Memos & Office Writing
Memos, client letters and email: the version you read, for the reader you have.
Office advice is read after you write it. A partner forwards your memo, a client acts on it months later, a colleague pastes its citations into a brief. So every citation in office writing has two jobs: lead the reader to the passage, and show which version of the law you read. Below is the kind of citation a client memo about a deadline that moved should carry.
A rule cited to the eCFR, dated the way the eCFR dates it
28 C.F.R. § 35.200(b)(1) (eCFR as of Oct. 8, 2026).
- 1 title number
- 2 code, abbreviated
- 3 section sign, one space, section
- 4 the paragraph you rely on
- 5 the publication you read
- 6 the date that fixes the text, not the day you looked
8.1A citation that shows what you read
In the print and Kindle editions
8.2Who reads it decides where the citation goes
In the print and Kindle editions
8.3Full citations and short forms in a memo
In the print and Kindle editions
8.4Cite the version you read, and say when you checked
In the print and Kindle editions
8.5Free links and copies for readers without your database
In the print and Kindle editions
8.6Unpublished opinions: advice versus court
In the print and Kindle editions
8.7Quoting for clients and supervisors
In the print and Kindle editions
8.8Client letters, email and research notes
In the print and Kindle editions
8.9Record what you checked: the source log
In the print and Kindle editions
8.10Office, agency and court style guides
In the print and Kindle editions
8.11Errors to catch
In the print and Kindle editions