Thursday, September 07, 2006

The memo: page numbers, footers

You should make sure your memo has page numbers. I like the page number centered at the bottom of the page, but you have other options and your employer may prefer something else. It is traditional, but not crucial, to omit the page number from page one.

Many law offices place standard footers on all legal documents. When I was in law practice, every document created at the office had a footer containing numbers showing the lawyer who created the document, the typist who prepared it, the version of the document, and an identifying code that could be used to retrieve the document from the computer database. Even before you get a job, you might consider using a footer to show the file name of the document so it will be easy to find.

For court documents, many lawyers use a footer that gives the name of the document and page number out of the total pages, like this:
  • Defendant Anderson's Motion to Dismiss page 1 of 9
This isn't as common in interoffice legal memos or transactional documents, but it can be helpful if the pages of a stapled document ever get separated.

You can use a header for page numbers and document information, but it isn't as common.

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