Recommend a lawful policy by integrating authority, objectives, alternatives, and implementation.
Judicial / public work product
How to write an MPT policy memorandum or proposal
A policy memorandum or proposal asks you to recommend a course of action for an agency, legislature or organization rather than to predict how a court would rule. The MPT expects you to identify the objectives the policy must serve, gather the legal authority that limits what is lawful, compare realistic alternatives and choose one, then say how it would be put into practice. Graders reward a recommendation that is lawful under the supplied authority and considers the costs of the alternatives it rejects. A proposal that ignores a constitutional or statutory constraint in the file will be marked down even if it is attractive. State the recommendation early and organize the analysis around the decision. The framework below sets out the skeleton, the items to read for, and a rubric for scoring your proposal.
AUDIENCEAgency, organization, board, or public decision maker
Analytical, practical, public-facing, and attentive to tradeoffs.
Agency, organization, board, or public decision maker
Build this structure before drafting
- 1
Executive recommendation
- 2
Problem and objective
- 3
Legal authority and constraints
- 4
Options and evaluation criteria
- 5
Recommended policy
- 6
Implementation and review
What to extract
- Source of authority
- Mandatory versus discretionary limits
- Affected groups and operational burden
- Metrics for success and unintended effects
Format-specific traps
- Policy preference without legal authority
- Ignoring implementation cost
- No treatment of alternatives
- Recommendation too vague to administer
A usable opening
The organization should adopt ___ because it best advances ___ while complying with ___.
Score the finished product analytically
What NCBE lists, and organization under time limits
NCBE's example task list does not name a policy memorandum or proposal. It does list a counseling plan and a proposal for settlement or agreement. The task memo in the File controls the deliverable.
NCBE's skills document defines communication as assessing the perspective of the recipient and organizing and expressing ideas with precision, clarity, logic and economy. For a proposal, that means leading with a recommendation the reader can act on, and keeping each supporting point short.
NCBE's skills document lists organization and management of a legal task, including allocating time, effort and resources efficiently and completing tasks within time constraints.
Time and structure
NCBE's instructions say there are no restrictions on how you apportion your time but suggest approximately half for reading and organizing before you write. A proposal has a clear structure: problem, options, recommendation.
NCBE also says the response is graded on responsiveness to the task memo and on content, thoroughness and organization. Organization counts as much as the analysis.
Practice walk-through: a proposal for a school-fee waiver rule
This scenario is invented for practice and is not NCBE material. The task memo asks a staff attorney to propose a rule for a county school board on waiving athletic fees for low-income students. The File has a fee schedule, a survey of participation and a letter from a parent group. The Library has an invented state statute that lets boards set fees but bars fees that exclude students for inability to pay. Start with authority: the board may charge fees but must not exclude on inability to pay.
Lead with the recommendation: waive fees for students eligible for the free-lunch program, with a simple form. Then set out the options considered, such as a sliding scale or a general waiver request, and compare them against three criteria: legality, cost and ease of use. A sample comparison: "A sliding scale would comply with the statute but requires income documents the school office cannot verify." Add an implementation step and a metric, such as participation among eligible students after one season. A losing proposal states a preference for equity without citing the statute and never weighs the cost.
Targeted format drill
15-minute drill
Evaluate two policy options against legality, effectiveness, administrability, equity, cost, and reversibility.
Questions about this format
What tone should an MPT policy memorandum or proposal use?+
Analytical, practical, public-facing, and attentive to tradeoffs.
What is the biggest trap?+
The most common failure in this format is policy preference without legal authority.
Is a policy proposal an MPT task?+
NCBE's example list does not name it, so follow the task memo in the File for the document requested.
How should I split my time on an MPT?+
NCBE suggests approximately half your time on reading and organizing before you begin writing, though there are no restrictions on how you apportion it.
What does NCBE grade an MPT on?+
Responsiveness to the task memo's instructions and on the content, thoroughness and organization of the response.
What does organization and management of a legal task mean?+
Allocating time, effort and resources efficiently and completing tasks within time constraints, according to NCBE's skills document.
What audience does a policy memo serve?+
An agency, organization, board or public reader, so it should be organized around the decision they must make.
Who develops and administers the MPT?+
NCBE develops it, and user jurisdictions administer it as part of their bar examinations, according to NCBE's description.
Primary and official sources
NCBE: MPT skills tested↗NCBE: instructions for taking the MPT↗NCBE: the Multistate Performance Test↗Policy analysis (Wikipedia)↗More from the MPT document library
This policy memorandum or proposal is one of 14 formats in the MPT document library. Compare it against the Closing argument or advocacy statement format and the Objective memorandum format to see how structure and tone shift by document type.