I wouldn’t think that rigidly.
Allocating time is going to depend on the amount of material you need to read, what you are specifically being asked to do, as well as how much time you have to complete the assessment. For one case study the ratio could be 15% reading, 85% writing, while the next could be 50% reading and 50% writing. I think there are also other things you might need to do rather than just reading/writing - that might be “brain-storming”, creating a brief outline to work from, or other things that help you write with structure and logic.
Key tips:
- think carefully about who your audience is. Writing something for a client will be very different to writing something for a partner
- ensure you leave enough time to proof read everything at the end
- quality over quantity will always win out. Rushing out 30 different short points with no order/logic/structure will be less impressive than writing 6 different detailed points with a logic and flow.
- if you can identify 30 points, prioritise a smaller number (probably approx 6 or so) to talk about in detail. You can always reference less important points very briefly
(eg “we also need to consider the following points in more detail:
- Point 10
- Point 11
- Point 12
- Point 13)
- think carefully about where you have had to make assumptions and identify these where necessary
- think carefully about what actions might be needed by anyone involved in the case study (eg the firm/the client/other parties). Identify these and make them clear in your writing
- don’t write an academic essay. Writing styles in law firms are probably the polar opposite of how you write an academic essay (if you have been out of academia for sometime and working, you are probably at an advantage!).
- Make sure to use evidence to back up what you are saying where needed. This could be evidence from the case study or from your own knowledge
- consider an executive summary at the start of the document.
