advanced Problem Solving Workshop

Case Studies Program 

The Case Studies Program supports additional HLS faculty in developing case studies.

Great for:  discussion-based case studies

Sample Teaching Units:  Decision Making and Leadership in the Public Sector

Next:  The Case Study Teaching Method  >>

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How to Create An Effective Case Study for Your Law Firm

A case study is a self-contained explanation of how a client was able to prevail in a case with the help of a law firm. Well written case studies use a beginning, middle, and end to describe how the legal problem came to be, what the law firm did to help the client and the successful resolution of the matter. Displaying them on a law firm website and/or highlighting them in a social post boosts the firm’s authority and exhibit practical successes to potential clients. According to HubSpot , comprehensive case studies can help to convert and accelerate most online leads.

Tips to Create an Effective Law Firm Case Study

While there are many different ways one can go about writing a case study, be sure to include the following items in order to thoroughly assess the case and effectively entice your audience to learn more about the case and/or the firm:

Get Client Permission Before Writing

Because legal matters often deal with personal and/or sensitive information for the parties involved, it’s incredibly important to get your client’s written permission before beginning to write out a case study. Partnering with your client in the creation of case studies builds further trust with that client and shows that your firm values the relationship. In addition to client permission, always be sure that any information you share does not violate a court order, agreement of the parties, release, or other legal document involved in the resolution of the legal matter.

Tell a Story

It’s no secret that people love a good story. Books, movies, and television shows all have story elements to them that make them attractive to both readers and viewers. Because of this, it’s important to review the subject case like a story within the case study and to avoid confusing technical ‘legal speak’ as much as you are able. Follow the classic narrative arc that details a rising action, climax, and resolution to create an easy-to-follow story even around the most complex issues.

Select Cases an Ideal Client Could Relate to

When determining which cases your firm would like to utilize as case study material, it’s important to choose matters to which your ideal client could relate. The cases used should identify common problems encountered by clients who seek out your firm’s legal counsel and/or those the firm would like to assist in future work.

Simplify and Ensure the Content is Easy to Read

Case studies shouldn’t be treated as long-winded articles or even blog posts. Write succinct sentences and short paragraphs without any ‘fluff’ not only keep content concise but also to make it easier to read as well.

Ensure They Are Easy To Find

A case study should be easy for potential clients to find, whether it’s on a website, on social media channels, or in an email newsletter. If they aren’t included on the law firm website homepage, they should be made easy-to-find in a dropdown menu or in a section separate from where client testimonials are displayed. It’s also a good idea to link from case studies to the corresponding practice area page or pages so a potential client can gain further insight on services they may need.

Have Realistic Expectations

Once the case study has been written and published, it’s important to have realistic expectations. In the event the case study doesn’t perform as well as your firm’s best piece of content, don’t get upset because they aren’t intended to. Legal case studies are designed for audiences already considering using your law firm. Though this audience may be smaller in size, it includes qualified leads more likely to convert – or to reach out to your firm.

Need More Law Firm Marketing Help?

Though they can take time, creating comprehensive case studies to showcase the successes of your law firm greatly helps with online marketing efforts. At Stacey E. Burke, P.C., our team can help you determine which cases can best benefit your firm’s digital marketing . We create full-scale marketing plans for small to medium sized law firms across the country in a variety of practice areas. If your law firm would like to know more about our services, contact us today for more information.

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These three sets of case studies showcase how law firms in North America are innovating as businesses. They feature leading examples of law firms changing how they manage their own people, and how they are reinventing services and delivery models.

All the case studies were researched, compiled and ranked by RSGI. “Winner” indicates that the organisation won an FT Innovative Lawyers Europe award for 2023. The full list of award winners is available here.

More on FT.com: Best practice case studies

Read the other FT Innovative Lawyers North America ‘Best practice case studies’, which showcase the standout innovations made for and by people working in the legal sector:

Practice of law In-house

Knowledge and data

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe: WINNER Originality: 8; Leadership: 9; Impact: 8; Total: 25 Orrick partnered with Italian venture capital group Pi Campus’s Pi School programme, which provides software engineers with real-world industry experience, to develop a machine-learning tool for use by the firm. It uses natural language processing to analyse client data and tag it with descriptions, such as a client’s sector. The tool’s accuracy on client tagging is 90 per cent, compared with 50 per cent when done by people.

BakerHostetler

O: 9; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 24

The information services department at BakerHostetler improved a litigation analytics tool by adding a generative AI element that can extract data from PDFs and Microsoft Word documents to identify patterns that had previously been missed. Clients can see the data visualised for a clearer picture of trends across litigation, transactions and legal spend.

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 24

The firm launched a tool to give its lawyers easy access to important information about clients — for example, what they need to know when working with a new client for the first time. It combines the firm’s existing data on clients and active legal matters with third-party information — such as daily stock prices, news stories, and Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Highly commended

White & Case O: 7; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 22 The client experience team at White & Case developed a platform on which “client experience blueprints” record specific preferences, sticking points and other information. The aim is to create a more consistent experience for clients globally, and to help lawyers anticipate their needs. The “blueprints” are in use across the firm, including in project development and finance, M&A, and commercial litigation practices.

Reed Smith O: 6; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 21 A new platform at Reed Smith automates the allocation of work to organise resources efficiently, optimise pricing, and involve associates in bids for work in a more consistent way. AI helps to match lawyers’ particular skills with available work. More than 95 per cent of associates at the firm use the platform.

McDermott Will & Emery O: 6; L: 8; I: 6; Total: 20 The knowledge management team at the firm created a searchable hub, for M&A and private equity work, which organises key data and provides insights on clients, deal dates, and values and agreement types. The team can collate relevant information for new matters based on lawyers’ past searches and proactively send it to them.

Ballard Spahr O: 7; L: 5; I: 7; Total: 19 The client value and innovation team developed a tool, Cognitive Services, that uses generative AI and a Microsoft suite of off-the-shelf AI tools to spot patterns in profitable and unprofitable legal work. It then applies the lessons learned to future client work and business development.

Digital solutions

Kirkland & Ellis: WINNER Originality: 7; Leadership: 9; Impact: 9; Total: 25 The investment funds team built a platform, SideTrack, that automates the creation and tracking of side letters. These contain additional terms agreed in contracts that vary between many separate investors. The side letters are included in information, dubbed “most favoured nation” documents, where they can be viewed and commented on by investors. SideTrack allows efficient processing of such documents, often hundreds of pages, and tracks side letters globally to avoid duplication of terms. It stores 100,000 side-letter provisions and has been used in more than 300 matters since its launch in 2023. Commended individual: James Desjardins

Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 24 The firm has released its own generative AI application, Athena, which uses OpenAI’s chatbot system but ensures client data is not shared externally — to avoid privacy and data security concerns. Athena has been released across the firm, after being trialled in the marketing department. Of the 500 users a day, 150 are lawyers.

Ballard Spahr O: 7; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 23 The fintech team created an application that handles business licences and government obligations for consumer financial services clients, with dashboards and checklists to help clients navigate licensing requirements and filing deadlines for each US state. The application, which is free, is run by a team of lawyers who respond to any legal queries that arise. Commended individual: Lisa Lanham

Cooley O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23 Last year, the firm launched an improved version of its Vanilla platform, which is focused on venture capital and other asset managers. It helps to set up, administer, and close private investment funds. Added services include compliance with sanction requirements.

King & Spalding O: 7; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 22 The ediscovery practice has made a number of updates to its technology, including a document review system for data contained in communication apps such as Slack, Teams and WhatsApp. One new tool helps to identify and log privileged information in large data sets, while another automatically removes irrelevant documents from searches.

Willkie Farr & Gallagher O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21 The asset management department worked with the IT team to create a platform that helps clients manage fund administration while ensuring regulatory compliance. The service was developed for private equity group Glendower Capital, but is now available to other clients.

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20 The knowledge management and practice services team worked with the intellectual property practice to create VizBridge. This presents clients’ trademark portfolios and their product development plans as an interactive world map, to aid strategic decision making. Commended individual: Rachelle Dubow

Reed Smith O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20 The financial services litigation team created an app that helps paralegals and lawyers draft litigation briefs faster and more cheaply. Although the app’s first drafts must be checked and amended by lawyers, the firm estimates the overall time to produce a high-quality brief is cut by 50 per cent or more. Commended individual: Diane Bettino

Eversheds Sutherland O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19 The firm developed a searchable database of legal requirements for Meta — owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — covering data security requirements in jurisdictions across the globe.

Ropes & Gray O: 7; L: 6; I: 6; Total: 19 In partnership with civil rights lawyer Andrew Stroth and campaign group Truth, Hope and Justice, the firm led a project involving more than 30 law firms to establish a database of police misconduct cases in Chicago and Philadelphia. They analysed data surrounding settlements and verdicts to guide state and city authorities on how to improve practices and enact reform.

People and skills

Mayer Brown: WINNER Originality: 8; Leadership: 8; Impact: 8; Total: 24 The firm launched a “technology general counsel in residence” programme in early 2023, in which an experienced, senior in-house lawyer from a tech company takes up an adviser role on a short-term secondment to Mayer Brown. The scheme, which is modelled on similar initiatives in the venture capital industry, helps the firm’s lawyers to learn about the legal needs of tech start-ups. So far, two general counsels have participated.

Goodwin O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23 The firm is exploring “use cases” for generative artificial intelligence and training lawyers and other staff in the technology. Exercises include a “test kitchen” programme, where lawyers and business professionals at all levels are developing and trialling the way that generative AI could work in practice. Collaboration and sharing knowledge across disciplines are emphasised. Nearly 160 such use cases have been identified so far, with the firm planning to develop and implement a number of them in the coming months.

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe O: 8; L: 9; I: 6; Total: 23 The firm introduced a policy in 2022 whereby new associates avoid any billable-hours targets for the first six months and are allotted time to work on pro bono projects, as well as research, and non-billable work with clients. Training, shadowing opportunities and mentorship have also been added. Orrick reports that this approach has improved lawyer performance and benefited clients, as they are billed less often for work by very junior lawyers.

Davis Wright Tremaine O: 8; L: 8; I: 6; Total: 22 In 2023, the firm launched a programme to reduce unconscious bias in partner evaluation, admission and pay meetings. Participants receive training on unconscious bias, and one is nominated as a “bias interrupter” to call out any examples they see during a meeting. They dub it “throwing a bias flag” — a reference to American football refereeing — to call for a pause, in order to review and assess a statement for unconscious bias.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges O: 7; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 22 The WeilPride programme highlights LGBTQ+ issues and provides pro bono support to several non-profit groups supporting the queer community. Within the firm, it has supported the rollout of a family benefits scheme, including financial contributions for fertility treatment, adoption and surrogacy, as well as providing advice and support through the network. The proportion of LGBTQ+ law students in “stepping stone” summer associate roles at the firm in 2023 was up 10 percentage points, to 18.2 per cent, on 2020, when the family benefits initiative began. Commended individual: Justin Lee

White & Case O: 6; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 21 The firm has created a programme to help new partners acquire additional “soft skills”, to help with business development, by assigning a more senior partner as a sponsor who can help with networking, meeting clients, and generally gaining expertise. The new partner’s progress is taken into account in calculating the sponsor’s pay. More than 150 new partners have taken part this year.

BakerHostetler O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20 IncuBaker, the firm’s alternative legal services unit, worked with Georgia State University College of Law to create a course in legal technology for law students. The first ran in early 2023 and guided students on how to advance legal innovation projects. The curriculum will expand in 2024 to include new tech such as generative AI.

DLA Piper O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19 The firm created a corporate data analytics internship programme that trains participants using DLA Piper’s data, both internally and for client work. It demonstrates to them what law firms require. The results have included using data analytics and visualisation on environment, social and governance (ESG) questions, and a contribution to a summary of the risks of artificial intelligence. The internship, which started in 2019, now has seven data analytics interns a year.

Eversheds Sutherland O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19 Expanding out of its energy and employment practices, the firm’s global ESG group launched a training scheme for lawyers in other practice areas on some of the challenges facing their clients — such as energy transition, social responsibility, sustainable finance and climate litigation. Sessions are tailored to showing how different areas of the law are affected.

Willkie Farr & Gallagher O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19 Last year, the firm hired two former participants in its environmental analyst internship programme. The initiative — launched in 2021 and targeted at students who are not in law school — aims to broaden the range of skills in environmental analysis that the firm makes available to clients.

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Take a closer look at our legal case studies to see how we partner with clients to realize their ambitions and new innovations. Together, we lead change and shape the future.

Transforming Africa's mining and infrastructure landscape

mining and infrastructure project in Africa and the world with a total required investment of reportedly US$15-20 billion

120 million tons, initial iron ore production, 600+ km of railway, providing connectivity across guinea, powering a sustainable future with major clean energy projects.

€4.4 billion

In financing secured for the baltic power offshore wind farm in poland, €3.4 billion, in financing secured for the hai long offshore wind farm in taiwan, of wind and solar energy capacity to supply a new green hydrogen plant in kazakhstan, granting victims of human trafficking access to compensation.

Estimated 49 million

Victims trafficked annually, landmark decisions, jurisdictions: vietnam, uk, belgium, france, accelerating the future of sustainable mobility with start-up verkor.

€2 billion

Secured in financing, equity raise for a french start-up, of its gigafactories to be launched in dunkirk, achieving a legacy of inclusion for black revolutionary war patriots.

of pro bono advocacy for Lena Ferguson and her legacy

Black, native american, and mixed heritage revolutionary war patriots now recognized by the dar, will mark the 250th year of american independence.

How to write a case brief for law school: Excerpt reproduced from Introduction to the Study of Law: Cases and Materials,

Third Edition (LexisNexis 2009) by Michael Makdisi & John Makdisi

C. HOW TO BRIEF

The previous section described the parts of a case in order to make it easier to read and identify the pertinent information that you will use to create your briefs. This section will describe the parts of a brief in order to give you an idea about what a brief is, what is helpful to include in a brief, and what purpose it serves. Case briefs are a necessary study aid in law school that helps to encapsulate and analyze the mountainous mass of material that law students must digest. The case brief represents a final product after reading a case, rereading it, taking it apart, and putting it back together again. In addition to its function as a tool for self-instruction and referencing, the case brief also provides a valuable “cheat sheet” for class participation.

Who will read your brief? Most professors will espouse the value of briefing but will never ask to see that you have, in fact, briefed. As a practicing lawyer, your client doesn’t care if you brief, so long as you win the case. The judges certainly don’t care if you brief, so long as you competently practice the law. You are the person that the brief will serve! Keep this in mind when deciding what elements to include as part of your brief and when deciding what information to include under those elements.

What are the elements of a brief? Different people will tell you to include different things in your brief. Most likely, upon entering law school, this will happen with one or more of your instructors. While opinions may vary, four elements that are essential to any useful brief are the following:

(a) Facts (name of the case and its parties, what happened factually and procedurally, and the judgment)

(b) Issues (what is in dispute)

(c) Holding (the applied rule of law)

(d) Rationale (reasons for the holding)

If you include nothing but these four elements, you should have everything you need in order to recall effectively the information from the case during class or several months later when studying for exams.

Because briefs are made for yourself, you may want to include other elements that expand the four elements listed above. Depending on the case, the inclusion of additional elements may be useful. For example, a case that has a long and important section expounding dicta might call for a separate section in your brief labeled: Dicta. Whatever elements you decide to include, however, remember that the brief is a tool intended for personal use. To the extent that more elements will help with organization and use of the brief, include them. On the other hand, if you find that having more elements makes your brief cumbersome and hard to use, cut back on the number of elements. At a minimum, however, make sure you include the four elements listed above.

Elements that you may want to consider including in addition to the four basic elements are:

(e) Dicta (commentary about the decision that was not the basis for the decision)

(f) Dissent (if a valuable dissenting opinion exits, the dissent’s opinion)

(g) Party’s Arguments (each party’s opposing argument concerning the ultimate issue)

(h) Comments (personal commentary)

Personal comments can be useful if you have a thought that does not fit elsewhere. In the personal experience of one of the authors, this element was used to label cases as specific kinds (e.g., as a case of vicarious liability) or make mental notes about what he found peculiar or puzzling about cases. This element allowed him to release his thoughts (without losing them) so that he could move on to other cases.

In addition to these elements, it may help you to organize your thoughts, as some people do, by dividing Facts into separate elements:

(1) Facts of the case (what actually happened, the controversy)

(2) Procedural History (what events within the court system led to the present case)

(3) Judgment (what the court actually decided)

Procedural History is usually minimal and most of the time irrelevant to the ultimate importance of a case; however, this is not always true. One subject in which Procedure History is virtually always relevant is Civil Procedure.

When describing the Judgment of the case, distinguish it from the Holding. The Judgment is the factual determination by the court, in favor of one party, such as “affirmed,” “reversed,” or “remanded.” In contrast, the Holding is the applied rule of law that serves as the basis for the ultimate judgment.

Remember that the purpose of a brief is to remind you of the important details that make the case significant in terms of the law. It will be a reference tool when you are drilled by a professor and will be a study aid when you prepare for exams. A brief is also like a puzzle piece.

The elements of the brief create the unique shape and colors of the piece, and, when combined with other pieces, the picture of the common law takes form. A well-constructed brief will save you lots of time by removing the need to return to the case to remember the important details and also by making it easier to put together the pieces of the common law puzzle.

D. EXTRACTING THE RELEVANT INFORMATION: ANNOTATING AND HIGHLIGHTING

So now that you know the basic elements of a brief, what information is important to include under each element? The simple answer is: whatever is relevant. But what parts of a case are relevant? When you read your first few cases, you may think that everything that the judge said was relevant to his ultimate conclusion. Even if this were true, what is relevant for the judge to make his decision is not always relevant for you to include in your brief. Remember, the reason to make a brief is not to persuade the world that the ultimate decision in the case is a sound one, but rather to aid in refreshing your memory concerning the most important parts of the case.

What facts are relevant to include in a brief? You should include the facts that are necessary to remind you of the story. If you forget the story, you will not remember how the law in the case was applied. You should also include the facts that are dispositive to the decision in the case. For instance, if the fact that a car is white is a determining factor in the case, the brief should note that the case involves a white car and not simply a car. To the extent that the procedural history either helps you to remember the case or plays an important role in the ultimate outcome, you should include these facts as well.

What issues and conclusions are relevant to include in a brief? There is usually one main issue on which the court rests its decision. This may seem simple, but the court may talk about multiple issues, and may discuss multiple arguments from both sides of the case. Be sure to distinguish the issues from the arguments made by the parties. The relevant issue or issues, and corresponding conclusions, are the ones for which the court made a final decision and which are binding. The court may discuss intermediate conclusions or issues, but stay focused on the main issue and conclusion which binds future courts.

What rationale is important to include in a brief? This is probably the most difficult aspect of the case to determine. Remember that everything that is discussed may have been relevant to the judge, but it is not necessarily relevant to the rationale of the decision. The goal is to remind yourself of the basic reasoning that the court used to come to its decision and the key factors that made the decision favor one side or the other.

A brief should be brief! Overly long or cumbersome briefs are not very helpful because you will not be able to skim them easily when you review your notes or when the professor drills you. On the other hand, a brief that is too short will be equally unhelpful because it lacks sufficient information to refresh your memory. Try to keep your briefs to one page in length. This will make it easy for you to organize and reference them.

Do not get discouraged. Learning to brief and figuring out exactly what to include will take time and practice. The more you brief, the easier it will become to extract the relevant information.

While a brief is an extremely helpful and important study aid, annotating and highlighting are other tools for breaking down the mass of material in your casebook. The remainder of this section will discuss these different techniques and show how they complement and enhance the briefing process.

Annotating Cases

Many of you probably already read with a pencil or pen, but if you do not, now is the time to get in the habit. Cases are so dense and full of information that you will find yourself spending considerable amounts of time rereading cases to find what you need. An effective way to reduce this time is to annotate the margins of the casebook. Your pencil (or pen) will be one of your best friends while reading a case. It will allow you to mark off the different sections (such as facts, procedural history, or conclusions), thus allowing you to clear your mind of thoughts and providing an invaluable resource when briefing and reviewing.

You might be wondering why annotating is important if you make an adequate, well-constructed brief. By their very nature briefs cannot cover everything in a case. Even with a thorough, well-constructed brief you may want to reference the original case in order to reread dicta that might not have seemed important at the time, to review the complete procedural history or set of facts, or to scour the rationale for a better understanding of the case; annotating makes these tasks easier. Whether you return to a case after a few hours or a few months, annotations will swiftly guide you to the pertinent parts of the case by providing a roadmap of the important sections. Your textual markings and margin notes will refresh your memory and restore specific thoughts you might have had about either the case in general or an individual passage.

Annotations will also remind you of forgotten thoughts and random ideas by providing a medium for personal comments.

In addition to making it easier to review an original case, annotating cases during the first review of a case makes the briefing process easier. With adequate annotations, the important details needed for your brief will be much easier to retrieve. Without annotations, you will likely have difficulty locating the information you seek even in the short cases. It might seem strange that it would be hard to reference a short case, but even a short case will likely take you at least fifteen to twenty-five minutes to read, while longer cases may take as much as thirty minutes to an hour to complete. No matter how long it takes, the dense material of all cases makes it difficult to remember all your thoughts, and trying to locate specific sections of the analysis may feel like you are trying to locate a needle in a haystack. An annotation in the margin, however, will not only swiftly guide you to a pertinent section, but will also refresh the thoughts that you had while reading that section.

When you read a case for the first time, read for the story and for a basic understanding of the dispute, the issues, the rationale, and the decision. As you hit these elements (or what you think are these elements) make a mark in the margins. Your markings can be as simple as “facts” (with a bracket that indicates the relevant part of the paragraph). When you spot an issue, you may simply mark “issue” or instead provide a synopsis in your own words. When a case sparks an idea — write that idea in the margin as well — you never know when a seemingly irrelevant idea might turn into something more.

Finally, when you spot a particularly important part of the text, underline it (or highlight it as described below).

With a basic understanding of the case, and with annotations in the margin, the second read-through of the case should be much easier. You can direct your reading to the most important sections and will have an easier time identifying what is and is not important. Continue rereading the case until you have identified all the relevant information that you need to make your brief, including the issue(s), the facts, the holding, and the relevant parts of the analysis.

Pencil or pen — which is better to use when annotating? Our recommendation is a mechanical pencil. Mechanical pencils make finer markings than regular pencils, and also than ballpoint pens. Although you might think a pencil might smear more than a pen, with its sharp point a mechanical pencil uses very little excess lead and will not smear as much as you might imagine. A mechanical pencil will also give you the freedom to make mistakes without consequences. When you first start annotating, you may think that some passages are more important than they really are, and therefore you may resist the urge to make a mark in order to preserve your book and prevent false guideposts. With a pencil, however, the ability to erase and rewrite removes this problem.

Highlighting

Why highlight? Like annotating, highlighting may seem unimportant if you create thorough, well-constructed briefs, but highlighting directly helps you to brief. It makes cases, especially the more complicated ones, easy to digest, review and use to extract information.

Highlighting takes advantage of colors to provide a uniquely effective method for reviewing and referencing a case. If you prefer a visual approach to learning, you may find highlighting to be a very effective tool.

If annotating and highlighting are so effective, why brief? Because the process of summarizing a case and putting it into your own words within a brief provides an understanding of the law and of the case that you cannot gain through the process of highlighting or annotating.

The process of putting the case into your own words forces you to digest the material, while annotating and highlighting can be accomplished in a much more passive manner.

What should you highlight? Similar to annotating, the best parts of the case to highlight are those that represent the needed information for your brief such as the facts, the issue, the holding and the rationale.

Unlike annotating, highlighting provides an effective way to color code, which makes referring to the case even easier. In addition, Highlighters are particularly useful in marking off entire sections by using brackets. These brackets will allow you to color-code the case without highlighting all the text, leaving the most important phrases untouched for a more detailed highlight marking or underlining.

Highlighting is a personal tool, and therefore should be used to the extent that highlighting helps, but should be modified in a way that makes it personally time efficient and beneficial. For instance, you might combine the use of annotations in the margins with the visual benefit of highlighting the relevant text. You may prefer to underline the relevant text with a pencil, but to use a highlighter to bracket off the different sections of a case. Whatever you choose to do, make sure that it works for you, regardless of what others recommend. The techniques in the remainder of this section will describe ways to make full use of your highlighters.

First, buy yourself a set of multi-colored highlighters, with at least four, or perhaps five or six different colors. Yellow, pink, and orange are usually the brightest. Depending on the brand, purple and green can be dark, but still work well. Although blue is a beautiful color, it tends to darken and hide the text.

Therefore we recommend that you save blue for the elements that you rarely highlight.

For each different section of the case, choose a color, and use that color only when highlighting the section of the case designated for that color. Consider using yellow for the text that you tend to highlight most frequently. Because yellow is the brightest, you may be inclined to use yellow for the Conclusions in order to make them stand out the most. If you do this, however, you will exhaust your other colors much faster than yellow and this will require that you purchase an entire set of new highlighters when a single color runs out because colors such as green are not sold separately. If instead you choose to use yellow on a more frequently highlighted section such as the Analysis, when it comes time to replace your yellow marker, you will need only to replace your yellow highlighter individually. In the personal experience on one of the authors, the sections of cases that seemed to demand the most highlighter attention were the

Facts and the Analysis, while the Issues and Holdings demanded the least. Other Considerations and

Procedural History required lots of highlighting in particular cases although not in every case.

Experiment if you must, but try to choose a color scheme early on in the semester and stick with it. That way, when you come back to the first cases of the semester, you will not be confused with multiple color schemes. The basic sections of a case for which you should consider giving a different color are:

(b) Procedural History

(c) Issue (and questions presented)

(d) Holding (and conclusions)

(e) Analysis (rationale)

(f) Other Considerations (such as dicta)

Not all of these sections demand a separate color. You may find that combining Facts and Procedural History or Issues and Holdings works best. Furthermore, as mentioned above, some sections may not warrant highlighting in every case (e.g., dicta probably do not need to be highlighted unless they are particularly important). If you decide that a single color is all that you need, then stick to one, but if you find yourself highlighting lots of text from many different sections, reconsider the use of at least a few different colors. Highlighters make text stand out, but only when used appropriately. The use of many colors enables you to highlight more text without reducing the highlighter’s effectiveness. Three to four colors provides decent color variation without the cumbersomeness of handling too many markers.

Once you are comfortable with your color scheme, determining exactly what to highlight still may be difficult. Similar to knowing what to annotate, experience will perfect your highlighting skills. Be careful not to highlight everything, thus ruining your highlighters’ effectiveness; at the same time, do not be afraid to make mistakes.

Now that we have covered the basics of reading, annotating, highlighting, and briefing a case, you are ready to start practicing. Keep the tips and techniques mentioned in this chapter in mind when you tackle the four topics in the remainder of this book. If you have difficultly, refer back to this chapter to help guide you as you master the case method of study and the art of using the common law.

More Helpful Links

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