The Third Sentence – Your Recommendation

After you have opened with a proper Sentence of Reference (Part 1) and followed with your Conclusion (Part 2), now recommend to your client how to proceed. Using bullets or numbers, list each recommendation on the first page, where the client can “see” everything. No matter how long the memorandum, or how little time the client has to read it, everything the client needs resides in that three-sentence opening followed by a “to do” list. Incorporating the examples from Part 1 and Part 2 for the final look:

As you requested in my office last Wednesday, I have analyzed Uzumi’s claims for breach of the overtime provisions in the Illinois Labor Code. I have concluded that your Illinois part-time supervisors are not exempt, because they do not satisfy the “duties” tests that apply prior to January 1, 2013. Because of my findings, I recommend you immediately:

1. re-draft all recruiting, offer, and orientation documents to include clear language that part-time supervisors receive fixed salaries for varying amounts of non-overtime work;

2. ensure that salaries to part-time supervisors fairly compensate them for the anticipated average weekly hours of work on their shifts; and

3. devise a strategy to communicate these changes to current part-time supervisors and their managers.

The Fourth Sentence? “Let me explain.” Or, “Here is my reasoning." Because you have framed the letter properly, the client now can decide whether to read the detail. He doesn’t have to; he already knows what to do. But if he wants to spend the weekend reading your 23-page tome, that’s his business.