case study questions law

• Forgot your password?

Why Casebriefs ™ ?

Register for your free casebriefs ™ account.

How to write a case brief for law school: Excerpt reproduced from Introduction to the Study of Law: Cases and Materials,

Third Edition (LexisNexis 2009) by Michael Makdisi & John Makdisi

C. HOW TO BRIEF

The previous section described the parts of a case in order to make it easier to read and identify the pertinent information that you will use to create your briefs. This section will describe the parts of a brief in order to give you an idea about what a brief is, what is helpful to include in a brief, and what purpose it serves. Case briefs are a necessary study aid in law school that helps to encapsulate and analyze the mountainous mass of material that law students must digest. The case brief represents a final product after reading a case, rereading it, taking it apart, and putting it back together again. In addition to its function as a tool for self-instruction and referencing, the case brief also provides a valuable “cheat sheet” for class participation.

Who will read your brief? Most professors will espouse the value of briefing but will never ask to see that you have, in fact, briefed. As a practicing lawyer, your client doesn’t care if you brief, so long as you win the case. The judges certainly don’t care if you brief, so long as you competently practice the law. You are the person that the brief will serve! Keep this in mind when deciding what elements to include as part of your brief and when deciding what information to include under those elements.

What are the elements of a brief? Different people will tell you to include different things in your brief. Most likely, upon entering law school, this will happen with one or more of your instructors. While opinions may vary, four elements that are essential to any useful brief are the following:

(a) Facts (name of the case and its parties, what happened factually and procedurally, and the judgment)

(b) Issues (what is in dispute)

(c) Holding (the applied rule of law)

(d) Rationale (reasons for the holding)

If you include nothing but these four elements, you should have everything you need in order to recall effectively the information from the case during class or several months later when studying for exams.

Because briefs are made for yourself, you may want to include other elements that expand the four elements listed above. Depending on the case, the inclusion of additional elements may be useful. For example, a case that has a long and important section expounding dicta might call for a separate section in your brief labeled: Dicta. Whatever elements you decide to include, however, remember that the brief is a tool intended for personal use. To the extent that more elements will help with organization and use of the brief, include them. On the other hand, if you find that having more elements makes your brief cumbersome and hard to use, cut back on the number of elements. At a minimum, however, make sure you include the four elements listed above.

Elements that you may want to consider including in addition to the four basic elements are:

(e) Dicta (commentary about the decision that was not the basis for the decision)

(f) Dissent (if a valuable dissenting opinion exits, the dissent’s opinion)

(g) Party’s Arguments (each party’s opposing argument concerning the ultimate issue)

(h) Comments (personal commentary)

Personal comments can be useful if you have a thought that does not fit elsewhere. In the personal experience of one of the authors, this element was used to label cases as specific kinds (e.g., as a case of vicarious liability) or make mental notes about what he found peculiar or puzzling about cases. This element allowed him to release his thoughts (without losing them) so that he could move on to other cases.

In addition to these elements, it may help you to organize your thoughts, as some people do, by dividing Facts into separate elements:

(1) Facts of the case (what actually happened, the controversy)

(2) Procedural History (what events within the court system led to the present case)

(3) Judgment (what the court actually decided)

Procedural History is usually minimal and most of the time irrelevant to the ultimate importance of a case; however, this is not always true. One subject in which Procedure History is virtually always relevant is Civil Procedure.

When describing the Judgment of the case, distinguish it from the Holding. The Judgment is the factual determination by the court, in favor of one party, such as “affirmed,” “reversed,” or “remanded.” In contrast, the Holding is the applied rule of law that serves as the basis for the ultimate judgment.

Remember that the purpose of a brief is to remind you of the important details that make the case significant in terms of the law. It will be a reference tool when you are drilled by a professor and will be a study aid when you prepare for exams. A brief is also like a puzzle piece.

The elements of the brief create the unique shape and colors of the piece, and, when combined with other pieces, the picture of the common law takes form. A well-constructed brief will save you lots of time by removing the need to return to the case to remember the important details and also by making it easier to put together the pieces of the common law puzzle.

D. EXTRACTING THE RELEVANT INFORMATION: ANNOTATING AND HIGHLIGHTING

So now that you know the basic elements of a brief, what information is important to include under each element? The simple answer is: whatever is relevant. But what parts of a case are relevant? When you read your first few cases, you may think that everything that the judge said was relevant to his ultimate conclusion. Even if this were true, what is relevant for the judge to make his decision is not always relevant for you to include in your brief. Remember, the reason to make a brief is not to persuade the world that the ultimate decision in the case is a sound one, but rather to aid in refreshing your memory concerning the most important parts of the case.

What facts are relevant to include in a brief? You should include the facts that are necessary to remind you of the story. If you forget the story, you will not remember how the law in the case was applied. You should also include the facts that are dispositive to the decision in the case. For instance, if the fact that a car is white is a determining factor in the case, the brief should note that the case involves a white car and not simply a car. To the extent that the procedural history either helps you to remember the case or plays an important role in the ultimate outcome, you should include these facts as well.

What issues and conclusions are relevant to include in a brief? There is usually one main issue on which the court rests its decision. This may seem simple, but the court may talk about multiple issues, and may discuss multiple arguments from both sides of the case. Be sure to distinguish the issues from the arguments made by the parties. The relevant issue or issues, and corresponding conclusions, are the ones for which the court made a final decision and which are binding. The court may discuss intermediate conclusions or issues, but stay focused on the main issue and conclusion which binds future courts.

What rationale is important to include in a brief? This is probably the most difficult aspect of the case to determine. Remember that everything that is discussed may have been relevant to the judge, but it is not necessarily relevant to the rationale of the decision. The goal is to remind yourself of the basic reasoning that the court used to come to its decision and the key factors that made the decision favor one side or the other.

A brief should be brief! Overly long or cumbersome briefs are not very helpful because you will not be able to skim them easily when you review your notes or when the professor drills you. On the other hand, a brief that is too short will be equally unhelpful because it lacks sufficient information to refresh your memory. Try to keep your briefs to one page in length. This will make it easy for you to organize and reference them.

Do not get discouraged. Learning to brief and figuring out exactly what to include will take time and practice. The more you brief, the easier it will become to extract the relevant information.

While a brief is an extremely helpful and important study aid, annotating and highlighting are other tools for breaking down the mass of material in your casebook. The remainder of this section will discuss these different techniques and show how they complement and enhance the briefing process.

Annotating Cases

Many of you probably already read with a pencil or pen, but if you do not, now is the time to get in the habit. Cases are so dense and full of information that you will find yourself spending considerable amounts of time rereading cases to find what you need. An effective way to reduce this time is to annotate the margins of the casebook. Your pencil (or pen) will be one of your best friends while reading a case. It will allow you to mark off the different sections (such as facts, procedural history, or conclusions), thus allowing you to clear your mind of thoughts and providing an invaluable resource when briefing and reviewing.

You might be wondering why annotating is important if you make an adequate, well-constructed brief. By their very nature briefs cannot cover everything in a case. Even with a thorough, well-constructed brief you may want to reference the original case in order to reread dicta that might not have seemed important at the time, to review the complete procedural history or set of facts, or to scour the rationale for a better understanding of the case; annotating makes these tasks easier. Whether you return to a case after a few hours or a few months, annotations will swiftly guide you to the pertinent parts of the case by providing a roadmap of the important sections. Your textual markings and margin notes will refresh your memory and restore specific thoughts you might have had about either the case in general or an individual passage.

Annotations will also remind you of forgotten thoughts and random ideas by providing a medium for personal comments.

In addition to making it easier to review an original case, annotating cases during the first review of a case makes the briefing process easier. With adequate annotations, the important details needed for your brief will be much easier to retrieve. Without annotations, you will likely have difficulty locating the information you seek even in the short cases. It might seem strange that it would be hard to reference a short case, but even a short case will likely take you at least fifteen to twenty-five minutes to read, while longer cases may take as much as thirty minutes to an hour to complete. No matter how long it takes, the dense material of all cases makes it difficult to remember all your thoughts, and trying to locate specific sections of the analysis may feel like you are trying to locate a needle in a haystack. An annotation in the margin, however, will not only swiftly guide you to a pertinent section, but will also refresh the thoughts that you had while reading that section.

When you read a case for the first time, read for the story and for a basic understanding of the dispute, the issues, the rationale, and the decision. As you hit these elements (or what you think are these elements) make a mark in the margins. Your markings can be as simple as “facts” (with a bracket that indicates the relevant part of the paragraph). When you spot an issue, you may simply mark “issue” or instead provide a synopsis in your own words. When a case sparks an idea — write that idea in the margin as well — you never know when a seemingly irrelevant idea might turn into something more.

Finally, when you spot a particularly important part of the text, underline it (or highlight it as described below).

With a basic understanding of the case, and with annotations in the margin, the second read-through of the case should be much easier. You can direct your reading to the most important sections and will have an easier time identifying what is and is not important. Continue rereading the case until you have identified all the relevant information that you need to make your brief, including the issue(s), the facts, the holding, and the relevant parts of the analysis.

Pencil or pen — which is better to use when annotating? Our recommendation is a mechanical pencil. Mechanical pencils make finer markings than regular pencils, and also than ballpoint pens. Although you might think a pencil might smear more than a pen, with its sharp point a mechanical pencil uses very little excess lead and will not smear as much as you might imagine. A mechanical pencil will also give you the freedom to make mistakes without consequences. When you first start annotating, you may think that some passages are more important than they really are, and therefore you may resist the urge to make a mark in order to preserve your book and prevent false guideposts. With a pencil, however, the ability to erase and rewrite removes this problem.

Highlighting

Why highlight? Like annotating, highlighting may seem unimportant if you create thorough, well-constructed briefs, but highlighting directly helps you to brief. It makes cases, especially the more complicated ones, easy to digest, review and use to extract information.

Highlighting takes advantage of colors to provide a uniquely effective method for reviewing and referencing a case. If you prefer a visual approach to learning, you may find highlighting to be a very effective tool.

If annotating and highlighting are so effective, why brief? Because the process of summarizing a case and putting it into your own words within a brief provides an understanding of the law and of the case that you cannot gain through the process of highlighting or annotating.

The process of putting the case into your own words forces you to digest the material, while annotating and highlighting can be accomplished in a much more passive manner.

What should you highlight? Similar to annotating, the best parts of the case to highlight are those that represent the needed information for your brief such as the facts, the issue, the holding and the rationale.

Unlike annotating, highlighting provides an effective way to color code, which makes referring to the case even easier. In addition, Highlighters are particularly useful in marking off entire sections by using brackets. These brackets will allow you to color-code the case without highlighting all the text, leaving the most important phrases untouched for a more detailed highlight marking or underlining.

Highlighting is a personal tool, and therefore should be used to the extent that highlighting helps, but should be modified in a way that makes it personally time efficient and beneficial. For instance, you might combine the use of annotations in the margins with the visual benefit of highlighting the relevant text. You may prefer to underline the relevant text with a pencil, but to use a highlighter to bracket off the different sections of a case. Whatever you choose to do, make sure that it works for you, regardless of what others recommend. The techniques in the remainder of this section will describe ways to make full use of your highlighters.

First, buy yourself a set of multi-colored highlighters, with at least four, or perhaps five or six different colors. Yellow, pink, and orange are usually the brightest. Depending on the brand, purple and green can be dark, but still work well. Although blue is a beautiful color, it tends to darken and hide the text.

Therefore we recommend that you save blue for the elements that you rarely highlight.

For each different section of the case, choose a color, and use that color only when highlighting the section of the case designated for that color. Consider using yellow for the text that you tend to highlight most frequently. Because yellow is the brightest, you may be inclined to use yellow for the Conclusions in order to make them stand out the most. If you do this, however, you will exhaust your other colors much faster than yellow and this will require that you purchase an entire set of new highlighters when a single color runs out because colors such as green are not sold separately. If instead you choose to use yellow on a more frequently highlighted section such as the Analysis, when it comes time to replace your yellow marker, you will need only to replace your yellow highlighter individually. In the personal experience on one of the authors, the sections of cases that seemed to demand the most highlighter attention were the

Facts and the Analysis, while the Issues and Holdings demanded the least. Other Considerations and

Procedural History required lots of highlighting in particular cases although not in every case.

Experiment if you must, but try to choose a color scheme early on in the semester and stick with it. That way, when you come back to the first cases of the semester, you will not be confused with multiple color schemes. The basic sections of a case for which you should consider giving a different color are:

(b) Procedural History

(c) Issue (and questions presented)

(d) Holding (and conclusions)

(e) Analysis (rationale)

(f) Other Considerations (such as dicta)

Not all of these sections demand a separate color. You may find that combining Facts and Procedural History or Issues and Holdings works best. Furthermore, as mentioned above, some sections may not warrant highlighting in every case (e.g., dicta probably do not need to be highlighted unless they are particularly important). If you decide that a single color is all that you need, then stick to one, but if you find yourself highlighting lots of text from many different sections, reconsider the use of at least a few different colors. Highlighters make text stand out, but only when used appropriately. The use of many colors enables you to highlight more text without reducing the highlighter’s effectiveness. Three to four colors provides decent color variation without the cumbersomeness of handling too many markers.

Once you are comfortable with your color scheme, determining exactly what to highlight still may be difficult. Similar to knowing what to annotate, experience will perfect your highlighting skills. Be careful not to highlight everything, thus ruining your highlighters’ effectiveness; at the same time, do not be afraid to make mistakes.

Now that we have covered the basics of reading, annotating, highlighting, and briefing a case, you are ready to start practicing. Keep the tips and techniques mentioned in this chapter in mind when you tackle the four topics in the remainder of this book. If you have difficultly, refer back to this chapter to help guide you as you master the case method of study and the art of using the common law.

More Helpful Links

The american legal system, how to brief a case, how to read a casebook 101, top 20 things you need to know about law school, learn to spot issues like a lawyer, why an internet search is not legal research, why go to law school, what’s the most challenging part of law school, what advice would you give yourself about law school.

IRAC: How to Answer Law Problem Questions

You just got ushered into the examination hall and you take your seat. It’s time for another paper, and you’re hoping that you remember all that you read moments before the exams. After all students have sat down, invigilators share the exam questions and you promptly get yours.

As you look through the questions, you suddenly panic. The exam questions look like passages from a novel. You know what this means — problem questions. You read through the questions but things only seem to get worse, you don’t know what to do. You don’t know how to answer the questions. You don’t know where to start.

Problem questions can be quite problematic, if you don’t know  what to do. Luckily, they are also the easiest questions to answer — if you know your onions. The general technique that you can use to deal with any problem question is the simple formula: IRAC.

If you understand how to use IRAC, dealing with problem questions will seem less problematic. By the time you’re done with this post, you should be able to put any problem question in its place.

What is IRAC?

IRAC is simply an acronym for:

A pplication

C onclusion.

IRAC is a formula that is used throughout the broad sphere of legal writing. IRAC or slight variations is used by judges in delivering judgements, by lawyers in writing their briefs, by lawyers when giving legal opinions, and numerous other areas of law.

In essence, understanding IRAC will not only be useful for your exams, it would help you throughout your career as a lawyer.

How to Use IRAC

Now that we understand what IRAC is, we get to the most important part – actually using it.

Just like we did in the guide to answering law essay questions , I am going to give you a sample question that we will use IRAC for.

This is the question:

Mr Daniel Kiss is a seasoned Fuji musician, he heard of the 10th year wedding anniversary of his long-time friend, Mr Starboy, who wanted to celebrate it in a big way. Mr Daniel Kiss was actually at the ceremony and was delighted to have been called by Mr Starboy to perform at the ceremony. The performance was adjudged by  many people at the ceremony to be superb. After the performance, Mr Owolabi, who was highly impressed, promised to pay Mr Daniel Kiss a sum of 500,000 naira as a reward for his performance.  However, Mr Owolabi didn’t pay this sum and  Mr Daniel Kiss instituted an action to get the money. Advice Mr Daniel Kiss on the chances of success or otherwise of his action.

So, this is how you use IRAC to deal with a problem question:

When you want to determine the issue in a problem question, you have to look for the area of conflict. The conflict in a problem is where the interest of the characters clash and there is a disagreement. Looking at the scenario above, I have emphasized the area of conflict:

After the performance, Mr Owolabi, who was highly impressed, promised to pay Mr Daniel Kiss a sum of 500,000 naira as a reward for his performance. However, Mr Owolabi didn’t pay this sum and  Mr Daniel Kiss instituted an action to get the money. 

From the part I have emphasized here, the conflict involves a promise to pay for an action that has already occurred in the past. In essence, the conflict involves past consideration.

With this in mind, we can formulate the issue in this question as:

Whether or not Mr Daniel  Kiss’ performance was past consideration for Mr Owolabi’s promise?

There are some things you should notice in the structure of the issue. Note that it makes use of “Whether or not”, You can either use this phrase or “whether” when writing an issue. This  is due to the fact that in court cases, issues are usually couched in the form of questions. However, there are some lecturers who don’t want issues couched this way, and they will let you know.

You should also note that the issue relates the facts of the case with the area of law you’re considering. In essence, your issue would be incomplete if you just state something like “whether there was past consideration” or “whether Mr Owolabi owes Daniel Kiss some money”. The perfect issue is a unique combination of facts and law.

The rule is the section of your answer where you resort to authority. This can either be by stating statutory provisions or case law relevant to the issue.

The appeal to authority is something that is important to all law students. It is the provision of case law and statute that separates the writing of a lawyer from a sociologist, political scientist, or any other field of social science.

You should also try to define the legal concept that the question deals with. If the definition is something contained in statute, case law, or any other source of law , you should do well to quote it. If you don’t have any authority to quote, just give a definition to the best of your understanding.

This is an example of the rule for this question:

According to the Black’s Law Dictionary 9th Edition , past consideration can be defined as “An act done or a promise given by a promisee before making a promise sought to be enforced. Past consideration is not consideration for the new promise because it has not been given in exchange for this promise.” In the case of Akenzua II, Oba of Benin vs. Benin Divisional Council (1959) WRNLR 1 , the defendant asked the plaintiff to use his influence to convince the African Timber and Plywood company to release some forest areas to it. The plaintiff was able to successfully prevail on the African Timber and Plywood company to do this. After securing this, the Oba told the council to release part of the land to him for his exclusive use. The Provisional Council agreed to do this. However, it subsequently withdrew its assent. As a result, the Oba sued them to enforce the “contract”. The court held that the Oba’s act was not valid consideration for the Provisional Council’s promise because when the Oba carried out the act, he didn’t do it for a promise. As a result, his consideration is past and there is no valid contract that can be enforced.

Application

In the application part of IRAC, you are going to relate the authority(s) you have used with the facts of the case. This is how you should do it:

In the present scenario, Mr Daniel Kiss performed before the promise of reward by Mr Owolabi. This is similar to Oba Akenzua getting the land before the promise of reward by the Benin Provisional Council in the case of Akenzua II, Oba of Benin vs Benin Provisional Council . In this case, the court held that such act was past consideration, and it makes the contract unenforceable. In the same vein, Mr Daniel Kiss’ performance is past consideration for the promise made by Mr Owolabi. As a result, it is not a valid contract that can be enforced  by the court.

Your conclusion is the part where you give advice to the party the question asked you to give advice to. You can glimpse this from the last sentence of this question which reads:

Advice Mr Daniel Kiss on the chances of success or otherwise of his action.

So, this is how you would advice Mr Daniel Kiss in the concluding part of IRAC:

My advice to Mr Daniel Kiss is that he should not go ahead with the suit because his consideration is past consideration, making the contract unenforceable.

The full Answer

To make things clearer, this is what the full answer to the problem question would look like:

The issue here is: Whether or not Mr Daniel  Kiss’ performance was past consideration for Mr Owolabi’s promise. According to the Black’s Law Dictionary 9th Edition , past consideration can be defined as “An act done or a promise given by a promisee before making a promise sought to be enforced. Past consideration is not consideration for the new promise because it has not been given in exchange for this promise. In the case of Akenzua II, Oba of Benin vs. Benin Divisional Council (1959) WRNLR 1 , the defendant asked the plaintiff/Oba to use his influence to convince the African Timber and Plywood company to release some forest areas to it. The Oba was able to successfully prevail on the African Timber and Plywood company to do this. After securing this, the Oba told the council to release part of the land to him for his exclusive use. The Provisional Council agreed to do this. However, it subsequently withdrew its assent. As a result, the Oba sued them to enforce the “contract”. The court held that the Oba’s act was not valid consideration for the Provisional Council’s promise because when the Oba carried out the act, he didn’t do it for a promise. As a result, his consideration is past and there is no valid contract  that can be enforced. In the present scenario, Mr Daniel Kiss performed before the promise of reward by Mr Owolabi. This is similar to Oba Akenzua getting the land before the promise of reward by the Benin Provisional Council in the case of Akenzua II, Oba of Benin vs Benin Provisional Council . In this case, the court held that such act was past consideration, and it makes the contract unenforceable. In the same vein, Mr Daniel Kiss’ performance is past consideration for the promise made by Mr Owolabi. As a result, it is not a valid contract that can be enforced  by the court. My advice to Mr Daniel Kiss is that he should not go ahead with the suit because his consideration is past consideration, making the contract unenforceable.

So, here you have it, how to answer problem questions with IRAC. If you know your way, it’s quite straightforward. If there are areas that aren’t clear to you, you can leave a comment. Also, don’t forget to share this post with any of your friends that might be needing it. You can easily do that with  the share buttons on the screen. To your success!!

P.S: If you are interested in an online course that makes it easy for you to get A’s in your law exams, you can check it out here:  Get Access to Ace LL.B Exams .

128 thoughts on “ IRAC: How to Answer Law Problem Questions ”

Hi Olamide, thanks a lot for this. My question is whether or not there is a way to know how many issues are contained in a problem question?

Yes, you just have to be on the look out for multiple areas of conflict in the question.

So how do I treat them

What if I don’t know the rules to apply and cases to refer in particular scenarios

1.I find it quite difficult to identify the issues in a question.Any solution? 2.How can I differentiate a problem question from an essay question?

To know the issue in a question, you should just look for the area of conflict in the question, just like in the example. About differentiating problem and essay questions, the differentiating factor is that problem questions have a scenario/story and you have to give advice at the end.

Mr olamide thanks so I really appreciate But in the whereby you asked to discuss the concept of Accord and satisfaction with regards to consideration using case law? How would your answer look like?

That’s an essay question.

Thank you so much Sir. You have really inspired me. Sir in a situation where there are two or more issues raised,how will you go about answering the question in such a situation?

Answer the issues separately.

thanks Olamide for your help am sure to be a better student and you will be proud of me. thanks a lot once.

You’re very welcome.

Sir, when stating the rule while applying the irac method, for instance citing a case, do necessarily need to state the fact of the case or can I just present the holding of the case as a rule.

Thanks sir for sharing your knowledge and understanding with us. In the main time, sir i have a question pls. Can someone advice the parties that is involved in the scenario with only one identify legal issue? i.e you only raised one legal issue on the question and use it to advice two or three parties that are involved in the scenario or story.

Thanks sir for sharing your knowledge and understanding with us. In the main time, sir i have a question pls. Can someone advice the parties that are involved in the scenario with only one identified legal issue? i.e you only raised one legal issue on the question and use it to advice two or three parties that are involved in the scenario or story.

Yes. You can do that, if there is only one issue in the scenario, and if the question tells you to advise all parties.

please sir does this formula apply to a legal report. for instance you were made a secretary to a panel set-up to investigate a matter in report will you use the same format

Thanks graciously for this. My question is must definitions to terms in the Rule forumla b from the law dictionary??

2ndly, can we rephrase the issue to be Whether or not is Mr Owolabi’s promise was on past consideration to Mr Daniel’s promise

No. You don’t have to use the Law Dictionary for definitions, It’s just better. Also, on the rephrasing, Mr Owolabi’s promise is not past consideration. Rather it is the performance by Daniel that is past consideration.

Noted. Thank u

THANKS ,I understand it now.

thank you once again sir. Sir, i wanna ask you a question under criminal law sir. if A and B planned to do robbery but agreed that they would not carry any gun along. but on getting there A brought out a gun and B said, but we agreed not to carry any gun along. nevertheless, A went ahead and shoot C the owner of the car and he died instantly. then both A and B made away with the car and later apprehended by the police. Now sir my questions are, with statutory authorities and decided cases sir, (1) who will be liable for the murder of C? (2) both A & B will liable for the murder of C or only A who brought out the gun without the notice of B that will only be liable for the offense of murder? (3) if both of them would be liable, why would they be liable for the murder or if is only A that will be liable of the murder, why would only he be liable for the murder of C sir?

i would be so grateful if my questions could be answered sir. Thank you sir.

your the best solution of our problem as lawyer in making thanks for your lesson

Thanks very much sir I have a question what if the problem has a mutiplmu issues how do you go about it.

I’m currently working on a course that would deal with this in detail. In summary, what you should do is to use IRAC for each issue, separately.

Thank you so much sir. I believe I will be able to answer a problem question now.

Thank you so much sir…God bless you for this

Thank you sir.

May God reward you. We are ever grateful.

Hello Olamide, My question is concerning whether an introduction is necessary when using IRAC: that is, whether the portion that describes the main concept at hand can come before an identification of the legal issues.

In some circumstances, you can briefly highlight the main area of law the scenario deals with. However, the introduction would be very brief, it could just be a sentence. It should not be long and winding like the kind of introduction you’ll need for an essay question.

Thanks for your guide sir… But i wanna as one question please. When we are writing the exam, do we need to even specify the steps of answering the question on the booklet? i.e do we need to specify introduction, definition, body and conclusion?

Thanks for your guide sir… But i wanna ask one question please. When we are writing the exam, do we need to even specify the steps of answering the question on the booklet? i.e do we need to specify introduction, definition, body and conclusion?

Wow… Dear Sir, you definitely explained the IRAC better than my lecturers. Thanks a lot. However, I have a question. Is it possible to get this document in a PDF that I can download. That is, this your explanation on IRAC?

Thanks for the feedback. You can’t currently do that. However, now that you mention it, I’ll definitely work on making it possible.

Introduction is apt, although it comes in form of a concise discuss on the topic the legal issue is based.

Please how do you answer this question using the IRAC method. “Emeka, a cashier to Omenka Co-operative Society defrauded the Society of a huge sum of money. Emeka who was a first offender immediately tendered the money at the police station and begged for forgiveness. The prosecutor who was moved by Emeka’s show of remorse advised the Chairman of the Society who came to report the case to drop the charges. The Chairman however insisted on the prosecution saying that the stolen money belonged to the Society and that the Executive Committee had resolved to press case to a logical conclusion. Advise the parties. ” what rule applies and what’s the issue? I can’t seem to figure it out

It relates to private prosecution of a criminal case. Check out the case of Fawehinmi vs Akilu. If a private individual wants to prosecute a case, he needs to get an endorsement from the governor.

Thanks But what abt problem question that has more than one issue??

Kudos to you man thanks alot for this write-up

You’re welcome

It’s nice ❣️❣️

Yeah… I know 😉

Thank you for this I really appreciate.

Thank you sir am grateful

thank you for your explanation but i want to ask a question, if the question has multiple issues do you have to highlght in your answers that you are using irac i.e issue: indicate the issue rule: indicate the rule etc or you go ahead and answer the question still using irac but in an essay form

You still have to use IRAC for each issue. But it depends on the kind of question though. In most instances, you do.

please how do they use to set problem question base on internal conflicts of law and the best way to answer the questions

Thank you so much. You have explained so nicely and perfectly. It has saved my day.

Thank you Olamide

Comment thank you very much sir. I think I would have probably made more A’s if I asked earlier but not withstanding my subsequent semester would be a better one. But I would have to read it. Time after time

Thanks Sir for your nice article but pls I need a brief on identifying issues in a customary law case

Thank you so much sir i think i am improving already

If murder, rape, and not paying of tax is in a scenario, is that the conflict?

Yeah. Although it mostly depends on how the question is phrased.

Thank you so much Sir I was bad in understanding law but with this information I’m able to answer to law problem questions

I’m happy to have been of help.

Thank you so much! But I have a question.. According to Plato, Justice is giving each one his due, giving an individual that which he’s naturally fitted. However Injustice is leaving one’s fit, or part and meddling with another’s part..

What is the implication of this platonic view of a philosopher. I don’t seem to understand

I haven’t really come across this quote before. It might be better if you tell me your source, Plato might have explained further.

Thank you so much! It’s really helpful I have personal questions to ask

Okay. Would you like to send me a mail then?

That’s a good one Olamide, U can be a good and wonderful friend. Thanks alot for this.

I’m glad to have been of help.

Due to the patronage in free SHS policy introduced in Ghana in 2018/2019 academic year,Esi yaa had the following agreement with her brother who teachers at Madina boys SHS regarding her son. Esi yaa’ s son kwasi Adu is taking his final year exam at Madina boys SHS. Esi Yaa’s brother kojo Bright is Adu’ s economics teacher. At the start of kwasi Adu’s final year, Esi Yaa tell her brother that she will buy him a laptop if her son gets a A’ in economics. When the results came Kwasi Adu had an A in economics, Bright is now asking Esi to buy the laptop as promised. Consider if the agreement Esi Yaa made with Kojo Bright is enforceable by law. Please how do I go about this question.

This is concerned with the intention to enter into legal relations among family members. You can check this out https://djetlawyer.com/intention-enter-legal-relations/

Hi Mr Olamide, the case scenario a above is a very good guide/example on how to identify problem questions and possibly answer Thank you

Thank you so much sir you really helped me.

Thank you very much sir. I need a brief on how to answer this question, whether or not can an infant be in a contract ?

Hello. You can check this out https://djetlawyer.com/capacity-to-contract/

I have a question sir. What if the question ask you to advise the parties and also write a brief judgement, especially in criminal law problem question?

You can use IRAC to write a judgement.

Can one use analysis onthe part of application? Does it have any notable difference if one decides to do so?

The application is the part where you make your analysis

Hello Mr Olanrewaju, the guide for answering our law questions its quite benefit me because i dont even know how to answer because my lect gave me the AIPAC formula and looking forward is quite similar with IPAC and i think this guide its really good and i can sure that i can solve the answer. Thank your sir.

also sir is it different when we use abstract or is it still same with ipac? aipac (abstract, issues, principle. application, conclusion )

If you lecturer wants that format, then you can use it. Although, I haven’t come across it before.

Good work sir, keep doing the good work this really help me when I was undergoing my diploma in law. Okay our articles help me a lot so much so I pass my law questions perfectly. I was very impressed by your work so much so I wanted to be like you and I started researching how will I be like you. I want to have a site as you do after many research and attending lesson finally I am able to learn how to create a website like your own. Thank you very much. Bless the site sir https://www.legalresearch.com.ng/2020/03/the-injunction-on-justice-in-divine.html

Nice site you have there.

I used to be recommended this website via my cousin. I am now not sure whether or not this post is written via him as nobody else recognize such designated about my trouble. You are incredible! Thank you!

I am so lucky to find myself in this site which has helped me a lot about how to answer law essay and problem questions. I must say u are the best sir

Thanks for the compliment. We’re only doing the best we can.

thank God I am here. I just gained admission to study law and my school is about to resume. I was just engaging in researches on how to answer law questions and then I stumbled on this site. you’ve a new fan here sir, pls sir God grant you grace never to quit

Hello. Congratulations. I’m very glad to have been of help to you.

Please when there is more than one issue how do I represent it

If there are multiple issues, you have to highlight each of them. It depends on the question though, as it’s not so straightforward. This is something I addressed in my online course though.

Sir must you define all the elements of a contract when you are given a contract law questions

Sir if you are told to advice all parties in a question Will you do it one place or in a separate place. Sir is there a present consideration? If there’s one give me an example please.

Good day sir, I wanted to ask that, what does one do when he doesn’t know any rule to use in a problem question?

Ah. That is a serious problem O. As a law student, you should always be ready to back up your points with legal authorities. You should probably learn how to easily memorise legal authorities as that would help you remember rules to use in a problem question. This blog post should be of help:

https://djetlawyer.com/how-to-easily-memorise-legal-authorities/

Pls I have four questions If there are multiple legal issues,how do i answer them using irac? Also,when I’m asked to advise both parties, do I present defences to the defendants and remedies to the plaintif, or give my own opinion on what I feel they should do, with reasons? Do I call them by their names when presenting the issues or stick to plaintiff and defendant? Also, when I’m asked to advise the parties in any question,do I first conclude,as per following the irac rule or give my advice in the conclusion? Pls I anticipate your quick reply Thank you?

Please how do I get to know different cases that could be linked to particular problem question..learning the m is a tough one. I NEED HELP!!!

How do I write/answer this question with relevant cases? Agatha and Ben have been investing on the Zimbabwe stock exchange for 20years with the assistance of their Investment advisor Masimba. Masimba has access to Agatha and Ben’s investment account which is worth 5 million dollars. Masimba approached XYZ bank and opened two bank accounts in the name of Agatha and Ben and made himself a signatory to both accounts. Masimba transferred over 3.5million dollars from the investment account into Agatha and Ben personal accounts and eventually withdrew the funds from both accounts.Upon requesting their statement Agatha and Ben observed the anomaly and they are now suing the bank for negligence. Sighting a relevant case does Agatha and Ben have a legal case?

How do I answer a problem question, if it has more than one issue? Will i take the issue one by one and provide solutions to them, or I’m just going to answer it together

Depends on the question. But most likely, you have to address the issues individually.

Thanks a lot..sure this will really help

thank you, sir

Thanks so much for this

Thank you so much for this post, My question is what if you’ve been given a scenario like the one above and instead of question on advice the party’s, a direct question is given. Like they ask as pertaining to your scenario what is past consideration, or explain it in relation with something else. Is IRAC still advisable to be used.

What if the case is based on argument with respect to cult activities in a particular community..what will be the right issue to present in answering such problem?

Thank you, this is very helpful. Please, can you write on how to identify issues in courses, notably criminal law, torts and human rights?

Sir I understand your teaching on how to use IRAC to solve a problem question and am clear about that. But my challenge is how I can differentiate between problem questions and essay please I need ur help dearly.?????? Thanks Sir.

I kindly need help on this

Agatha and Ben have been investing on the Zimbabwe stock exchange for 20years with the assistance of their Investment advisor Masimba. Masimba has access to Agatha and Ben’s investment account which is worth 5 million dollars. Masimba approached XYZ bank and opened two bank accounts in the name of Agatha and Ben and made himself a signatory to both accounts. Masimba transferred over 3.5million dollars from the investment account into Agatha and Ben personal accounts and eventually withdrew the funds from both accounts.Upon requesting their statement Agatha and Ben observed the anomaly and they are now suing the bank for negligence. Sighting a relevant case does Agatha and Ben have a legal case?

I really appreciate your efforts in helping law students solve contending legal issues. Now my question is this scenario or in another where there are exceptions, how then is the best possible way to answer the question?

Thanks for ur properly guidance

Two students, who were in an electoral body, were involved in electoral malpractice and were rusticated. Your chamber has been approached to prove to the school authority that the issue of the student election is purely a student matter and should not be a curricular issue. Is this a problem question?

This not a problem question simply because there’s no conflict between both parties

Please why are you not serving ads here? It’s a really good job you do here!

Thank you so much Mr Olanrewaju,this is so helpful and explicit.God bless you.

I wish to ask some questions Sir🙇‍♀️ 1.what should I do for in case I omitted any party to the case (either the plaintiff’s name or the defendant’s name) or both,but the facts and court holding are known

2.Or if the the principles are clearly understandable but can not be quoted as they are…?

Nice and informative post sir. This gives me clarity on how to approach legal questions. Thanks once again Mr. Olamide!!

Thanks alot

AM sir Olamide please I would be delighted if u can help me with how to go about questions like this Question😎

_The National Assembly has passed a bill on electronic voting system. The bill has successfully passed through all the law making process only remaining the president assent. The president who has being with the bill for over 35days has refused to sign the bill into law. He didn’t give any valid reason for withholding his assent. He only said that the bill can only becomes law if he wish_

_A.With the aid of statutory provisions and judicial authorities, discuss the legal issues arising from the above case scenario._

_B. Can the bill be passed into law even without the president assent? If your answer is in the affirmative, state reasons with statutory provisions and judicial authorities._

Thank you so much sir. This has really helped . I have been using IRAC wrongly

Kindly help me with all the issues. Thanks, After 15 years of trade in the cocoa industry, Madam Echoke decided to expand into 5 different African Countries. She therefore engaged the services of Kwaku Frimpong to trade from Ghana to Nigeria. After three (3) successful trips to Nigeria, Kwaku Frimpong was promoted to handle all 5 African countries. There was a 40-footer container to be shipped to a new client in Rwanda. While the cocoa beans were being transported to Tema Harbour, the truck got stuck for 2 weeks. Finally, the cocoa beans were on board to Rwanda via Maersk Shipping line. The shipping line noticed during the voyage that the cocoa beans were becoming moldy. Discovering that the cocoa beans will greatly devalue before getting to Rwanda, the shipping line got an offer and sold the cocoa beans at Ethopia, after several impossible calls to Kwaku Frimpong. The new buyer paid the agreed price (based on current market value) to Maersk Shipping line’s transactional account which was immediately transferred to Kwaku Frimpong. Kwaku Frimpong under-declared the said payment and paid Madam Echoke. Advice Madam Echoke and Kwaku Frimpong.

Thanks alot Mr. Olamide. I’ve always had a problem with answering problem questions but you’ve just explained it in a more comprehensible manner. Thanks!

Please sir, how do I know the type of question to apply FIRAC?

You mean IRAC? You apply it to problem questions. These are usually questions that have a scenario. Although, not all questions with scenarios are problem questions, most of them are.

I find this piece very helpful.

Thank you very much.

Your words have a way of calming my anxieties and soothing my soul.

I have been seeing IRAC everywhere but no one has broken it down for me to understand it like this article. Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge i know it will be of good help for me and many others.

Please can you use a rule like criminal law or theories of law to give more examples

John,Emeka and Chinedu are students of the faculty of law Godfrey okoye university.John was in first year while Emekawas in second year One particular Friday night,John and Emeka returned from a disco party at about 3am and switch on the light in their room and began a hot argument about events in the faculty since they resumed.John complained about the nature of legal method saying “The course is too dry and technical”.Emeka agreed with John and frankly admitted that he was constrained to cram the course when it was giving him too much problems.He however quickly added it with a sense of pride that he ultimately scored 60% in the course Chinedu who was already fast asleep was awoken by the argument of John and Emeka.Chinedu reminded the Duo of the universities regulations that all rooms light must be switched off by 12 midnight to allow the occupant to sleep in peace.When his advice was ignored, Chinedu angrily called them a “lawless lawyer”.John who was a member of a wrestling club in his secondary school days, pulled Chinedu out of his bed and beat him to a pulp.Chinedu vowed to retaliate . Unknown to john, Chinedu is the leader of campus secret cult called “Aye boys”.Advise the parties using IRAC stating the issues,rules, application and conclusion one by one within the legal method framework and the issues separately with their rules and application

Thanks lawyer for the explanation on the IRAC. I’m reading Business Law this semester but I always find it difficult to understand basic principles and I could do well in midsemester exams. I really need your assist.

Thank you sir I saw exactly this question in my exam Other questions like Lapse of Time and Promisory estoppel too

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Notify me by email when the comment gets approved.

Join an online course that makes it easy for you to get A’s in your law exams, you can check it out here: Get Access to Ace LL.B Exams.

• Discussion Forum

Why and How: Using the Case Study Method in the Law Classroom

Post by: Jackie Kim and Lisa Brem

Why should legal educators use case studies and other experiential teaching methods, such as role plays and simulations, in their classes?  Hasn’t the Langdell method served legal education well these last 140 years?  Certainly creating and using experiential materials requires a different set of skills from faculty, elicits a different response and level of engagement from students, and poses barriers to implementation. The ABA’s LEAPS Project [i] has a comprehensive list of objections to practical problem solving in the classroom: materials are time consuming and expensive to create and deploy; addition of a case study or simulation to a syllabus inherently displaces other material; and there are few incentives from law school leaders to introduce this type of teaching.

Yet, the argument promoting experiential materials and techniques is strong. The 2007 Carnegie Report [ii] recommended integrating lawyering skills practice into the curriculum alongside doctrinal courses, and the ABA added simulation courses to the list of practical experiences that can and should be offered by law schools in its 2015 Guidance Memo [iii] .

In a 2007 Vanderbilt Law Review article [iv] , HLS Dean Martha Minow and Professor Todd D. Rakoff argued that Langdell’s approach to teaching students using appellate cases does not do enough to prepare law students for real-world problems: “The fact is, Langdell’s case method is good for some things, but not good for others. We are not talking about fancy goals here; we are talking about teaching students ‘how to think like a lawyer.’”

But does the case study method result in a higher degree of student learning? While we have not yet seen a study on the efficacy of the case study method vs. the Langdell method in law schools, research [v] from political science professor Matthew Krain suggests that case studies and problem-based activities do enhance certain types of learning over other types of pedagogy.  In his investigation, Krain compared the results of pre-and post-course surveys of students who participated in active learning with those who received a traditional lecture course. The case studies and problems that Krain used in his non-traditional classes included: case studies in the form of popular press articles, formal case studies, films, or problem-based case exercises that required students to produce a work product.

Krain found that:

Student-centered reflection, in which students have the opportunity to discuss their understanding of the case, allows both students and instructors to connect active learning experiences back to a larger theoretical context. Case learning is particularly useful for dramatizing abstract theoretical concepts, making seemingly distant events or issues seem more “authentic” or “real,” demonstrating the connection between theory and practice, and building critical-thinking and problem-solving skills (Inoue & Krain, 2014; Krain, 2010; Kuzma & Haney, 2001; Lamy, 2007; Swimelar, 2013).

This study suggests that case-based approaches have great utility in the classroom, and they should be used more often in instances where students’ understanding of conceptual complexity or knowledge of case details is critical. Moreover, case-based exercises can be derived from a variety of different types of materials and still have great utility. If deployed selectively in the context of a more traditional classroom setting as ways to achieve particular educational objectives, case-based approaches can be useful tools in our pedagogical toolbox.

For those who might be ready to try a case study, role play, or simulation, there are resources that can help.  Harvard Law School produces case studies for use throughout the legal curriculum. The HLS Case Studies program publishes these teaching materials, and makes them available to educators, academic staff, students, and trainers. Outside of Harvard Law School, links to resources for educators implementing the case study method can be found on the Case Studies Program Resources page. Listed are case study affiliates at Harvard, legal teaching and learning tools, tips for case teaching, and free case materials. Examples include the Legal Education, ADR, and Practical Problem Solving (LEAPS) Project [vi] from the American Bar Association , which provides resources for various topics on legal education, and the Teaching Post , an educators’ forum offered by the Harvard Business School where professors can seek or provide advice on case study teaching.

“… [O]ur society is full of new problems demanding new solutions, and less so than in the past are lawyers inventing those solutions. We think we can, and ought to, do better.” – Dean Martha Minow & Professor Todd Rakoff. [vii]

[i] “Overcoming Barriers to Teaching ‘Practical Problem-Solving’.” Legal Education, ADR & Practical Problem-Solving (LEAPS) Project, American Bar Association, Section of Dispute Resolution. Accessed March 16, 2017, http://leaps.uoregon.edu/content/overcoming-barriers-teaching-%E2%80%9Cpractical-problem-solving%E2%80%9D. [ii] William M. Sullivan, Anne Colby, Judith Welch Wegner, Lloyd Bond, and Lee S. Shulman, “Educating Lawyers,”  The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2007). [iii] American Bar Association, “Managing Director’s Guidance Memo,”  Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar  (2015). [iv] Martha Minow and Todd D. Rakoff, “A Case for Another Case Method,” Vanderbilt Law Review 60(2) (2007): 597-607. [v] Matthew Krain, “Putting the learning in case learning? The effects of case-based approaches on student knowledge, attitudes, and engagement,” Journal on Excellence in College Teaching 27(2) (2016): 131-153. [vi] “Overcoming Barriers to Teaching ‘Practical Problem-Solving’.” [vii] Minow and Rakoff.

Share this:

About Lisa Brem

• Search for:

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive weekly notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address

Follow HLS Case Studies

Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe to our RSS feed

• Et Seq., The Harvard Law School Library Blog
• Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program
• HLS Berkman Center for Internet and Society
• HLS Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
• HLS Program on the Legal Profession
• Program on Negotiation

Recent Posts

• Worker Centers & OUR Walmart: Case studies on the changing face of labor in the United States
• Robbing the Piggy Bank? Moving from mutual to stock form at Friendly Savings Bank
• The Argument for Active Learning
• Spotlight on: International and Comparative Law
• Fair Use Week: 5 Questions with Kyle Courtney

Top Posts & Pages

• How Law Professors Can Write a Problem Solving Case
• Case Development Initiative Blog Posts
• Case Study Program Blog Posts
• Experiential Learning and the Case Study Method
• Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program Blog Posts
• Legal News and Debate
• Problem Solving Workshop Blog Posts
• Program on International Law and Armed Conflict Blog Posts
• Uncategorized

Any opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Harvard University.

Product names, logos, brands, and other trademarks featured or referred to within this manuscript are the property of their respective trademark holders. These trademark holders are not affiliated with the author or any of the author's representatives. They do not sponsor or endorse the contents and materials discussed in this blog.

Outside images are used under a Creative Commons license, and do not suggest the licensor's endorsement or affiliation.

Comments are encouraged. Blog administrators will use their discretion to remove any inappropriate, uncivil, slanderous, or spam comments.

Email the site administrator at [email protected]

Case Studies

Explore case studies of previous cases which Allan Rouben has represented. Find examples of case studies in all focus areas of law.

Legroulx v. Pitre: Striking Jury Notice, Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Rules of Civil Procedure

Background: A complicated action was proceeding in Ottawa before Justice Denis Power and a jury. The plaintiff’s injuries, arising out of a car accident, raised difficult issues of causation and required that complex medical evidence be heard. The plaintiff’s lawyers considered the medical issues were too complex for the jury and brought a motion to …

Legroulx v. Pitre: Striking Jury Notice, Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Rules of Civil Procedure Read More »

Clare’s Case: Labour Law, Duty of Fair Representation and Ontario Labour Relations Board

Background: Clare had been working for General Motors for 23 years before his termination. The company claimed that he had threated a supervisor after being told that a urine sample he had given was diluted. Clare denied the allegation and asked the Union, Canadian Auto Workers Local 222, to grieve the termination. He communicated frequently …

Clare’s Case: Labour Law, Duty of Fair Representation and Ontario Labour Relations Board Read More »

Lucia’s Case: Appeal, Civil Litigation, Jurisdiction and Forum non Conveniens

Background: Lucia resides in Ontario with her family, and was involved in a car accident in Michigan. She brought suit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against the driver and owner of the vehicle, as well as her own insurer given that the Michigan defendants claimed the accident was caused by an unknown vehicle. …

Lucia’s Case: Appeal, Civil Litigation, Jurisdiction and Forum non Conveniens Read More »

Patrizia’s Case: Appeals, Civil Litigation, Negligence and Minimum Maintenance Standards

Background: Patrizia was driving to work early on a snowy morning in April. The roads in Milton were snow covered and slippery. Weather forecasts from the day before predicted an 80% chance of snow, yet the Town of Milton had not scheduled an evening patrol to monitor the roads and clear the snow. Tragically, as …

Patrizia’s Case: Appeals, Civil Litigation, Negligence and Minimum Maintenance Standards Read More »

F.A.’s Case: Criminal Law, Appeals, Sexual Assault and Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

Background: F.A. worked in a medical facility with a much younger female co-worker. There was flirting between them. They went out together one evening, meeting up in a park and later driving around in F.A.’s car. He said he had a surprise for her at the office so they parked close by. Instead of going …

F.A.’s Case: Criminal Law, Appeals, Sexual Assault and Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Read More »

• RMIT Australia
• RMIT Europe
• RMIT Vietnam
• RMIT Global
• RMIT Online
• Alumni & Giving

• What will I do?
• What will I need?
• Who will help me?
• About the institution
• New to university?
• Studying efficiently
• Time management
• Mind mapping
• Note-taking
• Reading skills
• Argument analysis
• Preparing for assessment
• Critical thinking and argument analysis
• Online learning skills
• Starting my first assignment
• Researching your assignment
• What is referencing?
• Understanding citations
• When referencing isn't needed
• Paraphrasing
• Summarising
• Synthesising
• Integrating ideas with reporting words
• Referencing with Easy Cite
• Getting help with referencing
• Acting with academic integrity
• Artificial intelligence tools
• Understanding your audience
• Writing for coursework
• Literature review
• Academic style
• Writing for the workplace
• Spelling tips
• Writing paragraphs
• Writing sentences
• Academic word lists
• Annotated bibliographies
• Artist statement
• Case studies
• Creating effective poster presentations
• Essays, Reports, Reflective Writing
• Law assessments
• Oral presentations
• Reflective writing
• Art and design
• Critical thinking
• Maths and statistics
• Sustainability
• Educators' guide
• Learning Lab content in context
• Latest updates
• Students Alumni & Giving Staff Library

Learning Lab

Getting started at uni, study skills.

• Referencing
• When referencing isn't needed
• Integrating ideas

Writing and assessments

• Critical reading
• Poster presentations
• Postgraduate report writing

Subject areas

For educators.

• Educators' guide
• Answering a legal problem - IRAC

Proper planning is vital to successfully answering a legal problem. Below are some hints and tools using a problem from Company Law.  When answering a legal problem, it is useful to apply the IRAC structure so that you address all areas required.

• IRAC structure

The IRAC method has four steps:

• Identify the issue
• Relevant law - Here you need to explain the law not just state it. This could be sections/s of the Corporations Act or case law
• Application to the facts - the law is applied to the facts of the problem

Use the following IRAC structure as a guide to answer case study questions.

• Issue: Define the legal relevant issue.
• Relevant law: Identify legal principles from cases and statutes. Explain the law, don't just state it.
• Apply to the facts: Develop legal arguments by applying the law to the facts.
• Conclusion: Arrive at a considered conclusion.

Note: Students gain the most marks by explaining the relevant law and then applying it to the facts.

Example question and answer

Bingo Ltd is a manufacturer of electrical goods. It entered into a contract with Melvin Ltd, a large discount retailer. Under this contract, Bingo Ltd was to supply its goods exclusively to Melvin Ltd. The directors of Melvin Ltd subsequently discover that a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bingo Ltd is selling identical electrical goods to competitors at cheaper prices. It appears that the subsidiary was incorporated to enable Bingo Ltd to avoid the effects of the contract with Melvin Ltd. Advise the directors.

(This a five-mark question)

Please note: This is a simple low mark answer (5 marks) to illustrate the use of IRAC only. Many Company Law problems will involve multiple issues. In these scenarios each issue would need to be addressed. For example: The first issue is... The second issue is whether...

1. Read the following question.

2. Now read the following text and try to identify the IRAC structure.  Check your understanding by clicking on the buttons to reveal the IRAC structure.

Read the following question, then identify which part of the IRAC structure best fits each text excerpt by selecting from the drop down menu.

• Writing case notes
• Writing a legal memo

Still can't find what you need?

The RMIT University Library provides study support , one-on-one consultations and peer mentoring to RMIT students.

• Facebook (opens in a new window)
• Twitter (opens in a new window)
• Instagram (opens in a new window)
• Linkedin (opens in a new window)
• YouTube (opens in a new window)
• Weibo (opens in a new window)
• Copyright © 2024 RMIT University |
• Accessibility |
• Learning Lab feedback |
• Complaints |
• ABN 49 781 030 034 |
• CRICOS provider number: 00122A |
• RTO Code: 3046 |
• Open Universities Australia

Law Case Study – How To Answer Case Studies in Law

One of the major challenges students have in business law and other law courses are answering questions under the case study. In this article, I will explain how to answer any law case study question following the same rule you are aware of and which is generally recommended. The IRAC or IDAC Principle.

Law Case Study Tips

IRAC Principle is an acronym which depicts,

“I” for Identification

“R” for Rule(s)

“A” for Analysis

“C” for Conclusion

While the IDAC Principle depicts the same but “D” stands for Definition.

Law Case Study – Question 1

Chuddy requested Kris to transport goods from Lagos to Darlington’s estate in Enugu state for the sum of N200,000.00. Kris replied that he was only prepared to transport the goods for N300,000.00.

Chuddy wrote back to Kris asking him to reconsider the initial price, but Kris did not reply to his letter. Two days later, Chuddy delivered the goods to the business premises of Kris, who transported them to Darlington’s Estate in Enugu State.

Chuddy has refused to pay the N300,000.00 demand by Kris, saying that there was no concluded contract. Advise the party using relevant authorities.

 [Question 1, First Semester Exam 2014/2015. BAM – YABATECH]

ANSWER/SOLUTION

Let’s make use of the IRAC Principle to answer this question, but before this, let me quickly explain how it works.

“I” – Identification.

First of all, you need to identify under which law the case falls, if it is LAW OF CONTRACT then you consider the elements of the law of contract which are Offer, Acceptance, Consideration, Invitation to treat etc…

• So, from the case above, after reading the question/case, you’ll find out that it is AN OFFER . An offer is a definite undertaking with the expectation that it will become binding when the person accepts but since there was no acceptance between Chuddy and Kris, it means that the offer was terminated.

“R” – Rules

From the above rule, we can say that the offer is a counter-offer because the terms [amount involved] were not accepted by both parties which also means that it was rejected.

So, what are the rules for termination of an offer?

• An offer can be terminated through or by Revocation by rejection, the death of either party, the lapse of time and counter-offer [it varies the terms of an offer]

 “A” – Analysis

By Analysis, you are expected to analyze the case study on some facts and principles that are similar in the area of law . [Always remember to lay emphasis on established facts and principles]

Since we have identified the rules applicable stating that it is a counter-offer and it was rejected then let’s see what it means.

• Counter Offer: In a nutshell, counter offer varies the terms of an offer
• By rejection: It means the offeree did not accept the terms of the offer.

“C” – Conclusion

Here, you are expected to conclude your judgment based on legal facts and principles you have identified. Your conclusion should also entail which party has the right to sue or succeed if the matter is taken to court for legal actions.

• So, since a counteroffer cannot give rise to a binding agreement, it means that Kris should not take the issue to court because, by the means of a counteroffer, there was no agreement between both parties.

Related posts:

• Importance of Accounting in an Economy
• EOQ – Definition & Assumptions of Economic Order Quantity
• Ledger Accounts and Trial Balance +Video Guide
• Questions on Permutation and Combination
• Users of Accounting Information
• Petty Cash Book: Analytical & Imperest System (+Video)
• Questions on Set Theory
• Bookkeeping, Accounting and the Double-Entry Principle
• Overhead Costs Definition – What is Overhead Costs?
• Joint Venture Accounting (AOC with Video Summary)
• Questions On Process Costing +Video Guide

4 thoughts on “Law Case Study – How To Answer Case Studies in Law”

Thanks bro…. Bless you too

Wonderful! Am excited that u are doing this bro. God bless u

Nice one bro, good breakdown

Comments are closed.

Insert/edit link

Enter the destination URL

Or link to existing content

Legal Case Study Interviews

Many commercial law firms require candidates to undertake a case study at the final interview stage.

There is not one single format, so it is advisable to ask the recruitment team what you can expect. Below are some general points and tips which have been put together from feedback from students who have gone through the process and what we have learned from law firms. 

Legal Case Study and Commercial Awareness Exercises

Bear in mind that recruiters are always trying to improve their processes so it is likely that they will find new ways to assess candidates each year. It is therefore unlikely that you will find comprehensive resources to practise legal case studies in the same type of ways that you might for management consultancy case studies (in the consulting industry, case studies are extremely well established and follow a broadly similar format during the interview).

Generally speaking legal case studies are not intended to test out technical legal skills – this is partly because they need to be fair to both law and non law students.  Instead they are more likely to test the skills required to be an effective lawyer within the world of (private practice) work. So focus your efforts on your specific law firm research, ways to demonstrate your motivation, and the practice of skills they are seeking rather than on preparing for specific types of exercises.

What Is Being Tested?

The following skills and attributes are likely to be tested throughout the interview process:

• commercial awareness – for example, are you thinking about the client and the issues they may be facing? Are you thinking of the law firm as a business?
• logical thinking - are you able to think in a structured way and use your common sense to arrive at a practical solution?
• analytical skills - can you identify the key issues from a lot of information, perhaps under time pressure?
• judgement - can you summarise the main points of the arguments and come to a conclusion given a certain set of facts?
• time management - can you manage your time effectively? Can you prioritise information and activity? Will you get flustered if presented with a large volume of unfamiliar  information to read?
• dealing with pressure  - can you work under time pressure and stay focused and effective? Can you deal with unfamiliar facts or people and stay calm?
• resilience  - how do you respond to being challenged? How do you respond when something does not go your way or in the face of a difficult problem? Can you defend your point of view?
• interpersonal skills. Are you confident in what you are saying, are you collaborative, can you develop a good rapport and productive working relationships, do you listen well, are you open to feedback, do you have a positive attitude?
• communication.  Can you communicate equally effectively on paper (e.g. in writing a letter/email to a client) and face to face ( e.g. in making a presentation to a group)?  Are you clear? Do you think about the tone and the reader/ audience? Do you have a high standard of general literacy? Is your answer well structured, communicated in plain English and to the point?
• negotiation skills - are you clear about what you are trying to achieve and what, if anything you are prepared to negotiate on?  If you are acting on behalf of someone, are they clear about what you are doing?
• motivation – are you enjoying this even if you feel slightly nervous?

Types of Exercise and Tips for Managing Them

These exercises vary from firm to firm and can be part of an individual interview or a group exercise. The material could be given to you in any of the following formats:

• a paragraph which may be about a current affairs issue or something specifically legal: read and then discuss
• an article from, for example, the Financial Times : read and discuss/answer questions
• a one or two page client scenario with a question posed at the end. For example, 'should this new client be taken on?'
• Summary of the situation – could be in the form of an email or letter
• Client or competitor strategy
• Financial statements
• Information about employees/equipment/other assets (property)
• Contracts, leases, licences
• Litigation, possible actions, non disclosure
• Regulatory information

Tips for the paragraph and article exercises

• Read carefully
• Think about how you would summarise what the article is about in two or three sentences
• Think about the argument/point of view that is being voiced throughout the article. What would be the counter argument if you had to make it?
• Identify two or three key issues – think about political and economic aspects
• There may not be an obvious connection to the law firm. The interviewer may be wanting to stretch you intellectually and see how you think, and find out whether you have an opinion that you are able to defend
• If the article has been reproduced by the firm and is set out in numbered paragraphs, this is so that you can refer to the paragraphs by number in the discussion.

Tips for the client scenarios

Possible scenarios may include a client (or a potential client) who is considering merging or acquiring another company, or a client who is being acquired by a competitor or who is looking for some legal services. The amount of material and time you are given will determine the level of detail you are expected to cover.  In general it is advisable to cover as many aspects as you can broadly, rather than cover only one or two in great detail.

You may be asked a general question such as ‘what advice would you give to the client?’ or three or four specific questions. For the latter it is most important to address all the questions rather than focusing on the detail of one and ignoring others.

It is also very useful to have researched the firm carefully. By doing do you will know facts such as where the firm has offices located (useful when there are several jurisdictions involved in the scenario) and which practice areas it has (allowing you to suggest bringing in expertise from elsewhere in the firm if appropriate).

Tips for “bundle of document” exercises

Some firms will give you anything between 5 and 20 documents to read and answer one or more questions. You may be asked to give a short presentation followed by a discussion with the interviewer(s).

• Read the question(s) carefully and follow instructions
• Flick through quickly to establish the contents and make sure you look at the back page. You may even find an index to help you
• Take a minute to plan your time and leave enough to produce a presentation or at least review your thoughts before the interview
• Use a highlighter
• Identify key elements relevant to the question(s)
• Don’t forget to consider whether the deal should even be done. Is there a deal breaker? Is there another option?
• Consider risks to the client and/or to the firm. For example are there any reputational issues associated for either party? Is there any “conflict of interest” for the firm?
• Structure the presentation: beginning, middle and end which should be short summary with recommendations. Be close to the maximum time allowed
• Be confident in your recommendations, even if you feel that your chosen line of argument is marginal. You can assess the pros and cons of a given situation, but conclude with “on balance, I recommend xyz”. Remember that solicitors are paid to make decisions and that clients need to trust their legal advisers to make them!
• Consider your audience
• Imagine this was actually a real situation at work where you were involved in working with this client – what would you really say to them?
• Check your grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Preparation

Here are some suggestions to help make you feel ready and confident to tackle these exercises:

• Make sure that you research the role of a solicitor carefully such that you have a realistic view of their daily work (in the relevant setting), their responsilbilites and activities and even an awareness of the SRA's Code of Conduct for legal service firms and individuals.
• Have a clear idea of the firm’s practice areas, what type of work they specialise in, where their offices are located, how they differentiate themselves from their key competitors and the challenges that law firms face.
• Read the firm’s annual report or review (and compare it to a competitor), follow their news on Twitter in the weeks ahead of the interview.
• Be aware of what is happening in the legal world.
• Keep up to date with current affairs including areas of business that interest you.
• Learn some basic business language, have a broad understanding of mergers and acquisitions and how they are structured. Know how to read a balance sheet.
• Be clear on the importance of technology for all businesses.
• Practise reading business articles in a set time and then summarise the key points.
• You may find it useful to become familiar with some basic analysis tools used in business such as SWOT and PESTLE as they may help you think of areas to consider in some responses.  Don't go overboard with these though as they might hinder your ability to write a clear and appropriate response if they are used incorrectly.
• Complete some of the exercises that firms offer in their online work experience/online internship schemes. Many are listed on Forage.

Resources for Building Commercial Awareness

Good resources for City and global firms are:

All You Need To Know About The City by Chris Stoakes, and Commercial Law Handbook by Jake Schogger are useful preparation for understanding business terms, how deals work and general commercial awareness as it applies to the legal industry.

Useful websites include:

• My experience on case study interview: How should you prepare for a case-study interview? - a Legal Case Study on LawCareers.Net
• Chambers Student: Commercial Awareness Resources - Legal Blogs
• Chambers Student: Legal industry trends
• LawCareers.Net commercial awareness weekly round ups 
• UK Government guidance on how to set up a business
• BBC News: Business
• How to Read a Balance Sheet (The Non-Boring Version)
• Linklaters “Commercial Awareness” advice  
• Virtual work experience programmes for several law firms including Linklaters, White & Case and Pinsent Masons are available on the Forage platform.
• Warwick Place: news articles about challenges faced by law firms
• legalfutures.co.uk – has a free newsletter rounding up key changes and news in the legal sector.
• Our self directed learning information pages contain resources for free online courses 
• Investopedia has a good dictionary for business terms.

Building Your Commercial Awareness Skills at Oxford

• Attend skills sessions run by law firms online as well as those run by The Careers Service , the  Oxford Law Society , the Oxford Bar Society and the Law Faculty
• The Oxford Strategy Challenge – ideal for building up team work, commercial awareness and skills in working with business clients. Run regularly throughout the year (online).
• Insight into Strategy and Management  – a short course, run each term, to improve your business knowledge.
• Develop your employability skills  – includes many ideas for building these at Oxford including practical suggestions for developing your “business awareness”.
• Presentation and other assessment centre skills advice
• CareerConnect VACANCIES
• CareerConnect EVENTS
• RELATED NEWS

Looking for more?

Check the CareerConnect platform for all our upcoming events and opportunities, book appointments, find jobs and internships, and more.

Login to CareerConnect

Recommended links

Oxford Guide to Careers 202 4

Cover Letters

Sectors & Occupations

See a Careers Adviser

Connect with us

• Follow us on    LinkedIn
• Follow us on  𝕏  X  (Twitter)
• Follow us on    Instagram
• Follow us on    YouTube
• Follow us on    Facebook

• Law Firm Events
• Law Firm Deadlines
• Leaderboards
• Premium Database
• Premium Chat
• Commercial Awareness
• Future Trainee Advice
• Aspiring Lawyers - Interviews & Vacation Schemes
• Interviews Discussion

Definitive Guide to Law Firm Case Studies! *Monday Article Series*

• Thread starter Jacob Miller
• Start date Jan 18, 2021
• Tags assessment centre assessment centre case study case studies case study case study interview law firm case study written assessment

Jacob Miller

Legendary member.

• Jan 18, 2021
• InvestLDN: 50%
• Jacob M: 40%
• Alice G (Jacob’s grandmother): 6%
• Daniel B (Jacob’s uncle): 4%
• We absolutely want 100% ownership; we won’t settle for anything less.
• We don’t want the hassle of having to set up new supply lines for their existing locations, we’re keen to more or less pick up all their suppliers.
• We haven’t been told how much they want for the business yet, but ideally, we don’t want to pay much more than £850mn
• We want Jacob to stay on with a public-facing role in the company - he’s a major part of the brand and we don’t to lose him.”
• For in-person assessment centres, if you’re wearing a wristwatch, take it off and put it somewhere you can see it at a glance to keep time. If you’re completing your assessment centre virtually, make sure there is an accurate clock somewhere that you can see at a glance for the same purpose.
• Spread all the documents in pack across your workspace with a notepad/ whatever you’ll be using for notes in the middle, where you can easily use it. This mitigates the chances of accidentally missing a document if you have them all in one profile.
• Locate whatever document in the file contains the key issues you are asked to cover and make a note of, or highlight, these so you can easily make reference to them.
• Take a few minutes to make a plan. Skim read the information you’ve been given to get a solid handle on key facts and the broad scenario. Use this time to make notes of any particularly obvious issues that jump off the page.

• The solicitor-client relationship between Lawyer McLawface LLP and KoffeeKulture
• The potential buyer-target relationship between KoffeeKulture and Jacob’s Juices
• The shareholder-company relationships between Jacob’s Juices Worldwide and its four shareholders, as well as Jacob’s daily position within the company
• The group company relationships between Jacob’s Juices Worldwide Ltd, the target, and JJ UK/ JJ USA/ JJ Canada
• The supplier-client relationship between FruitsRUs and JJ UK
• Colour coding each issue with a different colour of pen or highlighter. Beware, though, that you could quickly run into issues with the number of colours you have relative to the number of issues in the paper; it is also not guaranteed that you’ll be able to access your bag/ pencil case before the exercise starts, so you may be unable to get all your pens/ highlighters
• Give each issue a number. This is the approach I personally used. As you read through each document and identify an issue, number it. If you then come across another piece of information in a subsequent document which relates to an issue you have already numbered, you can give it the same number, so you remember that they are correlated

• Note, for example, that we have raised concerns about tax and employment obligations after the deal. These are considerations which are a part of every commercial transaction; it is important to show that you have a wider understanding of how deals work.
• In this example, points such as KK’s large existing market share are subtle and also mixed in among a lot of unimportant background information, yet any challenge from a competition authority can completely destroy the prospect of a deal. It is important to look for even the smallest hints throughout the case study.
• For example, in this case study, the termination clause of the contract between JJ and FruitsRUs is included, but, although it seems as though it ought to be important, it is actually of very little consequence for any issues we are considering here.
• In case you were wondering, the issue we left out was in regards the fact that JJ were developing a franchise model before discussions started concerning the acquisition. We would need to conduct further due diligence to find out more about this: what stage were preparations at? Are there prospective franchisees who have signed agreements for obligations we would need to carry forward? Missing a point doesn’t make you any weaker a candidate - they don’t expect you to catch everything!
• Key issues here are that Alice is potentially developing of dementia and Daniel is adamant that he does not want to sell his stake
• There are various issues with the JJ/FruitsRUs contract which could pose challenges here
• JJ was recently valued at £1bn so there is a clear mismatch here. We may need to look at leveraging different issues to lower the purchase price and also look at nuanced payment models such as instalments or targets-based payment
• Jacob wants to leave to start a new venture; we would need to try and negotiate him staying for a longer period and also need to ensure his new venture would not compete with JJ/ KK. We would look to have a non-compete clause in the contract to secure this.
• Identify where you have had to make assumptions for lack of information OR identify where you would need to investigate/track down additional information to not make assumptions.
• Think realistically about the time you are given to prepare and to “report” back (whether in an interview, a presentation or written format). These tasks are always given with a very strict time limit so think about what’s reasonable to do within that. Quality over quantity will generally win out. Do you want to be the person who identifies lots of things superficially and with no connection to other points, or do you want to be the person who is able to show depth of analysis in some areas?
• Prioritise - linked to the above aspect of limited time, but also try to prioritise your points. There’s probably lots you could make, but some are likely to be more substantial, more urgent or more important than others. Your analysis or opinion of what’s more influential will probably be assessed.
• Skim read or have a quick glance through all the information given to you first to try and gauge what information you have in front of you before you start to pull your ideas together. If you start to read through it meticulously from the start, you might end up realising something on the last page blows everything out of the water or changes another point considerably, effectively meaning you have to start from scratch.
• Remember who your audience is. For instance, with a written response, sometimes you’ll be writing something for a partner, sometimes you will be writing for a client. They are very different audiences with very different perceptions of what is important, with very different levels of knowledge. Think carefully about who your audience is and what they might (or might not) already know.
• Plan! When you are given the task don’t be tempted to jump in immediately, have a glance over the information then use your brief to create a plan (e.g. what is the issue, what is the evidence for this issue, what is the solution). This way you can avoid aimlessly looking through the information as you will never have enough time to go through everything in detail.
• Perspective! To help you find a range of issues, try to read through the information given to you from the perspectives of the different practice areas (e.g. what issues would the corporate team raise vs the banking team vs the real estate team vs the competition team). Doing this will enable you to cover more ground.
• Be solution focused! More often than not, once you have identified the issues interviewers will be looking to test your problem-solving skills either directly through the task itself or indirectly through follow up questions. Ultimately the role of a solicitor is to advise clients, so it is important that when you spot your problems, you consider proposals for solving them.
• Structure - Always include an executive summary of your conclusions/analysis/solutions at the beginning. Anyone that has little time to be reading through an entire document of details will want to get the information that is most important first and I think this holds true for any potential audience of the document you’re writing (partners, clients, associates etc.)
• Reasoning - This is a tip geared particularly to case studies that have a discussion element. Even if you are unsure of the answers to any follow up questions you might receive, the key thing is to demonstrate how you’ve come to the conclusion you have made. Really talk through every step of your thought process because even if the final answer is wrong, this is something that demonstrates the analytical skills that firms look for.
• Practice - Make full use of any of the sample case studies you can find on the forum or anywhere else to practice your clarity of writing, structure and level of analysis. This can really help candidates snap out of the long-winded style of writing that many of us default to because of writing university essays.
• Diagram: Often you will be asked to give an overview or a summary of the matter at hand. A great way to do this simply and concisely is to use a diagram to show a visual representation of the scenario. If you have an M&A case study for example, you might want to draw who the buyer, the seller and the target are and use arrows to show the relationship between the parties. You could also note the price of the target here and also perhaps how the transaction is being funded by the buyer if this is given – if they are getting a bank loan, you could add the bank to the diagram and also the sum of the loan. The diagram doesn’t need to be a work of art, but it just needs to sum up the scenario well and it is serving as an aid for you to tell the overall story above anything else. It also doubles up as a repository of useful info from the documents (like deal price) so you don’t need to worry too much about retaining everything in your head! ( Note from Jacob: Looks like we’re on the same page here, Alice! ) 2. Organisation strategy for multiple questions: If you are posed with multiple questions to answer in a case study, I tended to like spider diagrams. I used to write each key question in a bubble in the middle of an A4 page (which would become my spider diagram) and I attributed a different coloured highlighter for each question. Say there were three questions I needed to answer, I would have three pages upon which I would do my diagram and three highlighters, one for each question. I would then go through the materials and use the correct highlighter for when a piece of information would help me to answer a particular question. I would then add that information onto the correct spider diagram with a page number beside it for ease of reference. By the time I had gone through all the information pack, I then had all the info I needed which was easy to re-find in my colour coded information pack. At that stage, I could spend my time constructing my written work/presentation with a greater focus on argument, structure and precision. I found this a really good technique which worked well for me, especially in tight time constraints. 3. Practice areas: Before opening information packs, I would write down all the law firm practice areas and have that in front of me. This helped me to think critically about what I was reading and meant I was actively searching for points and information. Law firms tend to add details into case studies which are really subtle and can be easily missed so I found in approaching case studies in this way, I was better able to pick up on these more subtle and nuanced points which would often help me to get credit for innovative and ‘outside the box’ thinking. Final point – leave ten minutes at the end to proof if it is a written task – this is vital.

Star Member

• Jan 25, 2021

My first AC is coming up tomorrow morning - this could not have come at a better time. Thank you for taking the time to write this!  

Founder, TCLA

Polyglot said: My first AC is coming up tomorrow morning - this could not have come at a better time. Thank you for taking the time to write this! Click to expand...

Jaysen said: Best of luck! Click to expand...

• Jan 26, 2021

Distinguished Member

Hi Jacob, first of all, thank you for this really helpful guide! I just wanted to clarify a few points: 1) In a written case study, let's say about 45 mins, how many points should you pick out? Should you stick to the ones specifically related to the client's demands (so in this case the 4 points mentioned in the note from KK Managing Director) or is it better to include everything you can find? 2) Could you please clarify what's a "targets-based payment"? I tried googling this but couldn't really find the answer. 3) Would you say it's better to try and focus equally between legal and commercial issues? Thank you! 😊  

rachelzane said: Hi Jacob, first of all, thank you for this really helpful guide! I just wanted to clarify a few points: 1) In a written case study, let's say about 45 mins, how many points should you pick out? Should you stick to the ones specifically related to the client's demands (so in this case the 4 points mentioned in the note from KK Managing Director) or is it better to include everything you can find? 2) Could you please clarify what's a "targets-based payment"? I tried googling this but couldn't really find the answer. 3) Would you say it's better to try and focus equally between legal and commercial issues? Thank you! 😊 Click to expand...

• Feb 5, 2021

Jacob Miller said: Very very best of luck with your AC! I'm sure you'll smash it and I'm delighted the article was of help to you!! Click to expand...

Daniel Boden

Polyglot said: Jaysen and Thank you so much! Just wanted to say I was offered a place for the CMS Academy this Tuesday and it is still sinking in. Thank you again for the article, it definitely helped! Click to expand...

Daniel Boden said: Huge congrats! Hope you've been able to celebrate 🎉🥂 Click to expand...

Emma Raymond

• Feb 6, 2021

Thanks so much for posting this article. Was really helpful having a break down of how to approach case studies ahead of my assessment centre. Also appreciated the creativity with regards to the name of the stakeholders!  

• Feb 14, 2021

Hi, You wrote DT in the mind map above. I was wondering what it stands for...Does it mean Dispute Team?  

Alya said: Hi, You wrote DT in the mind map above. I was wondering what it stands for...Does it mean Dispute Team? Click to expand...

• Feb 18, 2021

Jacob Miller said: Hi all, please see below the third of my Monday Article Series! This week is my definitive guide to case studies. It's a long one - you might want to go get a coffee and settle in! Introduction This week’s Monday Article will cover how to approach law firm case studies, one of the most intimidating parts of the Assessment Centre (this was certainly the case for me!). We will first go over a mock case study scenario and then consider some points of technique for approaching the task when you’re first handed the document pack. Thereafter, we will break down the example case study and detail the approach I took to organise my thoughts and group together issues and solutions. Afterwards, we will look at how we would structure our answer for either a written assessment or a subsequent case study interview. Finally, we’ll conclude with some top tips from the fantastic TCLA team! Note, we won’t be examining how to excel in the case study interview, or in wider drafting tasks, today. This article will cover up to the point of structuring your response for the interview or drafting the letter/ email to whomever you have been asked to send it. Case studies are designed to test a variety of skills, including your ability to interpret and analyse large amounts of information. Depending on the format of assessment (i.e., written or presented interview), your drafting or presentation skills may be tested. Interview-style assessments also test your ability to think on your feet and respond to stressful situations where you may not always know the answer. Case studies are also an opportunity for you to demonstrate that you understand the work that commercial law firms undertake and how they may advise clients. Mock Scenario Note: as part of this mock cast study, we have drafted certain contract provisions. These have been greatly simplified for the purposes of this exercise, so will probably look a little different to ones you might see in real assessments! Background: You are a third-seat trainee sitting in M&A at Lawyer McLawface LLP, a large, London-based commercial law firm with international offices in most major European cities as well as satellite offices in New York and San Francisco. It is early on a Monday morning; you’ve just finished your second coffee of the day and are getting ready to go about your usual Monday routine when Jaysen, a Partner from your department, knocks on your door: “Hey- hope you had a nice weekend. Listen, we’ve just been instructed by a regular client on a potential acquisition. I’m really busy, so I don’t have time to fully brief you, but I want you on the deal team after you did so well on that big deal last month. Can you take charge of some initial due diligence for me? Just to pick up on any major issues to flag at a meeting with the client later. It’s urgent and needs to be completed in the next hour while I’m in this meeting. I’ve printed everything you’ll need.” No sooner has Jaysen handed you the document pack than he has turned around and hurried along the corridor to a meeting about another on-going deal that’s been challenged by the CMA. Your training principal, who overheard the conversation, has allowed you to delay the work you were doing for them to let you work on this new task. You open the document pack and establish that the client is KoffeeKulture (‘KK’), a large coffee chain known for their high-quality, ethically sourced coffee. In fact, you just finished one of their signature Orange Mocha Frappuccinos. They are an extremely well-established brand with approximately 25,000 stores and a large market share across the UK and Western Europe. Around 7,000 stores are owned and 18,000 are franchises. They have begun to engage in discussions with Jacob’s Juices (‘JJ’), a newer, but rapidly growing, smoothie and juice chain. JJ has around 12,000 stores across the UK and North America. JJ has supplied your client with a document containing mostly background information about the company, as well as an extract from a key contract with its main supplier, FruitsRUs. These documents, as well as a recent news article about JJ, and a short note from KK’s Global Managing Director, John Koffman, comprise the document pack which Jaysen gave you. Document 1: Background information “To whom this may concern, This document has been drafted for and on behalf of Jacob’s Juices Worldwide Ltd (‘us’/‘we’). It is to be viewed only by its intended recipients, namely, KoffeeKulture Senior Management, legal counsel and any external law firm instructed on the matter. We undertake that any information is true to the fullest extent of our knowledge, although no information contained herein shall form the basis or any part of a sale and nothing contained herein shall be considered a guarantee, warranty or indemnity. Jacob M launched our flagship Juice Bar in Farringdon, London in 2012. He used personal savings as well as money given to him by his uncle and his grandmother to launch the first venue. The venue was a great success and, in 2013, he launched two more Juice Bars, in the Spitalfields and Clerkenwell areas of London respectively. In 2015, by this time with ten Juice Bars around London and the South East, we came to the attention of Private Equity firm InvestLDN, and, after negotiations, they purchased 50% of the equity in the company. Our current shareholder stakes are as follows: InvestLDN: 50% Jacob M: 40% Alice G (Jacob’s grandmother): 6% Daniel B (Jacob’s uncle): 4% The business in its current form was valued in Q3 2020 at £1bn. Jacob is currently our global Managing Director and remains very active in the daily running of the business- it’s not uncommon for him to be seen working at our original Farringdon location if he has a quiet day (our HQ is just a few minutes away). Jacob is a major part of our brand’s image and ongoing success, but he is looking to start a new venture and, thus, is interested in selling his shares in the company and standing down as MD. InvestLDN are now looking to sell their stake in the company to realise their investment. Alice has said that she would be happy to also sell her stake in the company, but Daniel is adamant that he wants to hold onto his share for the foreseeable future. There have been rumours within the senior management that Alice is on the foothills of dementia. In terms of our global position, we currently have around 12,000 stores worldwide with around 2,500 in the UK, 6,500 in the USA (almost entirely on the East Coast) and 3,000 in Canada. We do not currently have a market presence in mainland Europe, although some recent market research we undertook would indicate that our products and brand would be well received in France, Italy, Spain and Germany. All of our stores are brand-owned, though we were developing a franchise model before these discussions started. We had hoped to launch this franchise model by late 2021 or 2022. Each country’s branches are technically under separate legal ownership- “JJ UK”, “JJ USA”, and “JJ Canada” respectively- but they’re all 100% owned by us. We have commercial rental agreements in place for all of our Juice Bars and the HQ office in Farringdon, but we have mortgages on our commercial processing plants in Luton, Delaware and Ontario. Our main produce provider for the UK, FruitsRUs, sources much of the produce from Europe and South America. They have recently raised some concerns surrounding importing produce to the UK post-Brexit, but we are confident that there shouldn’t be any issues. On that note, our contract with them is on a two-year rolling basis. The current two-year period ends on 31st March 2021. Please feel free to reach out for any further information.” Document 2: Extracts from contract between Jacob’s Juices and FruitsRUs “2.1: Change of Control FruitsRUs may, in the event of the sale of more than 50% of Jacob’s Juices Worldwide’s shares, terminate with immediate effect, or re-negotiate any terms of, this contract without committing a breach thereof. FruitsRUs must be notified of any sale before it occurs. ​ 3.7: Termination In order to terminate this contract, Jacob’s Juices must provide a minimum of 90 working days’ written notice to FruitsRUs. FruitsRUs must provide a minimum of 60 days’ notice to JJ for the same. ​ 4.3: Force Majeure FruitsRUs may, in the event of a force majeure event, terminate the contract without committing a breach thereof. ​ 5.1: Dispute Resolution In the event of a dispute arising under this contract, both parties submit to the jurisdiction and laws of Luxembourg.” ​ ​ Document 3: Extract from a recent newspaper article (dated 12/1/2020) “…the TCLA Times can report that Jacob’s Juices has allegedly been accused of causing a customer to have a severe allergic reaction after failing to label one of its signature smoothies appropriately at one of its London locations. The customer is alleged to have gone into anaphylactic shock and required an ambulance after nut-based products were not properly identified as an ingredient in one of the brand’s drinks. The wife of the customer, who is said to be in intensive care in hospital, was heard screaming “This isn’t over! I’ll sue this company until it’s bankrupt!” during the incident. It is unclear whether legal action has commenced. That’s not all that the global drinks chain has had to deal with recently, with reports that a small, rival smoothie chain in the UK has alleged that Jacob’s Juices stole its recipes during its early days, using a disgruntled ex-employee to obtain copies. It recently released a statement saying that it would use the “full force of the law” to see that “justice was done to prevent small companies being taken advantage of by global chains”. Jacob’s Juices have been approached for comment on both matters but have thus far refused.” Document 4: Note from KK Managing Director, John Koffman “… about this proposed acquisition of Jacob’s Juices, I just wanted to make a few points clear: We absolutely want 100% ownership; we won’t settle for anything less. We don’t want the hassle of having to set up new supply lines for their existing locations, we’re keen to more or less pick up all their suppliers. We haven’t been told how much they want for the business yet, but ideally, we don’t want to pay much more than £850mn We want Jacob to stay on with a public-facing role in the company - he’s a major part of the brand and we don’t to lose him.” Your Task: Please complete the due diligence (further research into and analysis of the legal and commercial implications of the information contained within the four preceding documents) that Jaysen has asked you to. You will have 60 minutes. Please pay particular attention to the points raised by John Koffman, as well as any other issues which you feel it is important to raise. Please be ready to present your findings to the client at the meeting in an hour [OR] Please draft a letter to the client to present your findings. Points of Technique It can be extremely intimidating when you’re first presented with the document pack. There is often a mass of information and it can be hard to know where to start. When I approached these tasks, I tended to go through a few routine steps before I started my substantive preparations. Here are some of the things you might wish to consider: For in-person assessment centres, if you’re wearing a wristwatch, take it off and put it somewhere you can see it at a glance to keep time. If you’re completing your assessment centre virtually, make sure there is an accurate clock somewhere that you can see at a glance for the same purpose. Spread all the documents in pack across your workspace with a notepad/ whatever you’ll be using for notes in the middle, where you can easily use it. This mitigates the chances of accidentally missing a document if you have them all in one profile. Locate whatever document in the file contains the key issues you are asked to cover and make a note of, or highlight, these so you can easily make reference to them. Take a few minutes to make a plan. Skim read the information you’ve been given to get a solid handle on key facts and the broad scenario. Use this time to make notes of any particularly obvious issues that jump off the page. Organising your thoughts After you’ve made your initial plans and have a broad understanding of the key issues and parties, it is time to start more substantive preparations. One technique I was taught, which I continue to use even outside of case study scenarios, is to draw a diagram. Using a diagram to identify key parties, their relationships to one another, and also to identify which key issues are linked to each party gives an easy-to-reference visual representation of issues which are at the core of the scenario. They can also be expanded to add information as you continue to read through the scenario in more detail and identify new issues. The diagram will become the ‘hub’ from which you can develop the framework of your response depending on the type of assessment. When drawing your diagram, the first step is to map in the key parties (stakeholders) and their relationships to one another. Below, you’ll see the first stage of my diagram for the above scenario – this will continue to grow as we go through the scenario in more depth. View attachment 2550 As you can see, we have identified key stakeholders in the first ‘phase’ of our diagram, as well as the relationships which they have to one another. In this case, these are: The solicitor-client relationship between Lawyer McLawface LLP and KoffeeKulture The potential buyer-target relationship between KoffeeKulture and Jacob’s Juices The shareholder-company relationships between Jacob’s Juices Worldwide and its four shareholders, as well as Jacob’s daily position within the company The group company relationships between Jacob’s Juices Worldwide Ltd, the target, and JJ UK/ JJ USA/ JJ Canada The supplier-client relationship between FruitsRUs and JJ UK Now we have identified our key stakeholders, we want to move towards analysing the key legal considerations and key commercial considerations. We also need to begin to consider what law firm practice areas would be involved in the deal and in what capacity, as well as whether we can give a definitive answer or solution for a given issue or whether we need more information and, if so, what information is required . By now, you will have a broad understanding of the content of each document. It is still worthwhile, however, to go back in and re-read all the information you’ve been given, this time paying more attention to particular items. It’s important to highlight and annotate information as and when you recognise it is relevant- there are various different ways you could approach this, for example: Colour coding each issue with a different colour of pen or highlighter. Beware, though, that you could quickly run into issues with the number of colours you have relative to the number of issues in the paper; it is also not guaranteed that you’ll be able to access your bag/ pencil case before the exercise starts, so you may be unable to get all your pens/ highlighters Give each issue a number. This is the approach I personally used. As you read through each document and identify an issue, number it. If you then come across another piece of information in a subsequent document which relates to an issue you have already numbered, you can give it the same number, so you remember that they are correlated Breaking down the case study In no particular order (we’ll cover that later), below are a selection of the legal and commercial issues that are present in the above case study example, as well as detail about whether we can provide a solution or if we need more information. Before you read them, though, try going back to see how many you can pick out yourself. Remember that we’ll break down almost every possible issue that could be pulled from this scenario. In a real, timed, case study, it is highly unlikely that you’ll be able to identify every single possible issue. In the next section, we’ll discuss prioritising the different issues you manage to identify, but, for now, these issues are all things which you might expect to pop up in a case study. Note, if a Practice Area block is left blank, this is an issue that would be covered by the Deal Team, i.e., the team in M&A who would lead the transaction from start to finish (in the case study, this is the team that you are a part of, headed up by Jaysen, the partner) . View attachment 2551 View attachment 2552 View attachment 2553 Now that we’ve identified all the relevant issues and potential solutions, let’s see how our diagram has developed with the advent of these new issues being added. New information has all been added in brown ink, with relevant departments noted in black (DT denotes any area that the Deal Team would take charge of): View attachment 2554 Before we go any further, though, I want to highlight a few key considerations based on what we pulled out from the case study in the table above: Not all issues are stated explicitly in the case study Note, for example, that we have raised concerns about tax and employment obligations after the deal. These are considerations which are a part of every commercial transaction; it is important to show that you have a wider understanding of how deals work. Some issues are only stated very subtly In this example, points such as KK’s large existing market share are subtle and also mixed in among a lot of unimportant background information, yet any challenge from a competition authority can completely destroy the prospect of a deal. It is important to look for even the smallest hints throughout the case study. There will almost always be ‘red herring’ information in a case study which is designed to look somehow important but is of little consequence For example, in this case study, the termination clause of the contract between JJ and FruitsRUs is included, but, although it seems as though it ought to be important, it is actually of very little consequence for any issues we are considering here. You will almost never pull out every single issue. We’ve even left one issue out of the table above! This is natural, it would be extremely unusual to be able to identify every single potential challenge in a case study owing to your time restrictions. In case you were wondering, the issue we left out was in regards the fact that JJ were developing a franchise model before discussions started concerning the acquisition. We would need to conduct further due diligence to find out more about this: what stage were preparations at? Are there prospective franchisees who have signed agreements for obligations we would need to carry forward? Missing a point doesn’t make you any weaker a candidate - they don’t expect you to catch everything! Getting ready to present: identifying and prioritising key issues Because case study exercises are timed in such a way as to never quite give you enough time to do all the work you would like to, it is imperative to prioritise key issues so that you’re presenting the most important issues first. The reason for this is that clients, or a Partner heading into a meeting with a client, needs to know the more important issues before they are concerned with smaller, more extraneous matters. It is also very important to present either a solution or next steps in relation to each issue you raise; at the end of the day, it is a commercial solicitor’s job to find solutions to clients’ challenges, so it’s important that you show this in assessment. In my experience, I tended to find that I only ever had time to list the 6 – 8 most important issues when either drafting a letter to a client or preparing for the subsequent interview. When identifying key issues, these don’t have to be all legal or all commercial; in any event, there is often some amount of overlap between them anyway. The key thing to think about when deciding whether an issue is essential or more extraneous is what impact it could have on the deal. If an issue has the potential to stall the deal or is something which is of substantial importance to your client, it would be considered a key issue. If, on the other hand, an issue is unlikely to pose any major challenge and is not of particular importance to your client, it would be considered more extraneous and, so, less important to raise. If your document pack/ task has included particular item of importance, these are things which it is essential to bring up in the letter/ presentation. In this example, we might consider four such points: KK want 100% ownership Key issues here are that Alice is potentially developing of dementia and Daniel is adamant that he does not want to sell his stake KK don’t want to find new supply lines for JJ products and want to maintain their existing suppliers for the time being There are various issues with the JJ/FruitsRUs contract which could pose challenges here KK ideally don’t want to spend any more than £850mn JJ was recently valued at £1bn so there is a clear mismatch here. We may need to look at leveraging different issues to lower the purchase price and also look at nuanced payment models such as instalments or targets-based payment KK want Jacob to stay within the company in a prominent public-facing role Jacob wants to leave to start a new venture; we would need to try and negotiate him staying for a longer period and also need to ensure his new venture would not compete with JJ/ KK. We would look to have a non-compete clause in the contract to secure this. Structuring your response for a subsequent interview There are several factors to consider when structuring a case study response in anticipation of an interview. The first thing to consider is the structure: often, a case study interview will be structured as a presentation and subsequent interview. This presentation may be 10 – 15 minutes and involve you presenting your initial points to the assessor, usually a partner at the firm. Sometimes, the partner will be ‘in character’ as a client, so you must pitch your presentation to the client, and sometimes they won’t, so you’ll pitch it to the partner as such. The firm will almost invariably advise you what the case will be before you go into the room. It is essential that you adjust your presentation according to whether you are meant to be presenting to a lawyer or a client – essentially a layperson with some commercial, but little legal, acumen. If you’re pitching to a client, consider dropping the legal jargon and, instead, explain the issues you raise in plain English. If my interviewer was in character as a client, I would also typically check that they fully understood the point I had made before moving onto the next issue in my presentation. While this might seem patronising, considering that you know the ‘client’ is actually a lawyer who almost certainly knows far more than what you’re presenting them, it is important to show that you have good soft skills and a client-focussed manner. A client wouldn’t like to be rushed through a presentation without knowing what was being said. At the end of the day, they’re paying a lot of money to understand the various issues at hand, so play up to that character as necessary. As an extension of this point, always try and explain the thought process/ logic behind your decisions and conclusions in your presentation. When I had to prepare for an oral presentation, I would typically switch away from my diagram and spend the last ten minutes or so of the preparation time writing a bullet point list with the key issues, and next steps/solutions, I planned to raise during the presentation. I would set this out in the same way that the key issues are identified above. If I had time, I would quickly jot down some of the more extraneous issues in case I had time to discuss them, or for when I was then questioned on them. In my experience, you’re generally allowed to take all your notes into the interview with you, so I would always take my diagram and, if a point came up which I hadn’t subsequently noted on my bullet point list, I could consult this before giving a response. Check on the day whether this is permitted, though, so you know how reliant you will be on whatever materials you are permitted to take in with you. Structuring your response for a written assessment Although preparing a letter for a client, or emailing a partner, might seem starkly different to preparing for an interview, much of the same logic and approach apply. First of all, it is still vital to pitch your writing to the appropriate audience. If anything, it is even more important that, if writing for a client, you write in plain, accessible language and avoid all legal jargon. The reason for this is that, in an interview, a ‘client’ could always stop you to ask for clarification of a point where you have used inaccessible language; this is impossible with a letter. Secondly, and this goes for all legal drafting irrespective of the intended audience, be as concise and straight-to-the-point as possible. Lawyers and high-flying clients are exceptionally busy people and, as such, they don’t have time to read a long-winded introductory paragraph full of niceties and waffle. You almost certainly don’t have time to write it, either. Get straight to the issues you need to mention! I would typically include an Executive Summary at the start of my written exercise with 1 – 2 sentence bullet point summaries of each key issue and solution/next steps before more fully exploring each of the issues thereunder. This shows a good understanding of the needs of those who are likely to read the letter, for example, they might only have time to scan over key points walking between meetings and need a very brief outline of key points. It also shows good drafting skills. Similarl to an oral presentation, try and include some of the thought process/logic that’s gone into each conclusion – make sure to save this for the main paragraphs rather than the Executive Summary though! Another key point to consider here, following on from the issue of pitching to the correct audience in your style of writing, is also to pitch your tone of writing correctly. If, for example, you are drafting an internal email to be sent to a partner, this may be slightly less formal in tone than a letter going to a client. Similarly, if the case study is based on, say, advising a client on a litigious matter, this is likely to be even more formal in tone and approach than advising them on a deal. Use all these different points to show your understanding of client needs and drafting skills. Finally, and possibly the most important part of a written assessment, leave time to proofread! The last thing you want is a great response marred by a couple of silly grammatical or typographical errors. Top Tips from the TCLA team Jessica’s Top Tips: Identify where you have had to make assumptions for lack of information OR identify where you would need to investigate/track down additional information to not make assumptions. Think realistically about the time you are given to prepare and to “report” back (whether in an interview, a presentation or written format). These tasks are always given with a very strict time limit so think about what’s reasonable to do within that. Quality over quantity will generally win out. Do you want to be the person who identifies lots of things superficially and with no connection to other points, or do you want to be the person who is able to show depth of analysis in some areas? Prioritise - linked to the above aspect of limited time, but also try to prioritise your points. There’s probably lots you could make, but some are likely to be more substantial, more urgent or more important than others. Your analysis or opinion of what’s more influential will probably be assessed. Skim read or have a quick glance through all the information given to you first to try and gauge what information you have in front of you before you start to pull your ideas together. If you start to read through it meticulously from the start, you might end up realising something on the last page blows everything out of the water or changes another point considerably, effectively meaning you have to start from scratch. Remember who your audience is. For instance, with a written response, sometimes you’ll be writing something for a partner, sometimes you will be writing for a client. They are very different audiences with very different perceptions of what is important, with very different levels of knowledge. Think carefully about who your audience is and what they might (or might not) already know. Naomi’s Top Tips: Plan! When you are given the task don’t be tempted to jump in immediately, have a glance over the information then use your brief to create a plan (e.g. what is the issue, what is the evidence for this issue, what is the solution). This way you can avoid aimlessly looking through the information as you will never have enough time to go through everything in detail. Perspective! To help you find a range of issues, try to read through the information given to you from the perspectives of the different practice areas (e.g. what issues would the corporate team raise vs the banking team vs the real estate team vs the competition team). Doing this will enable you to cover more ground. Be solution focused! More often than not, once you have identified the issues interviewers will be looking to test your problem-solving skills either directly through the task itself or indirectly through follow up questions. Ultimately the role of a solicitor is to advise clients, so it is important that when you spot your problems, you consider proposals for solving them. Dheepa’s Top Tips: Structure - Always include an executive summary of your conclusions/analysis/solutions at the beginning. Anyone that has little time to be reading through an entire document of details will want to get the information that is most important first and I think this holds true for any potential audience of the document you’re writing (partners, clients, associates etc.) Reasoning - This is a tip geared particularly to case studies that have a discussion element. Even if you are unsure of the answers to any follow up questions you might receive, the key thing is to demonstrate how you’ve come to the conclusion you have made. Really talk through every step of your thought process because even if the final answer is wrong, this is something that demonstrates the analytical skills that firms look for. Practice - Make full use of any of the sample case studies you can find on the forum or anywhere else to practice your clarity of writing, structure and level of analysis. This can really help candidates snap out of the long-winded style of writing that many of us default to because of writing university essays. Alice’s Top Tips: Diagram: Often you will be asked to give an overview or a summary of the matter at hand. A great way to do this simply and concisely is to use a diagram to show a visual representation of the scenario. If you have an M&A case study for example, you might want to draw who the buyer, the seller and the target are and use arrows to show the relationship between the parties. You could also note the price of the target here and also perhaps how the transaction is being funded by the buyer if this is given – if they are getting a bank loan, you could add the bank to the diagram and also the sum of the loan. The diagram doesn’t need to be a work of art, but it just needs to sum up the scenario well and it is serving as an aid for you to tell the overall story above anything else. It also doubles up as a repository of useful info from the documents (like deal price) so you don’t need to worry too much about retaining everything in your head! ( Note from Jacob: Looks like we’re on the same page here, Alice! ) 2. Organisation strategy for multiple questions: If you are posed with multiple questions to answer in a case study, I tended to like spider diagrams. I used to write each key question in a bubble in the middle of an A4 page (which would become my spider diagram) and I attributed a different coloured highlighter for each question. Say there were three questions I needed to answer, I would have three pages upon which I would do my diagram and three highlighters, one for each question. I would then go through the materials and use the correct highlighter for when a piece of information would help me to answer a particular question. I would then add that information onto the correct spider diagram with a page number beside it for ease of reference. By the time I had gone through all the information pack, I then had all the info I needed which was easy to re-find in my colour coded information pack. At that stage, I could spend my time constructing my written work/presentation with a greater focus on argument, structure and precision. I found this a really good technique which worked well for me, especially in tight time constraints. 3. Practice areas: Before opening information packs, I would write down all the law firm practice areas and have that in front of me. This helped me to think critically about what I was reading and meant I was actively searching for points and information. Law firms tend to add details into case studies which are really subtle and can be easily missed so I found in approaching case studies in this way, I was better able to pick up on these more subtle and nuanced points which would often help me to get credit for innovative and ‘outside the box’ thinking. Final point – leave ten minutes at the end to proof if it is a written task – this is vital. That’s all for our biggest yet Monday Article! I hope you've enjoyed reading my Definitive Guide to Case Studies and that you'll find it helpful in coming assessment days! This was the third in a four-part series, please feel free to post or DM me with ideas for the next article and, as always, follow up with any questions in the thread below. Click to expand...

• Feb 21, 2021

hi all, where can I find TCLA’s case studies? I know I have seen them but cannot for the life of me find them right now. (PS: Jacob, thank you so much for this! It is really helpful!)  

Veep9 said: hi all, where can I find TCLA’s case studies? I know I have seen them but cannot for the life of me find them right now. (PS: Jacob, thank you so much for this! It is really helpful!) Click to expand...

• Feb 22, 2021

Jacob Miller said: Pleased you like them! I think @Jaysen or @Alice G might be best-placed to advise on where the case study resources are as I'm unsure of the access level they require. Click to expand...

Similar threads

• Feb 23, 2024
• AspiringSolicitor2024
• Jun 11, 2024
• Feb 29, 2024

• Dec 28, 2023

• Nov 23, 2023
• Introduce Yourself Here!
• This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies. Accept Learn more…

Browser does not support script.

• Autumn Term events schedule
• Student Voice
• You've got this
• LSE Volunteer Centre
• Key information
• My Skills and Opportunities
• Student Wellbeing Service
• PhD Academy
• LSE Careers
• Student Services Centre
• Timetable publication information
• Students living in halls
• Faith Centre

Legal case studies and written exercises

As part of the recruitment process, in this kind of exercise you are given a set of papers relating to a particular situation and asked to make recommendations in a brief report. The firm will pick a case study relevant to the work they do. You are provided with a large amount of factual information. 

The most common written exercise is writing a letter to a client on whether or not to proceed with a business proposal, once you have read the relevant documents. You may be asked to present advice to the client (usually played by a partner) or answer questions on the case. You are being tested on your ability to: 

• Analyse information
• Think clearly and logically
• Exercise your judgement
• Express yourself on paper/ present yourself to a client

Examples of exercises

• Investment project - given a bundle of documents including letter from the bank, background information on accounts. Should the client invest?
• Write a report summarising the information given about an energy firm wanting to take over an urban community regeneration scheme. Look at the strengths, risks, obstacles to scheme and suggestions about whether it should move forward.
• Given a lengthy consultant's report with half an hour to read and then draft a presentation recommending whether to go ahead on buying the company - followed by questions.
• The client, a steel company, is losing money due to a rival. There's also a proceeding against your client. The rival company is thinking of merging with / acquiring your client's company. Look at the extract of a contract between the client and the steel supplier and advise your client of the pros and cons regarding the proceeding.
• Given an accident and medical report and photos - written answers to a series of questions.
• Proposed M&A - pick out the relevant parts to read and then present to the interviewers on what you feel is the correct course of action.
• Legal interpretation question based on fictional health and safety legislation.
• Interpret a section of the mental health act - answer questions from the interviewer.
• Employment service contract - review in order to answer 10 set questions.
• Five passages to rewrite in layman's terms.
• Draft a letter of complaint to a local electrical store regarding faulty goods.
• Read a case study on police ill treatment and then draft a report on the legal matters arising from it.

Individual tasks

Candidates generally work independently on such an exercise and their recommendation or decision is usually to be communicated in the form of a brief written report and/or a presentation made to the assessors. Ensure your thought processes are clearly articulated and available for the scrutiny of the assessors. Of paramount importance, if the brief requires a decision to be made, ensure that a decision is made and articulated.

Group tasks

You may be asked to do a case study as a group. It is likely to be along the lines of the first two exercises in the example with information given to the group to sift through and pull out the key facts. At the end the group will be asked to present to the interviewers, outlining the issues involved and key recommendations and then take questions as a group.

Letter drafting criteria

If in the exercise you are involved in drafting a letter, as part of the assessment the interviewer will check that it:

• Protects the interests of the client
• Meets the client's objectives
• Addresses all relevant factual and legal issues
• Identifies relevant options
• Is logically organised
• Is consistent and coherent
• Is clear and concise

Other preparation

In addition to the general preparation your course provides, you could also:

• Find out what sort of cases your employer specialises in
• Practice a Watson Glaser test, a critical reasoning test often used by firms at assessment centres
• Practice 'skim' reading which is an important skill. This feedback from a candidate demonstrates this: 'The exercise was very time-pressured and I made the mistake of reading all of the information given before starting to write anything down. I got the impression that not all of the info was supposed to be relevant and that they were testing our ability to sift through written material to extract the most important things.'

Don't focus on the technicalities

Non-law students often do well on these exercises as they do not have the relevant knowledge of the law and so focus on sifting the information, whereas law students often get too involved with trying to understand the information in legal terms.

Useful Information

Related topics.

• All about law
• Chambers student
• The Law Society

Süleyman Beyaz Department of Social Policy

Law Careers

Applications and interviews for students with disabilities

February 13 2018

Law and legal services Information for LLM students

Law and legal services Providers of postgraduate courses in law

Law and legal services In-house law

See more articles

Please ensure all the details have been entered correctly in the twitter control..

MEMBERSHIP PROGRAMS

• Law.com Pro
• Law.com Pro Mid-Market
• Global Leaders In Law
• Global Leaders In Law Advisers
• Private Client Global Elite

MEDIA BRANDS

• Law.com Radar

American Lawyer

• Corporate Counsel
• National Law Journal
• Legal Tech News
• New York Law Journal

The Legal Intelligencer

• The Recorder
• Connecticut Law Tribune
• Daily Business Review
• Daily Report
• Delaware Business Court Insider
• Delaware Law Weekly

New Jersey Law Journal

• Texas Lawyer
• Supreme Court Brief
• Litigation Daily
• Deals & Transactions

Law Firm Management

• Legal Practice Management
• Legal Technology
• Intellectual Property
• Cybersecurity
• Law Journal Newsletters
• Analyst Reports
• Diversity Scorecard
• Kirkland & Ellis
• Latham & Watkins
• Baker McKenzie
• Verdict Search
• Law.com Compass
• China Law & Practice
• Insurance Coverage Law Center
• Law Journal Press
• Lean Adviser Legal
• Legal Dictionary
• Law Catalog
• Expert Witness Search
• Recruiters Directory
• Editorial Calendar

Legal Newswire

• Lawyer Pages
• Law Schools
• Women in Influence (WIPL)
• GC Profiles
• How I Made It
• Instant Insights
• Special Reports
• Resource Center
• LMA Member Benefits
• Legal Leaders
• Trailblazers
• Expert Perspectives
• Lawjobs.com
• Book Center
• Professional Announcements
• Asset & Logo Licensing

Content Source

Content Type

About Us  |  Contact Us  |  Site Map

Advertise  |  Customer Service  |  Terms of Service

FAQ  |  Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 ALM Global, LLC.

All Rights Reserved.

• Business of Law News (current)
• Surveys & Rankings Amlaw 100 Amlaw 200 Diversity Scorecard A-List Pro Bono Report Mid-Level Associates Browse All ›
• Litigation Daily (current)
• Law.com Radar (current)

The Fastest Growing Am Law 200 Firm Over the Last 5 Years

A look at the firm's growth and strategy is a case study on how a law firm can add market share, climb the rankings, and grow profits, all at the same time.

July 01, 2024 at 05:00 AM

6 minute read

Andrew Maloney

Share with email, thank you for sharing, what you need to know.

• Since 2018, Spencer Fane has grown from 243 lawyers to about 419 and gone from 15 offices in 8 states to 26 offices in 14 states and the District of Columbia.
• The firm's chair said he and his partners are 'agnostic' about growth, though Spencer Fane has done a little bit of everything to expand their reach and add talent.

The fastest-growing Am Law 200 firm by revenue over the last half-decade isn’t necessarily who you’d expect.

Spencer Fane, once a regional firm mostly known in the Midwest, has leapfrogged 21 spots in the Am Law 200 rankings in the last two years to No. 142 this year, generating $266.8 million in 2023. Overall, the Kansas City-founded firm has increased revenue by roughly 139% since 2018, the highest growth percentage of any Am Law 200 firm in the span of time, including among the New York and West Coast elite firms.

Want to continue reading? Become an ALM Digital Reader for Free!

Benefits of a digital membership.

• Free access to 1 article* every 30 days
• Access to the entire ALM network of websites
• Unlimited access to the ALM suite of newsletters
• Build custom alerts on any search topic of your choosing
• Search by a wide range of topics

Register Now

Already have an account? Sign In Now

*May exclude premium content

Related Stories

• Spencer Fane Notches 16.5% Topline Growth as Firm Seeks Out More Markets
• Despite Market Uncertainty, Am Law 200 Firms Are Poised for Growth

You Might Like

Taft Stettinius & Hollister Continues Expansion With 6 Lawyers From Ice Miller

By Alexander Lugo

Foley Expands in Texas With 2 Jackson Walker Litigators, Jones Walker Finance Lawyer

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Nelson Mullins Adds Tax Controversy Team from Chamberlain Hrdlicka in Houston

Paul Hastings Launches Privacy, Cybersecurity Team in Dallas With Akin Practice Leader

Law firms mentioned.

• Spencer Fane Britt & Browne

Trending Stories

Meet the Judges: 6 Candidates Clear Senate Vote for Superior Court Bench

The American Lawyer

Kirkland Merges Finance Practices Ahead of New Star Hire, as Private Credit Market Booms

Is the ‘Magic Circle’ Dead, Or Just Different?

International Edition

Phila. Jury Returns $68.5M Verdict Over Construction Worker's Deadly Fall

• 25 Years of the Am Law 200: Is Size as a Strategy a Winning Formula?
• People, Places & Profits, Part III: Are Law Firm Financial Metrics Keeping Pace With Inflationary Growth?
• The State of Diversity in Big Law: Get a Sneak Peek on the 2024 Diversity Scorecard Results

Featured Firms

Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates P.C. 75 Ponce De Leon Ave NE Ste 101 Atlanta , GA 30308 (470) 294-1674 www.garymartinhays.com

Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone 2 Oliver St #608 Boston , MA 02109 (857) 444-6468 www.marksalomone.com

Smith & Hassler 1225 N Loop W #525 Houston , TX 77008 (713) 739-1250 www.smithandhassler.com

Presented by BigVoodoo

More From ALM

• Events & Webcasts

Join General Counsel and Senior Legal Leaders at the Premier Forum Designed For and by General Counsel from Fortune 1000 Companies

Honoring outstanding legal achievements focused at the national level, largely around Big Law and in-house departments.

McCarter & English, LLP is actively seeking a midlevel insurance coverage associate for its Newark, NJ and/or Philadelphia, PA offices. ...

McCarter & English, LLP, a well established and growing law firm, is actively seeking a talented and driven associate having 2-5 years o...

Prominent Insurance Defense/Personal Injury litigation law firm located in the Financial District in NYC is seeking attorneys with all level...

Professional Announcement

Full Page Announcement

Subscribe to The American Lawyer

Don't miss the crucial news and insights you need to make informed legal decisions. Join The American Lawyer now!

Already have an account? Sign In

The American Lawyer provides the most informed and trusted source of news, data, analysis and forecasting on the global business of law.

• Latest stories

Surveys & Rankings

• Pro Bono Report

Special Packages

• Special Supplements
• Current Issue

Texas' anti-abortion heartbeat law aimed to save babies, but more infants died.

Texas lawmakers touted their heartbeat law as an effort to save lives , but the state's near-total ban on abortion appears to have triggered an increase in infant deaths, according to a new study published Monday . 

The findings in JAMA Pediatrics show that infant deaths rose after Texas’ Senate Bill 8, which banned all abortion after about six weeks from conception. S.B. 8 became Texas law in September 2021 and U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion just over nine months later, on June 24, 2022. The high court ruling in the Dobbs case prompted more than a dozen states to issue near-total bans on abortion. Observers speculate that evidence will also show increases in infant deaths in those states, akin to what Texas has seen, the study said.

“It just points to some of the devastating consequences of abortion bans that maybe people weren't thinking about when they passed these laws,” Alison Gemmill, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health who authored the study, told USA TODAY. She called the deaths following the Texas heartbeat law its “spillover effects on moms and babies.”

Abortion bans: More than 171K patients traveled out-of-state for abortions in 2023, new data shows

In the wake of the law's passage in Texas, more babies died before their first birthday, likely due to birth defects or genetic problems that wouldn't have allowed them to live, the study found. These pregnancies would typically have been terminated by abortion, according to researchers. The Texas heartbeat law does not provide exceptions for pregnancies involving such conditions. Mothers are legally obligated to carry these babies to birth under state law.

In the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association, Gemmill and researchers from Johns Hopkins and Michigan State University wrote that the Texas law was linked to "unexpected increases in infant and neonatal deaths" between 2021 and 2022. Prior research drew a correlation between the uptick in infant deaths and anti-abortion laws taking effect, however, no studies until now have attributed the fatalities directly to the laws prohibiting the termination of these pregnancies.

"Abortion care is an essential component of comprehensive healthcare, and when it is restricted, the human impacts are devastating," Wendy Davis, a senior adviser for Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, said in a statement. Davis, who filibustered for abortion rights when she was a Democratic state senator, noted that the study only covered 2022, not the results in 2023 and 2024 in the wake of a more restrictive abortion ban that came with the Dobbs decision. This "likely means the situation on the ground today is even more dire," Davis said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's office did not dispute the study's findings but defended the Republican-controlled state's anti-abortion record. This effort included the 2021 heartbeat law "to save the innocent unborn, and now thousands of children have been given a chance at life," Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott, said in a statement to USA TODAY. He said the governor has taken "significant action to protect the sanctity of life" and offered resources to expectant mothers "so they can choose life for their child."

Anti-abortion advocates also didn't contest the uptick in infant deaths cited in the study. Advocates for the heartbeat law and other legislation to restrict abortions say such bans protect life. They say terminating a fetus with a terminal illness is “choosing to kill that child intentionally.”

The overwhelming majority of such abortions happen before the fetus is viable. In Texas, legislation has dramatically reduced the number of abortions performed in the state.

Amy O’Donnell, a spokesperson for Texas Alliance for Life, said the study’s findings didn’t come as a surprise. She said babies born with disabilities and even fatal anomalies deserve a chance at life, even if that means a newborn dies after birth from a condition doctors anticipated would be lethal. The death of a child is not easy, she acknowledged. She noted that her nonprofit offers resources for families grieving from such losses.

“In Texas, we celebrate every unborn child's life saved. We treasure the fact that our laws are protecting women's lives,” she said. “We don't apologize for the fact that we don't support discrimination against children facing disabilities or fatal diagnoses in or out of the womb. And that's the line that we just believe should not be crossed.”

Gemmill, of Johns Hopkins, said babies that died shortly after being born with birth defects "probably caused a lot of unnecessary trauma to families."

Maternal health: Chronic hypertension has soared among pregnant women. Treatment is not keeping pace

The researchers examined death records beginning after the heartbeat law went into effect. The study created a “synthetic Texas” that simulated outcomes that would have happened had the law not been in effect and compared the numbers to national trends during that period. In 2021, 1,985 Texas infants died before their first birthday. The next year, with S.B. 8 in effect, the fatalities jumped to 2,240, a 12.9% increase that came as the U.S. experienced an overall increase of less than 2%. Deaths attributable to congenital anomalies or birth defects spiked nearly 23% in Texas compared to a 3% decrease nationally.

“It suggests that, really, this policy was responsible for this increase in infant deaths in Texas,” Gemmill said.

The study is significant because of Texas’ role as a conservative state with urban and rural areas that may reflect what happens in the rest of the U.S., according to Dr. Tracey Wilkinson, an associate professor of pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Texas has been living under restrictions longer than other states that enacted abortion bans after the Dobbs ruling.

“When people ask me why this is happening, it’s really simple,” said Wilkinson, who was not involved with the new study. “When you take away people’s ability to make decisions (about) if and when they have pregnancies, you’re going to see outcomes like increasing infant and maternal mortality.”

The study did not examine the effects of infant deaths on the health of mothers who were legally required to deliver dead babies to term, nor did it look at the mental health effects of carrying infants and delivering them, only to see them die. The study also raises but does not tackle questions about the financial cost to families of carrying and delivering terminally ill newborns. 

Gemmill is now working to understand the impact of abortion restrictions on parents of different races and ethnicities. Prior research has shown that Black mothers and babies face higher death rates than other groups.

The study reflects what Molly Duane, a senior staff attorney at the abortion rights advocacy nonprofit Center for Reproductive Rights, has seen in the courtroom arguing against Texas' laws. She recently represented women who sued the state after they were denied medical abortions. One of her clients, Samatha Casiano, was required by law to carry a child that developed without a brain. In late May, the Texas Supreme Court ruled pregnant patients must have a “life-threatening condition” in order to terminate a pregnancy.

Duane questioned the claim by anti-abortion activists that Texas is a “pro-life” state, given the study's findings. “Women are hurting, families are hurting, babies are dying, and no one in the state is taking responsibility for any of that real human suffering,” she said.

In late 2023, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found increases in infant deaths for the first time in more than 20 years. The states identified in the report with increased fatalities were states that restricted abortion access, however, experts cautioned at the time that they could not say what had caused the spike in fatalities.

The Texas study went one step further, finding one state where abortion restrictions resulted in more deaths.

Supreme Court rules for Jan. 6 rioter challenging obstruction charge

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday ruled in favor of a former police officer who is seeking to throw out an obstruction charge for joining the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

The justices in a 6-3 vote on nonideological lines handed a win to defendant  Joseph Fischer , who is among hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants — including former President Donald Trump — who have been charged with obstructing an official proceeding over the effort to prevent Congress' certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory.

The court concluded that the law, enacted in 2002 as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act after the Enron accounting scandal, was only intended to apply to more limited circumstances involving forms of evidence tampering, not the much broader array of situations that prosecutors had claimed it covered.

The provision targets anyone who "obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so," but the court determined that its scope is limited by a preceding sentence in the statute referring to altering or destroying records.

The court sent the case back to lower courts for further proceedings on whether the Justice Department could still prosecute Fischer under the new interpretation of the law.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that he was disappointed by the decision because of the impact it would have on the Justice Department's Jan. 6 cases, although he stressed it would not affect the bulk of them.

The ruling "limits an important federal statute that the department has sought to use to ensure that those most responsible for that attack face appropriate consequences," he added.

But the decision was celebrated by Trump, who said the Supreme Court "did the right thing" in Fischer's case.

"They've been waiting for this decision for a long time. They've been waiting for a long time, and that was a great answer. That was a great thing for people who have been so horribly treated," Trump told supporters Friday at a rally in Chesapeake, Virginia.

On Jan. 6, 2021,  prosecutors said, Fischer joined the crowd breaching the Capitol from the east side. “Charge!” he yelled again and again before he pushed forward toward a police line while yelling, “Motherf-----s!” the government says.

He and other rioters then fell to the ground. After other rioters lifted him up, video disclosed as evidence in other Jan. 6 trials shows, he tried to appeal to officers protecting the Capitol, telling them that he was an officer, too.

Fischer previously served as a police officer in North Cornwall Township, Pennsylvania. (Another man named Joseph Fisher, who was also a police officer, was recently sentenced to 20 months in prison for his own role on Jan. 6.)

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that the government's view of the law's reach "defies the most plausible understanding" of the statute in question , 18 U.S. Code 1512. The provision carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

The Justice Department's interpretation would "criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists alike to decades in prison," he added.

To prove a violation, prosecutors now have to show that the defendant "impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects, or ... other things used in the proceeding," Roberts wrote.

He was joined by four other conservatives and one liberal — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — in the majority. The other two liberal justices were joined by conservative Amy Coney Barrett in dissent.

Jackson wrote a separate opinion saying that Fischer's conduct could still be covered by the narrower interpretation of the law.

The joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 to certify the election results "plainly used certain records, documents, or objects — including among others, those relating to the electoral votes themselves," she added.

Barrett wrote that as no one disputes that the joint session was an official proceeding, the question of whether Fischer can be prosecuted "seems open and shut."

The majority, she added, "simply cannot believe that Congress meant what it said" when writing a broad statute intended to cover a lot of different conduct. She wrote that the court "has failed to respect the prerogatives of the political branches" in ruling against prosecutors.

The ruling may not affect Trump's case. Prosecutors said that even if Fischer wins, Trump’s conduct would  still be covered  by a narrower interpretation of the statute.

Fischer faces seven criminal charges, only one of which was the focus of the Supreme Court case. Even if the obstruction charge is ultimately dismissed , the other charges, including assaulting a police officer and entering a restricted building, will remain in place.

The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has in the past been skeptical of prosecutors when they assert broad applications of criminal provisions.

In his election interference case, Trump faces four charges, including one count of obstructing an official proceeding and another of conspiracy to do so.

In a separate case, the Supreme Court is considering Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in the election interference case, which will also affect whether all the charges remain in place ahead of a trial.

While there are 247 cases of the more than 1,400 Jan. 6 cases that may be affected by the Fischer ruling, there are just 52 cases in which it is the only felony offense, and just 27 of those defendants are still serving a sentence. Most recently, Jan. 6 defendant Benjamin Martin was convicted on Wednesday of obstruction of an official proceeding, but he was also convicted of felony civil disorder and misdemeanor offenses.

Recently, judges have been factoring the pending Fischer decision into their sentencing decisions. If a defendant was convicted of another felony, like assaulting an officer, they have stated on the record that they would have reached the same decision regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Fischer case.

Lawrence Hurley covers the Supreme Court for NBC News.

Ryan J. Reilly is a justice reporter for NBC News.

Highlights of the Supreme Court Ruling on Obstruction Charge in Jan. 6 Case

The decision concerned the scope of an obstruction charge to address accounting fraud and the destruction of evidence. Among the defendants facing it is former President Donald Trump.

• Share full article

Adam Liptak

In addition to ruling that federal prosecutors had overstepped in using an obstruction law to prosecute a Jan. 6 rioter, the Supreme Court on Friday issued decisions in two other closely watched cases: upholding a city’s laws aimed at banning homeless residents from sleeping outdoors and cutting back on the power of executive agencies . (Because of an editing error, this post erroneously said the court limited cities efforts to regulate homelessness.)

Charlie Savage

My colleague Alan Feuer already made this point below, but it is worth emphasizing so it does not get buried in other observations: this ruling may not require dropping the obstruction charge against Trump. The accusations against him include a scheme to concoct illegitimate documents to disrupt Congress’s proceeding of counting electoral college votes — namely, fake elector ballots “cast” for Trump by fake electors from states that Biden won.

Read the Court’s Ruling on Jan. 6 Obstruction

The court ruled in favor of a former police officer seeking to throw out an obstruction charge for participating in the riot on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Advertisement

Eileen Sullivan

The defendant at the heart of the case, Joseph W. Fischer, was released from prison on his own recognizance in February 2021. In March, the Justice Department asked the court to change the condition of his release because of threats they say he made on social media to a local public official. In a private message in February on social media, Fischer wrote to the official, “If you believed one word from your FBI buddy, then you’re really stupid. When I win, your name will be one of the first on my lips. You’re already in my book.” There hasn't been a decision on the government’s request yet.

One of the criminal statutes that is likely to take the place of the obstruction count as a tool prosecutors use to hold some of the most disruptive rioters accountable is 18 U.S.C. 231. That statute makes it a crime to interfere with or impede law enforcement during a civil disorder. But where the obstruction count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, the civil disorder count carries a five-year maximum.

Many of the crimes that Jan. 6 defendants have faced have been quite straightforward: assault, trespassing, vandalism. Not so, this obstruction count. Until now, it had been used to describe the often hard-to-pin down situation in which a rioter caused the election certification proceeding to be disrupted. And prosecutors had fairly wide latitude in describing how that disruption was defined.

Rioters who made it all way to the floor of the Senate, say, were often charged with obstruction. So, too, were rioters who showed some understanding — through text messages or Facebook posts — that their actions were intended to disrupt the certification proceeding.

One of the interesting things about the ruling is that while it was a now-familiar 6-3 vote, one of the conservatives, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, wanted to uphold the broader interpretation of the obstruction law as covering the Jan. 6 rioters, while one of the liberals, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, sided with the remaining five conservatives in narrowing its reach to impairing the integrity of documents or other physical objects used in a proceeding.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had foreshadowed her skepticism during the oral arguments, saying that the court should not lose sight of “the backdrop of a real-world context” that Congress wrote the law after the document destruction in the Enron scandal. “There was nothing as far as I can tell in the enactment history as it was recorded that suggests that Congress was thinking about obstruction more generally,” she said.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett had not shown her hand so clearly during the arguments. At one point, however, she did suggest that one could be comfortable embracing the government’s broader reading of the statute by saying that it might be unconstitutional under the First Amendment if prosecutors tried to apply it too aggressively. (Her dissenting opinion did not get into that possibility as a potential limiting factor.)

The obstruction count the court narrowed today has always been an awkward fit for what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Then again, prosecutors faced a difficult task in looking for a law that could hold accountable rioters who disrupted the heart of the democratic process by storming the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The Justice Department reached for this statute in part because it was written somewhat vaguely and appeared to cover almost any kind of obstruction of an official proceeding — in this case, the election certification that was taking place at the Capitol. But in its ruling, the Supreme Court decided that move was an overreach.

Thomas and Alito took part in the case despite calls for their recusal.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., rejecting calls for their disqualification, participated in the case, siding with a member of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Experts in legal ethics have said that the activities of the justices’ wives raised serious questions about their impartiality.

Virginia Thomas, known as Ginny, helped shape the effort to overturn the 2020 election. “Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History,” Ms. Thomas wrote in a text message to Mark Meadows, President Donald J. Trump’s chief of staff, during the fraught weeks between the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6 attack.

Justice Thomas has not given a public explanation for remaining on the case, and he has taken part in other cases arising from the election and the 2021 attack. But he recused himself in October from a case concerning John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who had advised Mr. Trump. Justice Thomas, for whom Mr. Eastman had served as a law clerk, gave no reasons for his decision to disqualify himself from that case.

Justice Alito has been more forthcoming. He explained why he would not recuse from the case in a letter to Democratic lawmakers in May after The New York Times reported that flags that have been used to support the “Stop the Steal” movement had been displayed at his homes in Virginia and New Jersey .

The justice said his wife, Martha-Ann, was responsible. “My wife is fond of flying flags,” he wrote. “I am not. She was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home and has flown a wide variety of flags over the years.”

The court recently adopted a code of conduct for the justices . It allows individual justices to make their own decisions about recusal.

One provision of the code says that “a justice is presumed impartial and has an obligation to sit unless disqualified.”

A second provision says that “a justice should disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the justice’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned, that is, where an unbiased and reasonable person who is aware of all relevant circumstances would doubt that the justice could fairly discharge his or her duties.”

The flags displayed at his properties, Justice Alito wrote, did not require him to recuse from the case. “A reasonable person who is not motivated by political or ideological considerations or a desire to affect the outcome of Supreme Court cases,” he wrote, “would conclude this event does not meet the applicable standard for recusal.”

Indeed, he wrote, he had an obligation to sit and hear the case.

What does the law at issue in the case actually say?

At its core, the case is about the meaning of a provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. It was enacted after the collapse of Enron, a giant energy company, and the exposure of widespread accounting fraud and the destruction of documents by the company’s outside auditor.

There is an uneasy fit between the immediate purpose of the law and its recent use in hundreds of prosecutions arising from the violent riot that forced a halt to the constitutionally required congressional count of presidential electors’ ballots following the 2020 election.

At least part of what it meant to accomplish was to address a gap in the federal criminal code at the time: It was a crime to persuade others to destroy records relevant to an investigation or official proceeding but not to do so oneself.

The law meant to close that gap. It did, in a two-part provision, Section 1512(c) of the federal criminal code:

(c) Whoever corruptly — (1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object , or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding or (2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding , or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

The first part focuses on evidence, making it a felony to tamper with it to affect an official proceeding. The second part makes it a crime “otherwise” to corruptly obstruct, influence or impede any official proceeding.

The heart of this case is the pivot from the first part to the second part. The ordinary meaning of “otherwise,” prosecutors say, is “in a different manner.” That means, they say, that the obstruction of official proceedings need not involve the destruction of evidence — in their view, making the second part a catchall for any kind of corrupt interference with an official proceeding.

The lawyers for Joseph W. Fischer, who was accused of breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and of assaulting police officers, countered that the first part must inform and limit the second one — meaning that the obstruction of official proceedings must be linked to the destruction of evidence. They would read “otherwise” as “similarly.”

Glenn Thrush

Attorney General Merrick Garland says in a statement that he is “disappointed by today’s decision, which limits an important federal statute that the department has sought to use to ensure that those most responsible for that attack face appropriate consequences.”

Garland adds that “the vast majority of the more than 1,400 defendants charged for their illegal actions on January 6 will not be affected by this decision” but vows to “take appropriate steps to comply with the court’s ruling.”

Prosecutors believe that the ruling, while not welcome, will not have a major impact, and they have spent weeks gaming out how to deal with a range of actions they would have to take in response. The initial reaction among several Justice Department officials I’ve texted and emailed with is that it could have been worse.

Some federal judges in Washington who are handling the Jan. 6 cases have already signaled that they are willing to increase the sentences defendants receive on crimes other than the obstruction count in order to make up for any loss in prison time. Recall that the obstruction charge carries a hefty maximum penalty of 20 years.

Maggie Haberman

The political context of this ruling is already becoming apparent. While Trump is not likely to be directly impacted by it in his own federal indictment, it will affect hundreds of people arrested in connection with the attack on the Capitol. Trump, coming off the debate , is already posting on Truth Social about it victoriously.

Trump has been seeking to rewrite the history of Jan. 6 for years — calling it a lovefest, among other things — and has said he’d likely pardon some of those arrested. This will give him a new talking point.

Chris Cameron

Trump celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision in a short post on his social media site. He wrote “Big News!” and attached an image of another post that described the decision as “a massive victory for J6 political prisoners.”

Donald Trump has also been charged under the obstruction law in his federal election case in Washington. But it remains to be seen how the court’s ruling will affect him.

The court has said that the law can be applied only to cases that concern some sort of evidence impairment, like tampering with documents. Federal prosecutors have accused Trump of tampering with documents through his plot to create false slates of electors claiming he won in states that President Biden actually won.

The court’s ruling is likely to have more of an effect on the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol than on Trump himself.

The biggest unknown in the wake of the ruling is the fate of the 52 people convicted exclusively under the law challenged in Fischer, with no other charge — 27 of whom are currently serving sentences in federal prison, according to the Justice Department.

Some basic statistics: nearly 1,430 people have been charged thus far in the attack on the Capitol. Of that number, 249, about 17 percent, were charged under the section of the law challenged in the case, according to Justice Department estimates. And about 100 have been convicted of the charge.

Nearly 1,430 people have been charged in the Jan. 6 attack.

The investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack is already the largest criminal inquiry in Justice Department history, federal prosecutors have said. And more than three years later, it has shown little sign of slowing down.

Every week, a few more rioters are arrested and charges against them are unsealed in Federal District Court in Washington. Prosecutors have suggested that perhaps 2,500 people could ultimately face indictment for their roles in the attack. And the number of arrests in each of the first five months of this year was higher than those in the first five months of both 2022 and 2023.

As of this month, nearly 1,430 people had been charged in connection with the attack, according to the Justice Department. Among the most common charges brought against them are two misdemeanors: illegal parading inside the Capitol and entering and remaining in a restricted federal area, a type of trespassing.

About 350 rioters have been accused of violating the obstruction statute at issue in the Supreme Court ruling, and more than 500 people have been charged with assaulting police officers. Many rioters have been charged with multiple crimes, the most serious of which so far has been seditious conspiracy.

More than 1,000 defendants have already pleaded guilty; about 260 of them have done so to felony charges. Prosecutors have won the vast majority of the cases that have gone to trial: About 170 defendants have been convicted at trial and only two have been fully acquitted.

Nearly 900 people have been sentenced so far, and more than 540 have received at least some time in prison. The stiffest penalties have been handed down to the former leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, far-right extremist groups that played central roles in the Capitol attack.

Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader, was sentenced to 22 years in prison , and Stewart Rhodes, who once led the Oath Keepers, was given an 18-year term .

The main practical effect of the court’s decision, lawyers who try these cases say, is that the Justice Department will face the task of having to resentence more than 100 people who have already been punished under the now-invalid interpretation of the obstruction law.

The bottom line in the Supreme Court’s decision about the federal obstruction law that sits at the heart of hundreds of prosecutions connected to the Jan. 6 attack is this: The justices rejected the idea that a statute initially intended to criminalize things like destroying documents or tampering with evidence in corporate malfeasance cases could be stretched by the Justice Department to include the disruptions of the democratic process that took place when rioters stormed the Capitol.

Before the ruling, prosecutors and some judges adjusted their approach to the charge in Jan. 6 cases.

When the justices announced in December that they planned to consider the soundness of an obstruction law that has been widely used against those who took part in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, many legal experts expressed concern that their ruling could deliver a devastating blow to the Justice Department’s efforts to hold hundreds of rioters accountable.

Federal prosecutors have often used the obstruction count in lieu of more politically fraught charges like seditious conspiracy to punish the central event of Jan. 6: the disruption of a proceeding at the Capitol to certify the election.

But even before the court heard arguments in April, judges and prosecutors working on Capitol riot cases quietly started to adjust. For one thing, there are currently no defendants facing only the obstruction charge, according to the Justice Department. And ahead of the ruling, some judges signaled they would increase the sentences stemming from other charges if the obstruction count — which carries a hefty maximum penalty of 20 years in prison — was not available to them.

In February, for example, Judge Royce C. Lamberth denied an early release to an Iowa man, Leo Kelly, who was sentenced to 30 months in prison on the obstruction count and six other misdemeanors.

Judge Lamberth’s reason for not setting Mr. Kelly free?

Even if the Supreme Court ruled he was not permitted to sentence Mr. Kelly for obstruction, Judge Lamberth said he could increase the defendant’s total time in prison by imposing consecutive, not concurrent, terms on the misdemeanor charges.

Here’s the latest on the decision.

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that prosecutors had overstepped in using an obstruction law to charge a member of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, read the law narrowly, saying it applied only when the defendant’s actions impaired the integrity of physical evidence. Lower courts will now apply that strict standard, and it will presumably lead them to dismiss charges against many defendants. The most prominent defendant charged using the law in question is former President Donald J. Trump, as part of the federal case accusing him of plotting to subvert the 2020 election.

Here’s what to know:

Constraining prosecutors: The decision removes an important tool from prosecutors going after those who stormed the Capitol. Some 1,430 people have been charged in Jan. 6 cases, and of those, about 350 of the defendants faced this obstruction charge. Prosecutors had reserved it for the most serious cases in their effort to hold accountable people who they believed disrupted the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

Standing their ground: Rejecting calls for their disqualification, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. participated in the case and sided with the defendant, Joseph W. Fischer. Experts in legal ethics have said that the activities of the justices’ wives raised serious questions about their impartiality.

The charge itself: At issue was part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which was enacted after the collapse of the energy giant Enron and contains a broad catchall provision that makes it a crime to corruptly obstruct, influence or impede any official proceeding. Mr. Fischer faced six other charges. Read more about what the law says .

The Trump connection: Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the federal election interference case against the former president, has said Mr. Trump’s conduct could be considered a crime under even a narrow reading of the law. The former president is accused of tampering with documents through his plot to create false slates of electors claiming he won in states actually carried by President Biden. He also faces two other 2020 election charges unrelated to the law.

The case involves a former police officer: Mr. Fischer sent text messages to his then-boss, the police chief of North Cornwall Township, Pa., about his plans for Jan. 6, according to the government. In one message, he wrote that “they should storm the capital and drag all the democrates into the street and have a mob trial.” Mr. Fischer’s lawyers have said that he attended the rally on the Ellipse but was not part of the initial assault. “When the crowd breached the Capitol, Mr. Fischer was in Maryland, not Washington, D.C.,” his lawyers wrote in their brief. “He returned after Congress had recessed.”

The Supreme Court says prosecutors overstepped with a Jan. 6 charge.

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that federal prosecutors had improperly used an obstruction law to prosecute some members of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The ruling could affect the prosecutions of hundreds of rioters out of the more than 1,400 who have been charged with an array of offenses for taking part in the effort to block certification of the 2020 election results.

It could also have an effect on part of the federal case against former President Donald J. Trump accusing him of plotting to overturn his 2020 loss at the polls. But the precise impact on those cases will not become clear until trial courts review them in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Prosecutors had argued that the law applied to efforts to obstruct an “official proceeding” — the joint session of Congress that took place on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify the Electoral College results.

But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, read the law narrowly, saying it applied only when the defendant’s actions impaired the integrity of physical evidence.

Lower courts will now apply that strict standard, and it may lead them to dismiss charges against some defendants, although most of those charged or convicted under the obstruction law also face other charges.

The vote was 6 to 3, but it featured unusual alliances. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a liberal, voted with the majority and filed a concurring opinion. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative, wrote the dissent.

None of the opinions in the case discussed the charges against Mr. Trump, which rely only in part on the obstruction law.

Justice Jackson said the Jan. 6 attack was an assault on democracy. But that was not, she wrote, the question before the court.

“On Jan. 6, 2021, an angry mob stormed the United States Capitol seeking to prevent Congress from fulfilling its constitutional duty to certify the electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election,” she wrote. “The peaceful transfer of power is a fundamental democratic norm, and those who attempted to disrupt it in this way inflicted a deep wound on this nation.”

“But today’s case is not about the immorality of those acts,” she wrote. “Instead, the question before this court is far narrower: What is the scope of the particular crime Congress has outlined?”

A broad reading of the law, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “would criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists alike to decades in prison.”

Federal prosecutors have downplayed the significance of the obstruction charge, saying it was an important but not essential part of their overall strategy to prosecute the 1,427 people charged thus far in the attack on the Capitol. Of that number, 350 were charged under the section of the law challenged in the case, according to the Justice Department.

The biggest unknown is the fate of the 52 people who have been convicted exclusively under the law, with no other charge — 27 of whom are currently serving sentences in federal prison.

It is almost certain that those behind bars will immediately petition the court for their release. But investigators in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington have continued to accumulate a vast trove of evidence, much of it in the form of new electronic communications from people who have already stood trial.

That additional evidence might implicate some of the Jan. 6 defendants on other charges, which could lead to new trials, according to law enforcement officials.

The defendant in the case before the justices, Joseph W. Fischer, for instance, faced six other charges.

Justice Jackson stressed that reading the law narrowly did not necessarily mean that Mr. Fischer would prevail.

“It might well be that Fischer’s conduct, as alleged here, involved the impairment (or the attempted impairment) of the availability or integrity of things used during the Jan. 6 proceeding,” she wrote. That question, she wrote, is for lower courts to decide.

The effect of the ruling in Mr. Fischer’s favor on Mr. Trump’s case could also be limited. Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought the federal election interference charges against the former president, has said Mr. Trump’s conduct could be considered a crime under even a narrow reading of the obstruction law. Mr. Smith used the law in connection with Mr. Trump’s effort to create slates of electors pledged to vote for him from states won by President Biden.

A brief passage in the majority opinion may lend support to that view. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that it is possible to violate the obstruction law “by creating false evidence — rather than altering incriminating evidence.”

That statement might well encompass Mr. Trump’s efforts to create slates of fake electors.

In any event, the former president faces two other charges unrelated to the law, part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

In a separate case, the justices appear poised to rule on Monday on whether Mr. Trump is immune from prosecution for actions he took as president. The court’s ruling could render moot questions about whether the 2002 law covers his conduct.

The Supreme Court has said that the purpose of the obstruction law, prompted by accounting fraud and the destruction of documents, was “to safeguard investors in public companies and restore trust in the financial markets following the collapse of Enron Corporation.”

The question for the justices in the case, Fischer v. United States, No. 23-5572, was whether the law could be used to prosecute Mr. Fischer, a former Pennsylvania police officer .

According to the government, Mr. Fischer sent text messages to his boss, the police chief of North Cornwall Township, Pa., about his plans for Jan. 6. “It might get violent,” he said in one. In another, he wrote that “they should storm the capital and drag all the democrates into the street and have a mob trial.”

Prosecutors say that videos showed Mr. Fischer yelling “Charge!” before pushing through the crowd and entering the Capitol around 3:24 p.m. on Jan. 6. He used a vulgar term to berate police officers, prosecutors said, and crashed into a line of them. He was, the government’s brief said, “forcibly removed about four minutes after entering.”

Mr. Fischer’s lawyers, by contrast, stressed that he had attended the rally on the Ellipse but was not part of the initial assault.

“When the crowd breached the Capitol, Mr. Fischer was in Maryland, not Washington, D.C.,” his lawyers wrote in their brief. “He returned after Congress had recessed.”

“His earlier Facebook posts about violence, when read in context, refer to his belief that antifa planned to disrupt the rally,” they continued. He had yelled “Charge!” in “obvious jest,” they added.

In disrupting the certification of Mr. Biden’s electoral victory, prosecutors said, Mr. Fischer had obstructed an official proceeding in violation of the 2002 law, which was principally concerned with the destruction of evidence.

At least part of what the law meant to accomplish was to address a gap in the federal criminal code: It had been a crime to persuade others to destroy records relevant to an investigation or official proceeding but not to do so oneself. The law sought to close that gap through a two-part provision. The first part made it a crime to corruptly alter, destroy or conceal evidence to frustrate official proceedings. The second part, at issue in Mr. Fischer’s case, makes it a crime “otherwise” to corruptly obstruct, influence or impede any official proceeding.

The heart of the case is at the pivot from the first part to the second. The ordinary meaning of “otherwise,” prosecutors said, is “in a different manner.” That means, they said, that the obstruction of official proceedings need not involve the destruction of evidence. The second part, they say, is a broad catchall.

Mr. Fischer’s lawyers countered that the first part must inform and limit the second one — meaning that the obstruction of official proceedings must be linked to the destruction of evidence. They would read “otherwise” as “similarly.”

Justice Jackson largely agreed. “There is no indication whatsoever that Congress intended to create a sweeping, all-purpose obstruction statute,” she wrote.

In dissent, Justice Barrett, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, wrote that “Congress meant what it said.”

Glenn Thrush contributed reporting.

An official website of the United States government

Here’s how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

HHS Announces Cost Savings for 64 Prescription Drugs Thanks to the Medicare Rebate Program Established by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Lower Cost Prescription Drug Law

Under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, some people with Medicare will pay less for some Part B drugs if the drug’s price increased faster than the rate of inflation.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), today announced that some Medicare enrollees will pay less for 64 drugs available through Medicare Part B. The drugs will have a lowered Part B coinsurance rate from July 1, 2024 – September 30, 2024, since each drug company raised prices faster than the rate of inflation.  Over 750,000 people with Medicare use these drugs annually, which treat conditions such as osteoporosis, cancer, and infections. White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden will announce the cost savings on these life-saving drugs in a keynote address on the Biden-Harris Administration’s focus on lowering costs today at the Center for American Progress.

“Without the Inflation Reduction Act, seniors were completely exposed to Big Pharma’s price hikes. Not anymore. Thanks to President Biden and the new Medicare inflation rebate program, seniors are protected and benefitting from lower Part B drug costs,” said White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden. “The Biden-Harris Administration will continue fighting to bring down the cost of health care and prescription drugs for all Americans.”

“President Biden’s Medicare prescription drug rebate program is putting money back in the pockets of seniors and people with disabilities, said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “President Biden made lowering prescription drug costs for Americans a top priority, and he is delivering on that promise. Our work is not complete, and we will continue to fight for lower health care costs for all Americans.”

Please find soundbites from HHS’ Chief Competition Officer, Stacy Sanders, here .

Because of President Biden’s lower cost prescription drug law, the Inflation Reduction Act, which established the Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program, some people with Medicare who use these drugs during this time period may save between $1 and $4,593 per day.

“Everyone should be able to afford their medication, and the Inflation Reduction Act continues to deliver on this goal to improve affordability,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “Discouraging drug companies from price increases above the rate of inflation is a key part of this effort, and CMS continues to implement the law to bring savings to people with Medicare.”

Padcev, a medication used to treat advanced bladder cancer, is an example of a prescription drug with a price that has increased faster than the rate of inflation every quarter since the Medicare Part B inflation rebate program went into effect, resulting in lowered Part B coinsurances for seniors and others with Medicare. A beneficiary taking Padcev as part of their cancer treatment may have saved as much as $1,181 from April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024, depending on their coverage and course of treatment. Another example, Crysvita, treats a rare genetic disorder that causes impaired growth, muscle weakness, and bone pain. A beneficiary taking Crysvita may have saved as much as $765 from July 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024 depending on their coverage and course of treatment.

The Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program is just one of the Inflation Reduction Act’s prescription drug provisions aimed at lowering drug costs. In addition to this program, the law expanded eligibility for full benefits under the Low-Income Subsidy program (LIS or “Extra Help”) under Medicare Part D at the beginning of this year. Nearly 300,000 people with low and modest incomes are now benefiting from the program’s expansion. A comprehensive public education campaign is underway to reach the more than three million people who are likely eligible for the program but not yet enrolled.

In addition, as of January 1, 2024, some people enrolled in Medicare Part D who have high drug costs have their annual out-of-pocket costs capped at about $3,500. In 2025, all people with Medicare Part D will benefit from a $2,000 cap on annual out-of-pocket prescription drug costs.

The Inflation Reduction Act requires drug companies to pay rebates to Medicare when prices increase faster than the rate of inflation for certain drugs. CMS intends to begin invoicing prescription drug companies for rebates owed to Medicare no later than fall 2025. The rebate amounts paid by drug companies will be deposited in the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund, which will help ensure the long-term sustainability of the Medicare program for future generations.

For more information on the Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program visit, https://www.cms.gov/inflation-reduction-act-and-medicare/inflation-rebates-medicare

To view the fact sheet on the 64 Part B drugs with a coinsurance reduction for the quarter July 1, 2024 – September 30, 2024, visit, https://www.cms.gov/files/document/reduced-coinsurance-certain-part-b-rebatable-drugs-july-1-september-30-2024.pdf

More information and helpful resources about the Inflation Reduction Act and how it is helping to lower costs for people with Medicare can be found at LowerDrugCosts.gov .

Sign Up for Email Updates

Receive the latest updates from the Secretary, Blogs, and News Releases

Subscribe to RSS

Receive latest updates

Related News Releases

Hhs publishes first round of inflation reduction act case studies on health sector climate investments, hhs releases new data showing over 10 million people with medicare received a free vaccine because of the president’s inflation reduction act; releases draft guidance for the second cycle of medicare drug price negotiation program, biden-harris administration furthers medicare drug price negotiations, releases new data on how the president’s historic law lowers health care costs for women, media inquiries.

For general media inquiries, please contact  [email protected] .

Pardon Our Interruption

As you were browsing something about your browser made us think you were a bot. There are a few reasons this might happen:

• You've disabled JavaScript in your web browser.
• You're a power user moving through this website with super-human speed.
• You've disabled cookies in your web browser.
• A third-party browser plugin, such as Ghostery or NoScript, is preventing JavaScript from running. Additional information is available in this support article .

To regain access, please make sure that cookies and JavaScript are enabled before reloading the page.

• Our Supporters

US Supreme Court Ruling Gives City More Leeway In Removing Homeless Encampments

This UH Professor Is On A Mission To Get The State To Revisit A 1906 Murder Case

Chad Blair: Why Can’t We Vote For Who We Want In Hawaii’s Primary?

State Expects Upcoming Energy Study To Answer Cost And Carbon Questions For Hawaii

The Honolulu City Council Fought A Bill Requiring Greater Neighborhood Density. Now It Must Carry It Out

• Special Projects
• Mobile Menu

Former HART Board Members Violated Sunshine Law By Discussing Consulting Contract In Private

Ultimately, Colleen Hanabusa turned down the lucrative consulting contract in favor of rejoining the unpaid board as public scrutiny grew.

Three key board members overseeing Honolulu’s Skyline transit construction violated state open meeting laws when they traded emails about hiring Colleen Hanabusa to a lucrative consultant contract before discussing the proposal in an open meeting, the Office of Information Practices ruled last week.

When the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s board finally did take up Hanabusa’s potential hiring at its Dec. 17, 2020 meeting, the discussion took place under a vague agenda item described as a “budget reapportionment.” It made no mention of hiring a new consultant. 

That denied the public a chance to properly weigh in on the potential hiring, further violating the state’s Sunshine Law on open meetings, OIP determined. The agency found that board members did not intend to withhold information from the public, even though several of their emails inquired about how much they would actually need to disclose to the public during open session.

The agency’s June 25 decision comes nearly three years after HART board members, amid growing public scrutiny, abandoned their attempt to hire Hanabusa as an outside consultant under a contract that would have been worth almost $1 million for up to six years to help find more funding for the cash-strapped transit project.

Instead, Hanabusa opted to rejoin the unpaid HART board , which she had previously sat on and chaired in 2015 and 2016. She now serves as the group’s chair again. 

“The fact that the HART board was engaging in this type of conduct at the time and thought that it was OK — that they could just talk story in email about what they were going to do … obviously they didn’t understand what the Sunshine Law required,” Public First Law Center Executive Director Brian Black said.

Black asked OIP in 2021 to investigate whether any violations had occurred after he reviewed HART emails that Civil Beat obtained via a public records request. The state agency is notorious for taking several years in some cases to issue decisions on open government matters.

The three HART board members who had discussed hiring Hanabusa via email — Toby Martyn, Lynn McCrory and Hoyt Zia — have all since left the board. Martyn was the group’s chair when he resigned in 2021 shortly after the Hanabusa controversy.

Martyn said he was unavailable to comment Friday because he was traveling. McCrory and Zia declined to comment.

The OIP decision last week on Black’s three-year-old request does not cover the separate questions raised at the time over whether HART had written the contract procurement so narrowly that only Hanabusa would qualify.

The rail agency sought someone with a law degree and 20 years of experience practicing law, at least 10 years of experience at either the city and county or state level of government “in legislation and policy making” and a minimum of five years of experience at the federal government level in legislation and policy making.

Hanabusa, a longtime labor attorney who served in the Legislature and in the U.S. Congress, met those qualifications, was the only bidder and was awarded the contract before opting not to accept it.

She has said she was surprised at how closely the qualifications reflected her own credentials. “What they came up with was not something I expected,” Hanabusa said in 2021.

‘Do You Think This Is Adequate Disclosure?’

If the board had followed through with Hanabusa’s hiring “there would have been serious issues from many different directions” under the state’s open meetings law, and the action could have been nullified, Black said.

“You’re really undercutting the intent of the Sunshine Law when you have such a substantial sum of money and procurement essentially being resolved by email by key board members, rather than discussing it in an open meeting,” he added.

On Dec. 7, 2020, Martyn suggested in an email thread with the other two members plus the board’s executive officer, Cindy Matsushita, that the group consider hiring Hanabusa to lobby the state Legislature to extend the rail project’s general excise and transient accommodation tax revenues.

Hanabusa could also help convince the Federal Transit Administration to release the project’s remaining federal funds, which were being withheld, Martyn wrote.

OIP found that the board members did not “show an intent” to evade public scrutiny under the Sunshine Law.

However, the emails released to Civil Beat in 2021 did show conversations between Martyn, HART staff and the city’s corporation counsel on how to best advance the consulting contract through the HART board’s public meetings.

“In open session, my plan is to only talk about the desire for the board to engage a consultant to assist us,” Martyn wrote in a Dec. 15, 2020 email to corporation counsel. “Do you think this is adequate disclosure for open session?” The response was redacted.

Hanabusa made Sunshine Law training and compliance “a priority” at HART after she rejoined the board as a volunteer and her colleagues promoted her back to chair, the OIP decision stated.

On Friday, Hanabusa said her emphasis on that training had nothing to do with how her potential consultancy had been handled at HART.

“I didn’t know about all that was going on” prior to rejoining the rail board, Hanabusa said.

“I’ve always been a stickler for sunshine,” she said. “I think we are very careful about compliance with sunshine and what needs to be followed in terms of going out.”

Common Cause Hawaii Program Manager Camron Hurt said that it’s especially important for HART to “adhere to the utmost transparency” given its struggles to manage Honolulu rail, a transit project whose cost has doubled, whose completion date has been pushed back 10 years.

The system’s original route has also been trimmed by more than a mile, shedding two planned stations in the process.

“An organization like HART should leap at it, because it’s the only thing that’s going to help restore the public’s faith is them being more transparent,” Hurt said Friday.

Read the OIP ruling here:

--> Sign up for our FREE morning newsletter and face each day more informed. --> Sign up for our FREE morning newsletter and face each day more informed.

Only 1% of readers are donors to civil beat.

More than 600,000 people read Civil Beat articles every month, but only 7,000 of those readers also donate to support the news they count on. That’s only 1% of readers!

If you are among the 99% of Civil Beat readers who haven’t made a donation before in support of our independent local journalism, you can change that today . A small donation makes a big impact.

About the Author

Top Stories

Another Suicide At The Maui Jail Leaves A Grieving Family To Conclude ‘Something Is Wrong’

First Amendment Groups Oppose Veto Of Bill To Limit Governor’s Power To Cut Off Electronic Media In Emergencies

Scott Nago: Running Hawaii’s Elections In An Age Of Trump-Inspired Skepticism

Danny De Gracia: Why It’s Still Important To Celebrate The United States

The Maui Fires In Photos: June 2024

Candidate Q&A: Kauai County Council — Fern Holland

Candidate Q&A: Kauai County Council — Jeffrey Lindner

Candidate Q&A: Honolulu City Council District 3 — David Kauahikaua

Get in-depth reporting on hawaii’s biggest issues, sign up for our free morning newsletter.

You're officially signed up for our daily newsletter, the Morning Beat. A confirmation email will arrive shortly.

In the meantime, we have other newsletters that you might enjoy. Check the boxes for emails you'd like to receive.

• Breaking News Alerts What's this? Be the first to hear about important news stories with these occasional emails.
• Special Projects & Investigations What's this? You'll hear from us whenever Civil Beat publishes a major project or investigation.
• Environment What's this? Get our latest environmental news on a monthly basis, including updates on Nathan Eagle's 'Hawaii 2040' series.
• Ideas What's this? Get occasional emails highlighting essays, analysis and opinion from IDEAS, Civil Beat's commentary section.

Inbox overcrowded? Don't worry, you can unsubscribe or update your preferences at any time.

• --> Login or Sign Up

Shop by Author

• Sabrineh Ardalan
• Robert Bordone
• Robert Clark
• John Coates
• Susan Crawford
• Alonzo Emery
• Heidi Gardner
• Philip B. Heymann
• Howell E. Jackson
• Wendy Jacobs
• Adriaan Lanni

Jeremy McClane

• Naz Modirzadeh
• Catherine Mondell
• Ashish Nanda
• Charles R. Nesson
• John Palfrey
• Bruce Patton
• Todd D. Rakoff
• Lisa Rohrer
• Jeswald W. Salacuse
• James Sebenius

Joseph William Singer

• Holger Spamann
• Carol Steiker
• Guhan Subramanian
• Lawrence Susskind
• David B. Wilkins
• Jonathan Zittrain

Shop by Brand

• Howell Jackson
• Ashish Nanda and Nicholas Semi Haas
• Chad M. Carr
• John Coates, Clayton Rose, and David Lane
• Ashish Nanda and Lauren Prusiner
• Ashish Nanda and Lisa Rohrer
• Ashish Nanda and Monet Brewerton
• View all Brands
• $0.00 - $2.00
• $2.00 - $2.00
• $2.00 - $3.00
• $3.00 - $3.00
• $3.00 - $4.00
• Published Old-New
• Published New-Old

Balloon Boy

Todd D. Rakoff, Alex Whiting, and Kyle Virgien

Family Property Dispute Facilitation

The Case of the Encumbered Employee

The Case of the Section 8 Housing Vouchers

Todd D. Rakoff, Paul Radvany, and Rebecca Goldberg