Most internal office memos run between five and fifteen pages, but there is no fixed rule for how long a legal memo should be. The right length depends on what kind of memo you’re writing. An internal memo for a supervising attorney is sized to the complexity of the question, the reader, and the purpose. A memorandum of law filed with a court is sized to whatever page or word limit the court’s rules impose. Getting the length right matters less than making every page earn its place.
First, Which Kind of Memo Are You Writing?
The phrase “legal memo” covers two very different documents, and the length question has a different answer for each.
An internal office memo is a predictive document written for other lawyers at your firm. It analyzes how a court would likely apply the law to a client’s facts. Nobody outside the firm sees it, and no court rule governs how long it can be. You decide.
A memorandum of law is filed with a court to support or oppose a motion. It’s persuasive, the audience is the judge, and courts routinely impose strict page or word limits. You don’t decide; the rules do.
If someone asked you to write a “legal memo” and you’re not sure which type they mean, ask before you draft. The length constraints are not comparable.
Typical Length for an Internal Office Memo
Internal memos don’t come with official page limits, but most fall in a predictable range. A straightforward question with settled law might need only three to five pages. A memo addressing multiple legal issues, conflicting authority, or a detailed factual record can easily reach ten to fifteen pages or more.
The three-to-ten-page range that law schools commonly reference works as a starting point. Experienced attorneys routinely exceed it when the analysis demands it. The number to aim for is however many pages the question actually requires, not a preset target.
What Drives the Length
Three variables control how long an internal memo ends up.
Complexity of the Legal Issue
A memo analyzing whether a contract clause is enforceable under settled precedent is a different animal from one evaluating a novel constitutional question with a circuit split. More complex issues require more rule explanation, more case comparisons, and more nuanced application. Fighting the length on a genuinely complex memo produces a worse product. If the analysis requires twelve pages, write twelve pages.
Audience
A memo for a senior partner who assigned the research and already knows the facts can skip much of the background. A memo that will be shared with a client, forwarded to co-counsel, or placed in a file for future reference needs more context. When you don’t know exactly who will read the memo or when, err toward more factual background and less assumed knowledge.
Purpose
A quick advisory on a narrow question (“Can we include this clause?”) might be two pages. A comprehensive research memo surveying the law across multiple jurisdictions on an unsettled topic could run twenty pages or more. A memo meant to support a litigation strategy needs enough depth that the trial team can rely on it months later without redoing the research. Match the depth to how the memo will actually be used.
Law School Assignments and Writing Samples
For law school assignments and job application writing samples, the expectation is more concrete. Most law schools and employers ask for writing samples between five and ten pages. Judicial clerkship applications sometimes accept up to fifteen. These samples are typically excerpts from longer memos, trimmed to demonstrate legal reasoning within a manageable length.
When the Memo Is Filed With a Court
Once a memorandum is filed with a court, you don’t get to decide the length. Federal and state courts set maximum page counts or word counts, and exceeding them without permission can get your filing rejected.
Federal Appellate Courts
Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32 caps a principal brief at 30 pages or 13,000 words, and a reply brief at 15 pages or 6,500 words. Most practitioners use the word-count limit rather than the page limit, because word counts aren’t affected by formatting choices like font size or margin width. Items like the cover page, table of contents, table of citations, and certificates of counsel don’t count toward the limit.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 32 – Form of Briefs, Appendices, and Other Papers
Federal District Courts
Trial-level federal courts set their own limits through local rules, and these vary significantly from district to district. Page limits for memoranda of law in support of motions commonly fall between 15 and 25 pages, though some courts have shifted to word-count limits instead. Individual judges may impose even tighter restrictions through their own standing orders. Check both the local rules for the district and the individual judge’s practice requirements before drafting.
State Courts
State court limits vary widely. Some impose page limits, others use word counts, and some leave length to the attorneys’ discretion unless a judge orders otherwise. In jurisdictions that do set limits, memoranda of law are commonly capped between 10 and 25 pages, with reply memoranda held to roughly half that. Check the court’s rules of practice before you start writing.
Pages or Words? Formatting Changes the Answer
Formatting choices can make the same content look much shorter or much longer on the page. Standard formatting for internal memos is 12-point font (typically Times New Roman or a similar serif typeface), double-spaced lines, and one-inch margins. Some firms prefer single-spacing for internal documents, which can nearly halve the page count.
This is why word counts are a better measure of length than page counts. A ten-page double-spaced memo contains roughly 2,500 words. The same content single-spaced fits on about five or six pages. If someone says a memo “should be about ten pages,” ask whether they mean double-spaced, and whether they’d rather hear a word count. For court filings, the rules specify the formatting, so page counts are meaningful. For internal memos, page counts are approximate at best.
Keeping It Short Without Cutting the Analysis
The biggest length savings come from structural choices, not word-level edits. Leading with your conclusion in each section (the point-first approach) lets the reader know where you’re headed immediately, which cuts the need for lengthy setups and transitions. Attorneys who adopt point-first writing consistently report shorter documents without loss of analytical depth.
A few habits reliably trim length:
- Cut case descriptions to what matters. The reader needs the holding and the relevant facts, not the full procedural history of every cited case. One or two sentences per case is usually enough.
- Eliminate throat-clearing. Sentences like “It is important to note that” and “The court went on to state” add nothing. Start with the substance.
- Use headings to carry weight. A clear heading like “The Non-Compete Clause Is Likely Unenforceable” means the first paragraph of that section doesn’t have to restate the point.
- Address counterarguments efficiently. Acknowledge the other side in a sentence or two, then explain why it doesn’t change the outcome. Spending three paragraphs on an argument you’re ultimately dismissing signals that you haven’t figured out how strong it actually is.
After drafting, read the memo once specifically looking for paragraphs that repeat a point made elsewhere. Redundancy is the most common source of unnecessary length, and it’s almost invisible to the writer on a first read. If two paragraphs make the same point using different cases, pick the stronger case and cut the other paragraph.