How to Brief Counsel on a New Matter

Handing counsel a scanned file and saying "please advise" wastes the most expensive time in the matter. Senior advocates read fast, but they cannot invent the question you actually need answered, and they should not have to reverse-engineer the procedural position from a stack of annexures. A brief earns its keep when it tells counsel what to decide, where the case stands today, and which facts are solid enough to build on.

Open with the decision you need, not the story

Put the ask in the first paragraph. Is this an opinion on merits, advice on maintainability, a view on interim relief, or a strategy call before the next date? Counsel will read the file differently depending on the question, so naming it first saves a second reading. If there are two or three questions, number them and rank them, because the answer to the first often changes the second.

State where the matter actually stands

Before the facts, give the posture in a few lines:

• The forum, the stage, and the next listed date
• What relief is sought and by whom
• What has already been ordered, and what is pending compliance
• Any limitation, deadline, or interim arrangement currently in force

A brief that omits the posture forces counsel to guess whether they are advising on filing, defending, or salvaging, and the three call for very different advice.

Anchor every material fact to its proof

For each fact that carries weight, point to the page and paragraph in the bundle that establishes it. Where a fact rests on a client's account rather than a document, say so and name who supplied it. This separation is not pedantry. When counsel later builds a submission, they need to know instantly which facts they can assert and which they can only allege, and that line should be visible without a phone call.

Put the bad news near the top

The material that hurts your case is the material counsel most needs early. Adverse documents, damaging admissions, weak limitation, an unhelpful order, a witness who will not hold up under cross: state them plainly. Counsel who discovers a fatal document three days before the hearing has been set up to fail, and the failure will be traced back to the brief, not the file.

Be honest about what is missing

Rarely is the record complete when the first brief goes out. If a key agreement has not arrived, a certified copy is awaited, or an account is still one-sided, say so explicitly rather than letting a tidy bundle imply completeness. Mark the gaps, note who is chasing each one, and give an expected date. Counsel can advise around a known gap; they cannot protect against one they were never told about.

Make the brief easy to answer

Attach only the current versions of the documents you reference, indexed so counsel can find a citation in seconds. Keep the covering note tight enough to read in one sitting, and end it with the specific questions restated, so the reply has a clear shape to fill. If a fact or citation is critical, ask counsel to confirm it against the primary source rather than accepting your summary, because the responsibility for getting the authority right sits with the person arguing it.

A brief done this way costs an hour more to prepare and saves a day of back-and-forth. Counsel reads the question, trusts the facts because each is sourced, sees the risks because you flagged them, and can give advice you can actually act on.