A legal research note tells a partner, a general counsel or a client what the law says on one question, how sure you are, and what to do next. In England and Wales it goes by several names: research note, memo, file note or advice note. The format matters less than the discipline. The answer comes first, every proposition can be traced to a source, and the weak points are visible before anyone acts.
This guide sets out a structure, a copyable template, how to think about privilege when you mark the note, how to cite cases and legislation, and a review checklist. It covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own courts and rules, so a note on Scots or Northern Irish law needs its own sources. For the US version, see the legal memo template for US lawyers.
What does a research note look like in England and Wales?
Most firms and legal teams use a version of the structure below. A note for a partner can be terse. An advice note going to a client needs plainer language and a clearer statement of what the client should do.
| Section | What it does | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Heading | Recipient, author, date, matter, marking, research cut-off | No cut-off date, so nobody knows how current it is |
| Question | States the precise legal question, with the key facts | A question so broad that the answer is a lecture |
| Short answer | Gives the answer in a few sentences, with conditions | Burying the answer on page four |
| Facts and assumptions | Separates confirmed facts from instructions and assumptions | Treating the client's account as established fact |
| Analysis | Works through each issue: rule, application, conclusion | Summarising cases without applying them |
| Contrary authority | Deals fairly with the best points against the answer | Leaving it out |
| Conclusion and next steps | Answer, confidence, deadlines, who acts next | New analysis that the body never covered |
| Source log | Citation, court, date, paragraph, date checked | Missing pinpoints |
Frame the question narrowly. "Can we terminate?" is too wide. "Under English law, did the supplier's two late deliveries in March 2026 entitle the company to terminate under clause 14.2 without serving a cure notice?" names the governing law, the facts, the clause and the remedy. If one missing fact could change the answer, say so near the top.
How should you mark the note for privilege?
Put a marking in the heading, but treat it as a handling instruction, not as protection. Whether a note is privileged depends on why it was created and who it passed between.
In SFO v ENRC [2018] EWCA Civ 2006, the Court of Appeal quoted Lord Carswell in Three Rivers (No 6) that "legal professional privilege is a single integral privilege, whose sub-heads are legal advice privilege and litigation privilege." The court also restated the conditions for litigation privilege as Lord Carswell set them out:
- litigation must be in progress or in contemplation;
- the communications must have been made for the sole or dominant purpose of conducting that litigation; and
- the litigation must be adversarial, not investigative or inquisitorial.
For legal advice privilege, ENRC quoted the test set out in Lord Carswell's speech in Three Rivers (No 6): "whether the communication or other document was made confidentially for the purposes of legal advice." The hard question is who counts as the client inside an organisation. In Three Rivers DC v Bank of England (No 5) [2003] EWCA Civ 474, it was accepted that the Bank's inquiry unit was the client of its solicitors, and the Court of Appeal did not "consider that privilege extends to any of the documentation or internal memoranda of the Bank's employees." In ENRC, the Court of Appeal said: "If, therefore, it had been open to us to depart from Three Rivers (No. 5), we would have been in favour of doing so." It held that this was not open to it, and left the point to the Supreme Court.
What this means for a research note:
- Record who asked for the advice and who in the organisation is the client for that purpose.
- If litigation is in contemplation, record when and why, because that date can matter later. Your litigation readiness plan should say who makes that call.
- Keep fact-gathering from employees separate from the advice itself, and take advice on how to structure it.
- Do not rely on the marking. A court looks at purpose and parties, not the label.
Solicitors also owe a duty of confidentiality. Paragraph 6.3 of the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors says "you keep the affairs of current and former clients confidential unless disclosure is required or permitted by law or the client consents." Confidentiality is a professional duty, but a confidential note is not automatically privileged, as Three Rivers (No 5) shows.
What research note template can you copy?
Paste this into a new document and delete the bracketed guidance before you send it.
**RESEARCH NOTE**
**To:** [Partner, client contact or general counsel]
**From:** [Author, role]
**Date:** [Date sent]
**Matter:** [Client, matter name, reference]
**Marking:** [Your organisation's approved marking, applied only where counsel has decided it fits]
**Jurisdiction:** [England and Wales, or state otherwise]
**Research cut-off:** [Date sources were last checked]
## Question
[One precise question per issue: governing law, key facts, legal test.]
## Short answer
[Two to four sentences per question: the answer, what it depends on, and the strongest point against it.]
## Facts and assumptions
- Confirmed facts (with source document): [ ]
- Instructions received but not verified: [ ]
- Assumptions for this note: [ ]
- Open questions: [ ]
## Analysis
### Issue 1: [Issue as a question]
**Rule:** [Statutory provision or case, with neutral citation and paragraph]
**Application:** [Apply to the facts, both sides]
**Conclusion:** [Answer for this issue, with confidence]
### Contrary authority and other views
[Cases or readings against the answer, and why they do or do not change it.]
Conclusion and next steps
[Answer, confidence, documents or facts needed, deadlines, who acts next.]
Source log
| Source | Court or issuer, date | Neutral citation / report | Paragraph | Checked on | Proposition |
|---|
Review
Prepared by: [Name, date] Sources checked by: [Name, date] Reviewed by: [Name, date] Version: [ ]
Keep the short answer short. "Yes, provided the notice was served in line with clause 22" helps the reader more than an unqualified answer followed by pages of caveats.
## How should you cite cases in England and Wales?
Use the neutral citation for every judgment that has one. The National Archives' [guide to understanding judgments](https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/understanding-judgments-and-decisions) gives the example "[2024] UKSC 15" as a Supreme Court case from 2024, number 15, and notes that "decisions from higher courts carry more weight." [Find Case Law](https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about-this-service) describes itself as "the official and free source for judgments and decisions from courts and tribunals in England and Wales," with coverage for most courts from the early 2000s. Older judgments may need a law report.
When a judgment is reported, the [Practice Direction: Citation of Authorities (2012)](https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/JCO/Documents/Practice+Directions/lcj-pract-dir-citation-authorities-2012.pdf) sets an order of preference for submissions to the court:
| Where the judgment appears | What the Practice Direction says |
|---|---|
| Official Law Reports (A.C., Q.B., Ch., Fam.) | That report must be cited |
| Not in the Official Law Reports but in the W.L.R. or All ER | That report should be cited |
| Only in an authoritative specialist series | The specialist report should be cited |
| Unreported | Reference may be made to the official transcript; an unreported case should not usually be cited unless it contains a relevant statement of legal principle not found in reported authority |
A research note is not a court submission, but writing it to the same standard saves work if the point ends up in a skeleton argument. Many lawyers in England and Wales format citations to OSCOLA, so follow whatever your firm or client expects. Always give the paragraph number for the passage you rely on, and read it in context before you quote it.
## How do you check legislation is up to date?
Use [legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/help) and read the "Changes to Legislation" message before relying on any provision. The site's help page explains that when you open a revised item, the message "will either state that there are no known outstanding changes to the legislation you are viewing or that there are some outstanding changes yet to be applied." Where there are outstanding changes, they are listed at the top of the provision.
Three further points from the same help page:
- "All Acts on Legislation.gov.uk are kept up to date," and secondary legislation made from 2018 onwards is kept up to date.
- For older secondary legislation, coverage is partial. As at June 2026, the page says statutory instruments made from 1 January 2014 onwards have been brought up to date.
- The editorial team aims to apply new amendments "within a maximum of three months of the coming into force date." That is an aim, so check the outstanding changes list for recent amendments.
The site also creates point in time versions. If your question concerns events on a past date, read the version in force on that date, not just the current text, and record which version you used in the source log.
## How should the note deal with contrary authority?
Put it in. A note that hides bad law fails the reader, and the problem only gets worse if the matter reaches court.
Paragraph 2.7 of the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors says "you draw the court's attention to relevant cases and statutory provisions, or procedural irregularities of which you are aware, and which are likely to have a material effect on the outcome of the proceedings." That duty is owed to the court, not to the reader of an internal note. But if the matter goes to court, the team will need to know about that authority, so surface it early.
The same Code covers the quality of the work. Paragraph 3.2 requires that "the service you provide to clients is competent and delivered in a timely manner," and paragraph 3.3 requires you to "keep your professional knowledge and skills up to date." Where you supervise others, paragraph 3.5 says you "remain accountable for the work carried out through them." A partner who signs off a trainee's research note is responsible for it.
## How do you make the note useful to a client or in-house team?
Clients and in-house readers want a decision. Connect the conclusion to the choice in front of them: proceed, renegotiate, serve a notice, wait, or instruct counsel. Give deadlines and owners. If the answer feeds an internal sign-off, route it through your [contract approval matrix](/blog/contract-approval-matrix-legal-operations) so the right person approves it.
Use plain English and keep defined terms to a minimum. Move detailed case comparisons into an appendix. State what the note does not cover, such as tax, Scots law or regulatory filings, so nobody relies on it for those points.
## What should you check before the note goes out?
- [ ] The question matches the instruction, the jurisdiction and the relevant date.
- [ ] The short answer responds to every question and states its main condition.
- [ ] Confirmed facts, unverified instructions, assumptions and open questions are separated.
- [ ] Each case is cited by neutral citation where one exists, with a paragraph pinpoint.
- [ ] Each case was read in full, including any dissent, and checked for later treatment.
- [ ] Each statutory provision was checked on legislation.gov.uk for outstanding changes.
- [ ] The version of legislation in force on the relevant date was used.
- [ ] Contrary authority is addressed fairly.
- [ ] The marking follows counsel's view on privilege, and the client for advice purposes is recorded.
- [ ] Points of Scots or Northern Irish law, if any, are flagged for separate advice.
- [ ] Quotations, names, dates and citations were checked against the source.
- [ ] A supervising solicitor or partner reviewed the note.
Read it three times: once for logic, once against the sources, and once as the reader. Archive the final note with its source log and review record. If a later judgment or amendment changes the answer, update the note and its date.
Gotham lets UK legal teams research UK case law and legislation, review contracts at scale and draft in Word, in one workspace, with every answer citing the passage it relies on. Data for UK customers is stored in the United Kingdom; see [Gotham for UK legal teams](/uk) or [talk to us](/contact) about your research workflow.
Questions about legal research notes in England and Wales
What should a legal research note for a partner include?
A heading with the matter, date and research cut-off; the question; a short answer; the facts and assumptions; the analysis issue by issue; contrary authority; a conclusion with next steps; and a source log with neutral citations and the date each source was checked.
Is an internal research memo covered by legal professional privilege?
It depends on why and between whom it was created. Litigation privilege needs litigation in progress or in contemplation, a sole or dominant purpose of conducting it, and adversarial proceedings. Legal advice privilege asks whether a communication was made confidentially for the purposes of legal advice, and in Three Rivers (No 5) the Court of Appeal did not consider that it extended to internal memoranda of the Bank's employees. A marking on the note does not decide the question.
What is a neutral citation?
A neutral citation is the unique reference given to a judgment, such as [2018] EWCA Civ 2006, showing the year, the court and the judgment number. When a judgment is reported, the Practice Direction on Citation of Authorities (2012) sets an order of preference for which report to cite.
How do I check that legislation on legislation.gov.uk is up to date?
Open the revised version and read the 'Changes to Legislation' message at the top. It tells you whether there are outstanding changes not yet applied. If there are, the outstanding effects are listed at the top of the provision, and you should check them before relying on the text.
