Legal Research and Writing

IRAC ( Issue, Rule, Conclusion, Analysis) is the building blocks of legal analysis. It is the process in which you will outline your legal reasoning and analysis in a office memorandum and appellate brief.

• Issue- What facts and circumstance brought these parties to court?
• Rule- What is the governing law for the issue?
• Application or Analysis- Does the rule apply to these unique facts?
• Conclusion- What is the answer to the issue? 

Articles and sample exercises on the IRAC method. 

While there are 20 different variations of the IRAC method, however the two forms that will help you understand how to properly write a legal paper is IRAC and TREAT. 

TREAT stands for

T- Thesis

R- Rule

E- Explanation

A- Analysis

T-Thesis 

Although there are a lot of books of legal writing, any of the following library resources would be beneficial to use when writing your office memorandum or appellate brief. 

While writing a office memorandum you want to sound neutral. However, motions and appellate briefs are meant to be persuasive and have some form of advocacy. Here are a list of library resources that help can you achieve a persuasive motion or brief. 

Here are a list of library resources that will explain the elements of IRAC and TREAT. 

CALI Lessons have an entire section dedicated to Legal Writing.