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80 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 501 (2002-2003)
The Importance of IRAC and Legal Writing

handle is hein.journals/udetmr80 and id is 521 raw text is: The Importance of IRAC and Legal Writing JEFFREY METZLER* While working for an appellate judge, I have more than once written in a bench memo, It's not entirely clear what the Appellant's argument is on this issue, but one possibility is .... This is typically not a good sign for the Appellant's chances of winning (or the Appellee's, if it is the Appellee whose argument is unclear), and it is a sure sign of a poorly written brief. In this article, I offer some advice for law students seeking to avoid submitting a brief, a law school exam, or a bar exam essay that leaves the reader baffled as to the content of the argument. However, as a recent law school graduate myself, I do not profess to have developed any secret techniques for legal writing that are guaranteed to improve your arguments. But I have developed an increased appreciation for the importance of practicing the widely taught legal writing technique known as IRAC. On a basic level, IRAC is simply an acronym for organizing a legal argument that involves a description of the Issue;, an explanation of the legal Rule an Application of that rule to the facts of the case; and finally, a statement of your Conclusion. And while there is some value to IRAC as merely an organizational tool, I would like to impress upon students intending to practice law, especially litigation, that IRAC is much more than an organizational structure. IRAC is an important mental exercise that forces an author to a deeper understanding of the legal issues at stake. Understanding IRAC is indispensable for sifting through hundreds of cases to find the one that most helps your case. IRAC is the key to success on law school exams, the bar exam, and a successful career in litigation. In my experience, using the IRAC technique in legal writing has helped me immensely to bring issues into focus. Many cases and law school exams present situations that we have intuitive feelings about. However, these gut feelings will not carry a lawyer very far in court (I suspect that very few judges have been swayed by a defense attorney Jeffrey Metzler received his B.A. from Brown University in 1995, his M.A. in Public Administration from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in 1999, and hisJ.D. from Yale Law School in 2002. He taught high school for two years in the New York City public school system (1995-97), clerked for one year with Judge Diana Gribbon Motz in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (2002-03), and is currently an Assistant Attorney General in the New York State Office of the Attorney General.

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