Law firm hiring partners and training supervisors agree that new lawyers should be able to draft basic legal memos quickly. But until now, even the best training courses have treated memo-writing as just a question of writing law and analysis, rather than also of having the right organizational habits. Now, at last, in this CLE book, legal writing expert Mary Campbell Gallagher, J.D. (Harvard), Ph.D., teaches junior lawyers how to build their memo-writing skills "like a sport . " Using six of the simulated law office memorandum tasks, sample answers, and analyses from her book Perform Your Best on the Bar Exam Performance Test (MPT), the tasks developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) for the MPT part of the bar exam, and adapting the unique systems she created for the MPT to the conditions of law practice, Dr. Gallagher helps lawyers develop the habits needed to research, organize, and draft their basic legal memos efficiently.

On the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) you must not only research and write a brief or another law office task, you must finish the job in just 90 minutes. The book Perform Your Best on the Bar Exam Performance Test (MPT) features: Detailed instructions for the time-saving MPT-MatrixTM system for noting research quickly on one sheet of paper, which avoids note-taking and provides a blueprint for rapid drafting. Templates for briefs, memos, and letters. Twelve (12) actual MPT tasks, as released by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), including a range of difficulty and a variety of formats, and 12 Graders Point Sheets An analytic note on each of the 12 MPT tasks, explaining how to read and outline the instructions, and how to organize and present each work product for a higher score Twelve (12) complete sample answers for those actual MPT tasks, demonstrating appropriate format, content, tone, and organization for each task

Essay-writing can account for fifty per cent or more of your bar exam score, yet even the best bar review courses often don't teach how to write lawyer-like essays. Now, at last, you will find the step-by-step instruction you need in this unique reference. Packed with expert essay-writing systems and confidence-building practice, it features: Quick Key Outlining system for hitting the issues, focusing on the law, and scoring high with less writing Model Paragraph system for "writing like a lawyer"--even though you don't know your conclusion when you start writing 80 actual bar exam practice questions on the most frequently tested areas of law, including crucial state law subjects, with sample answers A review of how state bar examiners have graded actual essays--and real examples of the best and worst ways to respond to essay questions