Explain to them how you organized your memorandum.

The clients don’t care. Yet we often ramble around in a memorandum explaining things. To the client it sounds like:

"I’ve got real important things to tell you, BUT FIRST let me take up gobs of your time reviewing how I’ve laid all this out. I’m so pleased."

Here’s a typical example:

Set forth below is a general summary of the relevant representations, warranties, and other provisions of the agreements, followed by more specific discussions of the application of these provisions to each case. Before discussing the potential claims, it is important to note that certain practical matters may bear upon the analysis of whether . . . .

Here’s how much of it the client needs:

Set forth below is a general summary of the relevant representations, warranties, and other provisions of the agreements, followed by more specific discussions of the application of these provisions to each case. Before discussing the potential claims, it is important to note that certain practical matters may bear upon the analysis of whether . . . .

And another:

Set forth below is an overview of the general strategic and legal considerations that will be important in developing the strategy of Allied to respond to a possible proxy contest.

All the client wants to read is:

Set forth below is an overview of the general strategic and legal considerations that will be important in developing the strategy of Allied to respond to a possible proxy contest. If Allied finds itself in a proxy contest, it has three options:

You wouldn’t have time to sort through this verbiage; your clients don’t either. Get to the point.