State a legal opinion within defined assumptions, qualifications, and scope.
Client work product
How to write an MPT formal opinion letter
A formal opinion letter states a legal conclusion on which a third party may rely, so its value lies in precision about what it covers and what it does not. The MPT version asks you to reach a defined opinion, name the facts and assumptions it depends on, state the qualifications and limits of the opinion, and stay within the scope the client requested. Graders penalize an opinion that reaches too far, gives comfort on matters outside the assignment, or fails to say which facts were assumed rather than verified. Start from the exact question the letter is meant to answer and write the opinion sentence before the analysis. The framework below sets out the skeleton, the items to read for in the file, and a rubric for scoring the finished letter. Keep every assumption in a list the reader can find.
AUDIENCEClient, board, lender, or other relying party
Formal, precise, limited, and explicit about reliance.
Client, board, lender, or other relying party
Build this structure before drafting
- 1
Scope and question
- 2
Documents or facts reviewed
- 3
Assumptions
- 4
Opinion
- 5
Qualifications and limitations
- 6
Reliance or next steps
What to extract
- Facts treated as established
- Legal questions actually assigned
- Conditions that would change the opinion
- Who may rely and for what purpose
Format-specific traps
- Giving an absolute guarantee
- Ignoring an expressed assumption
- Answering outside the assigned scope
- Burying a material qualification
A usable opening
Based on the supplied facts and subject to the assumptions and qualifications below, it is our opinion that ___.
Score the finished product analytically
Rules and facts in a formal opinion
NCBE says the MPT requires you to analyze statutory, case and administrative materials for applicable principles of law. It also requires you to apply the relevant law to the relevant facts in a manner likely to resolve a client's problem. A formal opinion letter puts those two steps in a form a third party can rely on.
NCBE does not name an opinion letter in its example task list, so follow the task memo about the reader and the level of assurance requested.
Limits on what you can rely on
NCBE says the MPT is not a test of substantive law and that the Library materials provide sufficient substantive information. A reliance letter should therefore state its conclusions only from the File and Library, and it should name the assumptions it makes.
NCBE also says facts may be incomplete or conflicting and that examinees must identify sources of additional facts. State what you were not given.
Practice walk-through: an opinion for a lender
This scenario is invented for practice and is not NCBE material. The task memo asks for a formal opinion letter to a bank on whether a borrower's board resolution authorized a $2 million loan. The File has the resolution, the bylaws and a certificate from the corporate secretary. The Library has an invented statute that requires approval by a majority of the full board, and one case treating an unsigned resolution as ineffective. The assignment is narrow: authority to borrow, not whether the loan terms are enforceable.
A good letter states scope, lists the documents reviewed, and then lists the assumptions it relies on, such as "we assume the signatures on the secretary's certificate are genuine." The opinion itself should be as limited as the scope: "Based on the documents reviewed, the borrower's board authorized the loan." Qualifications follow, and the letter says who may rely and for what. Two losing habits show up here: promising that the loan 'is fully enforceable,' which was never asked, and skipping the unsigned page in the File that the case makes decisive. If the File shows only four of seven directors voted, say the opinion cannot be given as asked.
Targeted format drill
15-minute drill
List three assumptions and two qualifications that narrow an otherwise overbroad legal conclusion.
Questions about this format
What tone should an MPT formal opinion letter use?+
Formal, precise, limited, and explicit about reliance.
What is the biggest trap?+
The most common failure in this format is giving an absolute guarantee.
Is a formal opinion letter an MPT task?+
NCBE's example task list does not name it, so follow the task memo in the File about the document requested.
What two steps does NCBE say the MPT requires for analysis?+
Analyzing statutory, case and administrative materials for applicable principles, and applying the relevant law to the relevant facts in a manner likely to resolve the client's problem.
Can an opinion letter rely on law outside the Library?+
Not on the MPT. NCBE says the Library materials provide sufficient substantive information, and the File and Library are the specific materials you must work with.
Why should an opinion letter state its assumptions?+
Because NCBE says facts may be missing or conflicting, and examinees are expected to recognize gaps and identify sources of additional facts.
Who relies on a formal opinion letter?+
A client, board, lender or other relying party, which is why calibrated conclusions and stated limits matter.
How do I register for the MPT?+
By applying to a jurisdiction for its bar exam. NCBE says the MPT is developed by NCBE and administered by user jurisdictions as part of the bar examination.
Primary and official sources
NCBE: preparing for the MPT↗NCBE: MPT skills tested↗NCBE: the Multistate Performance Test↗Legal opinion (Wikipedia)↗More from the MPT document library
This formal opinion letter is one of 14 formats in the MPT document library. Compare it against the Bench memorandum format and the Draft judicial opinion format to see how structure and tone shift by document type.