Explain the law, likely outcome, practical options, and next steps in understandable language: a client reading this letter has no legal training to fall back on, so every term of art either gets translated on the spot or gets cut entirely, because a technically accurate letter the client can't actually use has failed at the one job it had.
Client work product
How to write an MPT client advice letter
A client advice letter turns the analysis you would put in a memorandum into something a non-lawyer can act on. The reader has no legal training, so the letter states the bottom line early, explains the law in plain words, describes the realistic options with their risks, and says what the client should do next. Graders look for a correct answer and for a letter the client could actually follow, which means no citations in the body and no unexplained terms. It should also be candid about uncertainty and about any option the client will not like. Start by identifying what the client asked and what decision they face, then build the letter around that decision. The framework below sets out the skeleton for the letter, what to extract from the file, and a rubric for scoring it.
AUDIENCEClient without assumed legal training
Plain, respectful, direct, and practical.
Client without assumed legal training
Build this structure before drafting
- 1
Purpose and bottom line
- 2
Relevant background
- 3
Law translated into plain language
- 4
Application to the client
- 5
Options, risks, and recommendation
- 6
Concrete next steps
What to extract
- What the client actually needs to decide
- Terms requiring translation
- Uncertainty, cost, timing, and evidence gaps
- Actions the client can take now
Format-specific traps
- Writing a law-school essay to the client
- Using unexplained jargon
- Giving a conclusion without options
- Failing to answer the client’s practical concern
A usable opening
You asked whether ___. Based on the current information, the better course is ___ because ___.
Score the finished product analytically
Writing for the recipient, as NCBE frames it
NCBE lists a letter to a client among the tasks an MPT may require. Its skills document defines communication as the ability to communicate effectively in writing. That includes assessing the perspective of the recipient and organizing and expressing ideas with precision, clarity, logic and economy.
A client letter tests that skill directly because the reader is not a lawyer. State the answer the client needs first. Explain the rule in plain words.
Ethics and fact gaps in a client matter
NCBE says the MPT requires identifying and resolving ethical dilemmas when they are present. Its skills document describes ethical representation as knowing the nature and sources of ethical standards, how they are enforced and how to recognize and resolve dilemmas.
NCBE also says a client's version of events may be incomplete or unreliable and that facts may be ambiguous, incomplete or even conflicting. A careful letter says what you assumed and what you would need to confirm.
Practice walk-through: a letter to a small-business owner
This scenario is invented for practice and is not NCBE material. The task memo asks for a letter to a bakery owner who wants to know whether she can end an equipment lease early. The Library has an invented statute allowing early termination with 60 days' written notice and payment of the remaining months' rent unless the lessor failed to repair, in which case the tenant may end the lease after a written repair request goes unanswered for 30 days. The File shows she called the lessor twice about a broken oven and never wrote anything down. Note the audience: she has no legal training, so every term needs a plain translation or a cut.
Open with the bottom line in her terms: "Right now you probably cannot leave the lease without paying the rest of the rent, but a short written letter from you could change that." Then explain the two paths in the order she cares about: what leaving costs today, and the 30-day repair route. A sample sentence for the second path: "The law counts written requests only, so your two phone calls do not start the 30 days; the letter I have enclosed does." End with concrete steps and dates. A losing letter quotes the statute's section number, uses the words 'constructive eviction' unexplained, and gives no recommendation.
Targeted format drill
15-minute drill
Translate the most technical supplied rule into three sentences a client could act on without losing a legal element.
Questions about this format
What tone should an MPT client advice letter use?+
Plain, respectful, direct, and practical.
What is the biggest trap?+
The most common failure in this format is writing a law-school essay to the client.
Is a client letter an MPT task?+
Yes. NCBE lists a letter to a client among the tasks examinees might be instructed to complete on the MPT.
What does NCBE mean by the communication skill?+
Effective written communication, including assessing the recipient's perspective and organizing and expressing ideas with precision, clarity, logic and economy.
Can a client's account of the facts be wrong or incomplete on the MPT?+
Yes. NCBE says a client's or supervising attorney's version of events may be incomplete or unreliable, and examinees must recognize inconsistent or missing facts.
Does the MPT test ethics?+
When an ethical dilemma is present, yes. NCBE lists identifying and resolving ethical dilemmas among the six skills the MPT tests.
How should a client letter handle uncertainty?+
State plainly what the law and facts support, what you assumed and what must be confirmed, since NCBE expects you to identify missing facts and sources of more.
Which jurisdictions do not administer the MPT?+
NCBE's list shows California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, Oregon, Virginia and Washington, plus Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Primary and official sources
NCBE: preparing for the MPT↗NCBE: MPT skills tested↗NCBE: the Multistate Performance Test↗Legal writing (Wikipedia)↗More from the MPT document library
This client advice letter is one of 14 formats in the MPT document library. Compare it against the Demand letter format and the Formal opinion letter format to see how structure and tone shift by document type.