A Primer on Legal Analysis
for Business Case Study
Lauren Ross, J.D.
Department of Business Law
CSU Northridge
Wayne Smith, Ph.D.
Department of Management
CSU Northridge
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Contents “at a glance”
• Brief Review of Law
• Facts and “Rules of Construction”
• Statutory and Common Law Analysis
• Organization of the Discussion and
Argument
• “Signposting” and Revising
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Law
• Law and Policy
– Interrelated topics
– At the organizational-level, we are interested primarily in
improving the management of resources
• Increase Rewards, Reduce Risks
• Both quantitatively and qualitatively
• The Hierarchy of Laws
– Constitutions, statutes (ordinances), administrative regulations,
and common (judge-made) law
• The Hierarchy and Jurisdiction of Courts
– Federal, State, Municipal
• Primary Authority (Binding)
– “the law” and official court records (e.g., UCC, CA Penal Code)
• Secondary Authority (Persuasive)
– Everything else (e.g., law reviews, restatements, academic
journals)
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Precedent and Stare Decisis
• Precedent
– Binding (same jurisdiction) or Persuasive (diff. jurisdiction)
• Stare Decisis
– “let the [prior, related] decisions stand”
– By understanding stare decisis, business professionals can
predict how a court will decide similar issues in the future
• Organizations want the law (like everything else in
professional life) to be…
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Predictable
Understandable
Efficient
Consistent
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Distilling Precedential Value
from a Case Decision
• IRAC Methodology
– It’s not the only approach, but it’s straightforward and
generalizable
• (list relevant facts first)
• Issue
– What legal question needs to be answered?
• Rule
– What law (statutes/common law) applies?
• Application
– How do you relate the rule to the facts?
• Conclusion
– What is the answer?
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Facts
• Identify the legally significant facts
– Facts that are material
– Facts that make a case “turn”
• Identify key background facts
– Dates, times, places, direction, magnitude
• Organize the facts intelligibly
– Often chronologically, but never “by issue”
• Describe the facts accurately and objectively
– Don’t evaluate or embellish
– Be objective, but include “emotional” facts as needed
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Basic Concepts of Legal Method
• How Rules are Constructed
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–
–
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Elements of a Rule
The Result and Its Relationship to the Elements
Exceptions in a Rule
Sub-Elements
• Focus only on questions within the scope of the
problem
– In BUS 302, we identify the questions/issues
– In professional life, you (often) identify the
questions/issues
• The key is to take a given rule and apply it to a
unique set of facts.
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Drafting the discussion
• Purpose
– Writing Role as student
• Intelligent, interesting, and creative
– Writing Role as professional
• Credible, compelling, and convincing
• Process
– Linear (“waterfall”) vs. Recursive (“spiral”)
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•
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Identify and narrow issues
Research
Analyze and Organize
Write
Rewrite
• Audience
– Discussion towards organization/business value
– Argument towards prevailing in a formal tribunal or litigation
process
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Organizing the Discussion (part 1 of 2)
1. For each issue, state your conclusion and set up your
discussion of the issue in an introduction
a) Be objective and candid
b) Present strongest and most significant issues first
2. For each issue, state your conclusion in terms of the
law/rule/policy
3. Describe the law relevant to your conclusion for each issue
a) Start with the language of the rule (e.g., statute)
i. Describe only the relevant law
ii. Describe the law in enough detail to enable your reader to
understand the discussion
b) Add at least one analogous (similar) fact from a previouslydecided case that supports your argument
4. Explain why the law supports your conclusion for each issue
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Organizing the discussion (part 2 of 2)
5. Describe any reasonable counter-argument for each issue
and state why it is unpersuasive
a) Again, add at least one analogous (similar) fact from a
previously-decided case that supports your counter-argument
(but remember, this fact will be different from the fact used in
3b)
6. Describe how the law supports the counter-argument for
each issue
7. Explain why the counter-argument does not change your
conclusion for each issue (or sub-issue)
8. Edit the discussion to include “signposts” (next slide)
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Overview of “Signposting”
• Thesis Statements
– What is your conclusion?
– Appears no later than the first or second paragraph
• Paragraphs
– Approximately 4 to 8 sentences or perhaps ½ of a printed page
– Too many short paragraphs?->superficial or fragmented analysis
– Too few long paragraphs?->entangled or diffused ideas
• Topic Sentence
– What is the purpose (main idea) of your paragraph?
– Appears no later than the first or second sentence in each
paragraph
– Can the topic sentences be extracted to form an outline—i.e., an
extended table of contents?
• Transitions
– What are the relationships between ideas?
– Guide the reader—deliberately and intuitively
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Transitions
Relationship Between Ideas
Transitional Words and
Phrases
Similarity between the previous
point and the next one
Similarly, Also, In addition,
Further, Furthermore, Moreover
Difference between the previous
point and the next one
However, Nevertheless,
Nonetheless, Although, On the
other hand
Enumeration of points
First, second, third, etc.
Causal relationship
Consequently, Therefore, Thus,
Because
Temporal relationship
Subsequently, Previously, Later, In
the meantime, Then, Recently
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Revising and Editing
• Be direct and precise
• Blend precision with simplicity
• Use verbs whenever possible to make your
writing forceful
• Be concise
• Eliminate unnecessary information and
repetition
• Edit intrusive or misplaced words and
phrases
• Use correct grammar, punctuation, and
spelling
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Sources
• Dernbach, J., et al. (2007), A
Practical Guide to Legal Writing
and Legal Method, 3rd ed.,
Austin:Wolters Kluwer.
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