Legal opinions · 01
Formal written legal opinion
A written opinion in the form a board, council or executive can file and rely on: the question as framed, the facts and assumptions relied on, the applicable law with authority, the analysis, the…
A written opinion in the form a board, council or executive can file and rely on: the question as framed, the facts and assumptions relied on, the applicable law with authority, the analysis, the conclusion, and the qualifications and limits of the opinion. Delivered with an executive summary a board can read in two minutes.
Boards, councils and executives who need a defensible written answer — and, frequently, who need to show that they took advice before deciding.
An opinion that does not state its assumptions is worthless the moment the facts turn out to be slightly different, and an opinion with no stated limits invites reliance it was never meant to carry. Both are drafting failures, not analysis failures.
The law it sits under
The framework this work answers to.
An opinion is only as good as the question it answers and the facts it assumes. The structure is settled: the question as framed, the facts and assumptions relied on, the applicable law with authority, the analysis, the conclusion, and the limitations — including what would change the answer. An opinion that omits its assumptions cannot be relied on, because nobody can tell whether it still holds when the facts move.
How the engagement runs
What you are committing to.
The question is settled in writing before any work starts, because most weak opinions answer a question slightly different from the one the board needed answered. Facts are taken from the organisation’s own documents and every assumption is stated on the face of the opinion. The deliverable is a document a board can file and rely on, and that a successor can pick up in two years and understand.
The practice is a consultancy and its director is on the non-practising roll. An opinion here is an advisory document for the organisation’s own decision-making and record. Where a matter needs counsel’s opinion, litigation or any other reserved work, that is said at the outset and the matter is referred.
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