This is the second in a planned series of four Jagged Rocks of Wisdom guidebooks for new attorneys. The first book, Jagged Rocks of Wisdom: Professional Advice for the New Attorney, focused on issues of professional deportment and training.

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 so this is 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. Survival (and success) will be no less arduous, but with this book the journey will not be nearly as treacherous.

There are only a few guides available to the new attorney. This book is written by a current law partner, in a style that is direct, informative, and vitally helpful. While many guidebooks are filled with platitudes and generalities, there is a serious need for genuine professional guidance. That’s where this focused guide steps in.

About the Author

Born in Oslo, Norway, Morten Lund is a graduate of Yale Law School and partner at Foley & Lardner, LLP, a national law firm where he practices in financing transactions, energy projects (including wind energy and hydroelectric facilities), and international business. Among other duties Lund is responsible for coaching of new associates.
Lund is the author of Jagged Rocks of Wisdom: Professional Advice for the New Attorney.