War-game a legal strategy memo before counsel signs off

War-game a legal strategy memo before preferred readings harden into commitments the room cannot defend.

Legal strategy memos fail when they bury the adverse case, skip jurisdiction or remedy limits, treat a preferred reading as settled law, or soft-pedal facts the counterparty already has. Fluency is not readiness. Readiness is surviving hostile seats with exhibits you can show and language you are willing to own.

What to freeze

State the decision or recommendation in one sentence, the owner who will stand behind it, the deadline, and the constraints already treated as fixed: forum, budget, disclosure posture, and business goals that counsel cannot wish away. Attach the primary exhibits: contracts, correspondence, statutes or rules you rely on, and any prior opinions you are allowed to share. Mark every sentence that sounds precise but lacks a citation or a fact tab.

Write the decision you will make if the war game finds nothing new, and the delay criteria if a material gap appears. Shipping a memo that knows it is soft is a choice. Make it consciously.

Hostile seating chart

Adverse counsel seat: the strongest counter-reading and the weakest supporting fact.
Business owner seat: what the recommendation costs in time, cash, and optionality.
Disclosure seat: language that overclaims certainty or understates residual risk.
Judge or arbitrator mind-set: what a cold reader would find incomplete.
Skeptic seat: the claim that looks strongest and is least sourced.

Optional regulator or partner seat if the memo will travel outside the company. Optional finance seat if damages, reserves, or settlement ranges sit in the ask.

Private failure loop

Run the memo through Pingpong with those seats named. Sequential review lets an early pass organize the theory while later passes try to kill unsupported leaps. Keep a change log of claims removed, sources added, and open questions escalated to owners. If a model invents a case citation or a factual detail, delete it.

Treat Q&A as part of the same war game. Ask for the hardest follow-ups from each seat, answer them with sources, and either edit the memo or consciously accept a known residual risk with counsel. A legal strategy memo is a commitment about how the company will act, not a draft for later improvisation.

Map each material assertion to a named exhibit and a named owner. Orphan claims are the ones adverse counsel expands. If an owner cannot be named before circulate, cut the claim or delay until the exhibit exists.