7.6 Writing Case Comments, Law Office Management and Legal

Auditing Case comments (the academic skill): the case note and the comment as legal literature — the structure: the citation and the court; the facts distilled; the issue(s); the holding; the reasoning analysed (the precedent's significance, the doctrine's development, the policy's implications); the comment vs the note (the note reports-and-analyses; the comment criticises-and-proposes); the craft: accuracy (the report read before the writing), proportion, original voice (the plagiarism discipline — LAW 404's ethics). Law office management (the office's systems — Unit 3.4's fuller frame in skills form): the practice's organisation — the diary-and-docket discipline (deadlines tracked, limitation never missed — the malpractice number-one prevented); the file management's lifecycle (the wakalatnama first; chronological filing; closing with documents returned and receipt); the conflict-check institutionalised (the new client screened — the check documented); the engagement letters (scope and fee in writing); the delegation supervised (the juniors mentored, not abandoned); the client communication routine (updates proactive — silence as the complaint's seed); the confidentiality's physical and digital architecture (locked cabinets, disciplined e-mail, the wrong-recipient disaster double-checked away). Legal auditing (the practice's self-examination): the files audited (the open cases reviewed — the dormant files discovered, the next steps calendared); the accounts audited (the clients' money separate — the trust discipline; the fees billed and recorded; the office's books honest); the compliance audited (the tax obligations —…