Draft and produce formatted Word document (.docx) memos in Penn Carey Law style. Use this skill whenever the user asks to write, draft, or create a memo, memorandum, or formal internal document for faculty, committees, or the Dean's office. Trigger phrases include "write a memo", "draft a memo", "memo to faculty", "memo to EPC", "memorandum", or any request to produce a formal internal communication as a document. Always use this skill — do not attempt to format or draft memos freehand without consulting it first.
Draft and produce formatted Word document (.docx) memos in Penn Carey Law style. Use this skill whenever the user asks to write, draft, or create a memo, memorandum, or formal internal document for faculty, committees, or the Dean's office. Trigger phrases include "write a memo", "draft a memo", "memo to faculty", "memo to EPC", "memorandum", or any request to produce a formal internal communication as a document. Always use this skill — do not attempt to format or draft memos freehand without consulting it first.
Draft and produce formatted Word document (.docx) memos in Penn Carey Law style. Use this skill whenever the user asks to write, draft, or create a memo, memorandum, or formal internal document for faculty, committees, or the Dean's office. Trigger phrases include "write a memo", "draft a memo", "memo to faculty", "memo to EPC", "memorandum", or any request to produce a formal internal communication as a document. Always use this skill — do not attempt to format or draft memos freehand without consulting it first.
license
CC-BY-4.0
compatibility
Requires python-docx
metadata
{"author":"[Your Name]"}
Law Memo Skill
Produces fully formatted Penn Carey Law memos as .docx files, matching [Your Name]'s established style: Penn Carey Law letterhead, standard header block, Cambria body text. Voice baseline (tone, banned phrases, preferred expressions) is defined in CLAUDE.md — that always applies. This skill adds memo-specific formatting and structure.
Agent Dependencies
This skill dispatches sub-agents for pre-delivery quality checks. Each call is guarded — the memo still produces without them, but factual and style verification are weaker.
factual-reviewer — extracts discrete factual claims for verification.
fact-verifier — live web/source verification of specific claims.
voice-style-checker — voice, style, and AI-tell scan.
Install from the agents/ directory of this skill's repo into ~/.claude/agents/.
Environment
This skill works in both Claude Code CLI and Claude.ai / Cowork. Use whichever paths exist:
Skills:~/.claude/skills/ (CLI) or /mnt/skills/user/ (web)
Output:~/Downloads/ or user-specified path (CLI) or /mnt/user-data/outputs/ (web)
Before Drafting
If a sample memo exists at ~/.claude/skills/law-memo/law-memo_sample.docx (CLI) or /mnt/skills/user/law-memo/law-memo_sample.docx (web), clone it as the base for exact formatting
Clarify with the user if needed: recipient, subject/RE line, key points to cover, any attachments or action items
Document Formatting Spec
Page Setup
Margins: 1" on all sides (1440 twips)
Font: Cambria 12pt throughout — header block AND body text. Do NOT use Book Antiqua.
Line spacing: 276 / auto (~1.15)
Logo
Centered paragraph, w:after="200"
Image: PennCareyLaw_UPenn_Blue-WhiteBkrnd.png from ~/.claude/skills/law-memo/assets/ (CLI) or /mnt/skills/user/law-memo/assets/ (web)
TO: [Recipient]
FROM: [Your Name], [Your Title]
DATE: [Full date — e.g. March 11, 2026. Always use the actual current date, never just month/year.]
RE: [Subject — bold]
Each header line paragraph:
Tab stop at 1440 twips: <w:tabs><w:tab w:val="left" w:pos="1440"/></w:tabs>
Bullet character (•) with tab, hanging indent — never Word list bullets, never em-dash bullets:
<w:pPr><w:spacingw:line="276"w:lineRule="auto"w:after="120"/><w:indw:left="720"w:hanging="360"/></w:pPr><w:r>...<w:t>• bullet text here</w:t></w:r>
For bold lead-in bullets, use separate runs: bullet+tab run, bold run (lead phrase), normal run (rest of text).
Tables
Tables must not split across pages. After building any table, apply cantSplit to every row and keepNext to all paragraphs in every row except the last. See the law-document skill for the prevent_table_split(table) helper function. Call it after populating every table.
Footer
Italic Cambria 10pt "Page x of y." centered. If cloning from sample, the footer is preserved automatically.
Memos layer these conventions on top of the CLAUDE.md voice baseline:
More formal than emails but never bureaucratic
Opens directly with the situation or context — no throat-clearing
States recommendations clearly: "I recommend," "the EPC should," "faculty should be advised"
Bullet lists always introduced by a full sentence, never launched cold
Closes with a concrete next-steps or action paragraph
No personal sign-off; memo ends with the action/next-steps paragraph
Collegial but authoritative — writes as a peer who has done the work and is sharing conclusions
FROM line: Always "[Your Name], [Your Title]" unless context clearly calls for a different title.
Structural Patterns
Standard policy/recommendation memo
Situation paragraph — what is the issue and why it matters (2-4 sentences)
Recommendation paragraph — what [Your Name] recommends, leading into bullet list if needed
Bullet list (if applicable) — em-dash style
Implications/advisory paragraph (if applicable)
Next steps paragraph — who will do what, closing the loop
Short informational memo
Purpose sentence — one sentence stating what the memo does
Body — 2-4 paragraphs of substance
Closing — brief action or availability statement
AI Writing Tell Check
Before delivering any memo, scan the full text for common AI writing patterns and fix every instance. See the law-document skill for the complete checklist. The short version:
Cut filler: "a wide range of," "a variety of," "taken together," "reflecting the breadth of," "in a structured way," "the larger point is"
Vary or cut overused words: "several" (if used more than once), "curated," "nuanced," "multifaceted"
Watch for structural tells: identical sentence patterns across bullets, trailing summary lists that restate what was just said, overwrought framing where plain language would do
Em-dash limit: 1-2 per page max in inline prose. Replace most with commas.
This check applies to every memo before delivery.
Automated review: After writing the memo file:
If the factual-reviewer agent is available, spawn it and pass it the file path. Fix any factual issues it flags.
If the factual reviewer lists claims needing live verification, if the fact-verifier agent is available, spawn it with those claims. Correct any contradicted claims; flag unverifiable ones for the user.
If the voice-style-checker agent is available, spawn it and pass it the file path. Fix any style issues it flags.
Complete all steps before delivering to the user.
After generating any .docx file, run the validation script from the law-document
skill (~/.claude/skills/law-document/SKILL.md, "Post-Generation Validation"
section). This catches structural corruption (duplicate style IDs, misnamed images)
that prevents Word from opening the file.
If validation reports repairs, switch to python-docx and regenerate — the repair
is a safety net, not a substitute for correct generation. Do not use Pandoc to
generate .docx files.
Quick Checklist Before Delivering
LOGO INCLUDED — Penn Carey Law logo in title block (MANDATORY, ALWAYS)
MEMORANDUM centered, Cambria bold 12pt
Header block: TO / FROM / DATE / RE — labels bold, tab at 1440, spacing after 160
DATE is the actual current date (full: e.g. "March 18, 2026") — never just month/year
RE value is bold, with hanging indent (w:left="1440" w:hanging="1440")
Horizontal rule after header (bottom border, sz=6, after=240)
Cambria 12pt throughout — NO Book Antiqua
Bullet character (•) with hanging indent, never Word list bullets
Footer: italic Cambria 10pt "Page x of y." centered
Tone follows CLAUDE.md voice baseline (direct, active, no filler)
