To end a formal legal letter, close with an appropriate formal phrase (“Sincerely,” “Very truly yours,” or “Respectfully submitted,”), add any protective language the situation requires above the closing, and follow it with a complete signature block plus notations for enclosures, copies, and delivery method. The elements below the final paragraph carry real legal weight: they identify who is bound, preserve privileges, and create a record of what was sent.
Pick the Closing Phrase That Fits
Three phrases cover almost every formal legal letter:
- Sincerely is the versatile default for demand letters, client communications, correspondence with opposing counsel, and general legal business letters.
- Very truly yours is a traditional, highly formal closing that remains standard in legal practice, and many attorneys default to it for all external correspondence.
- Respectfully submitted is the expected phrase when writing to a court or judge, including letter briefs and responses to court orders.
Capitalize only the first word and follow the phrase with a comma. “Sincerely,” is correct; “Sincerely Yours,” is not. Skip “Best regards,” “Warm regards,” and “Thanks” in formal legal correspondence; they undercut the letter’s authority.
Add Protective Language Before the Closing
Some letters need a line or two above the closing phrase to prevent the contents from being used against you later. Skipping these safeguards is one of the most consequential mistakes in legal drafting, and it is easy to avoid.
Settlement Communications Under Rule 408
When a letter contains a settlement offer, compromise proposal, or any discussion of terms to resolve a dispute, mark it to invoke Federal Rule of Evidence 408. That rule generally prevents settlement offers and statements made during negotiations from being admitted as evidence to prove liability or the amount of a claim.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 408 – Compromise and Offers to Compromise Standard practice is to place a header like “CONFIDENTIAL SETTLEMENT COMMUNICATION PURSUANT TO RULE 408” at the top of the first page and reference it again above the closing. Rule 408 applies whether or not you label the letter, but marking it makes the protection far easier to invoke later.
Reservation of Rights
If your letter addresses some issues but not others, include a reservation of rights statement before the closing phrase. A typical version reads: “Nothing in this letter is intended to waive, limit, or impair any rights, remedies, or defenses available to [client name], all of which are expressly reserved.” That one sentence can stop an opposing party from later arguing that your silence on a particular issue meant you abandoned it.
“Without Prejudice”
Marking a letter “without prejudice” signals that its contents are part of a settlement discussion and should not be admissible in court. In the United States, Rule 408 provides the primary statutory protection, so the “without prejudice” label works as a belt-and-suspenders measure alongside that rule. The label does not guarantee protection. Courts can still admit the contents if the dispute is about whether a settlement was actually reached, or if there are allegations of fraud or bad faith.
Build a Complete Signature Block
The signature block identifies who sent the letter, their authority to send it, and how to reach them. In court filings, a missing element can get a document rejected.
Individual Attorneys
Leave about four blank lines between the closing phrase and your typed name for a handwritten signature. Below your typed name, include your professional title (“Attorney at Law,” “Paralegal,” or “Legal Assistant”), the name of your firm, and your contact information if it is not already in the letterhead. For court filings and many formal letters, include your state bar admission number. Many federal courts explicitly require the bar number in the signature block for any filed document.2U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. General Local Rule 5 – Signatures
A complete attorney signature block looks like this:
Sincerely,
[handwritten signature space]
Jane A. Doe
Attorney at Law, Bar No. 12345
Smith & Doe LLP
456 Main Street, Suite 200
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 555-1234
jdoe@smithdoe.com
Signing for an Organization
When you sign on behalf of a company, partnership, or other entity, the signature block must show both the entity’s name and your authority to act for it. List the entity name first, followed by “By:” and the signer’s name and title.3National Paralegal College. Signature Blocks For example:
ACME HOLDINGS, LLC
By: John R. Smith
John R. Smith, Managing Member
Match the format to the actual organizational structure. Getting it wrong can raise questions about whether the letter binds the entity.
Sign Electronically the Right Way
Most legal correspondence now travels electronically, and a poorly formatted electronic signature can render a document unsigned in the eyes of a court or agency.
The /s/ Convention
For electronically filed court documents and formal digital correspondence, the accepted convention is a typed name enclosed in forward slashes: /Jane A. Doe/. The signer’s typed name must also appear adjacent to the slash signature, usually directly below it. The USPTO treats a slash signature without a corresponding typed name nearby as unsigned.4USPTO. Signature Examples Double slashes (//Jane A. Doe//) or a typed name without any slashes also fail. Several federal district courts follow the same basic format, requiring the s/ prefix followed by the attorney’s name, bar number, firm, and contact information.2U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. General Local Rule 5 – Signatures
Legal Validity of Electronic Signatures
The E-SIGN Act establishes that an electronic signature cannot be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 7001 – General Rule of Validity The statute defines an electronic signature broadly as any electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to a record and adopted by a person with the intent to sign.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 7006 – Definitions A typed /s/ name, a scanned wet signature embedded in a PDF, or a signature placed through a platform like DocuSign all qualify, as long as the signer intended the mark to function as their signature. Intent is the key element.
Notations Below the Signature Block
The notations under your signature tell the recipient what else came with the letter and who else received it. In legal practice, they create a record of what was sent, to whom, and how.
Enclosures
If you are including additional documents, note it below the signature block by typing “Enclosures” or “Enc.” followed by the number: “Enclosures (3).” For legal correspondence, list each document by name — “Enc: Executed Settlement Agreement; Exhibit A; Proof of Insurance” — so there is no ambiguity later. Reference the enclosed documents somewhere in the body as well. An enclosure notation with no mention in the text looks like an afterthought; a document referenced in the text with no enclosure notation looks like something was forgotten.
Copies
The “cc:” notation lists every person receiving a copy of the letter. Place it below the enclosure notation, or below the signature block if there are no enclosures. If multiple recipients are copied, list them by rank or alphabetically, and do not repeat the “cc:” prefix for each name. When a copied recipient should also receive the enclosures, note it as “cc/enc:” next to their name; a plain “cc:” means they received only the letter.
Delivery Method
When a legal letter is sent by a method other than standard first-class mail, the delivery notation belongs at the top of the letter, not the bottom. Lines like “VIA CERTIFIED MAIL, RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED,” “VIA HAND DELIVERY,” or “VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL” appear two lines below the date and above the recipient’s address. Many deadlines and legal notice requirements depend on the method of delivery, so documenting it prominently matters.
Where to Place Privilege and Confidentiality Markings
Letters containing privileged or confidential information need a clear marking, and placement affects whether anyone notices. The most effective spot is the top of the first page or the subject line, not below the signature block. A header reading “ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL” at the top of the letter, often in bold or uppercase, signals to anyone handling the document that it requires special treatment. Privilege disclaimers tucked beneath a signature tend to go unread, and courts have noted that bottom-of-page disclaimers carry less weight when evaluating whether a party took reasonable steps to protect privileged material.
For email, include the privilege designation in the subject line and at the top of the email body. The boilerplate confidentiality notice many law firms append below the signature is better than nothing, but it should not be the primary safeguard for genuinely privileged communications.
Strip Metadata Before Sending
Digital legal letters and attachments carry hidden metadata: tracked changes, author names, editing history, internal comments, and file properties that can reveal information you never intended to share. Sending a demand letter with tracked changes showing your internal strategy edits, or a settlement proposal with metadata revealing the previous draft’s lower number, is the kind of mistake that keeps litigators up at night.
Before sending any legal document electronically, run your word processor’s document inspector to strip metadata. In Microsoft Word, the Document Inspector lets you select categories of hidden data and remove them in a few clicks. For PDFs, Adobe Acrobat’s sanitize or redact tools can remove metadata and produce a clean final version.7U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California. Metadata Removal Best Practices when E-Filing If you convert a Word document to PDF before sending, strip the metadata from the Word file first; converting to PDF does not automatically remove all hidden data.
Run Through a Final Review
A systematic review before you send catches the errors that erode credibility. Work through these in order:
- Confirm the spelling of every person and entity named, and verify the address.
- Check every date and any case, file, or reference numbers against your records.
- Read the letter from the recipient’s perspective. A demand letter should sound firm, not hostile. A letter to a court should be measured and respectful.
- Physically confirm that every document listed in the enclosure notation is actually attached or in the envelope.
- Make sure the signature block includes your bar number, firm name, and contact information as needed. For electronic filings, verify the /s/ format matches the court’s local rules.
- If the letter involves settlement, compromise, or sensitive client information, confirm you have included the appropriate Rule 408, “without prejudice,” or privilege markings before sealing the envelope or hitting send.