Commission found himself wading through as many as 500 pages of documents to prepare 10-page memorandums that included a summary of the facts of a case and the legal issues involved. He enjoyed the intellectual challenge of issues at the appellate level, but admits the workload was heavy. Initially, memos could take 30-40 hours to write, but by the end he'd managed to whittle that down to about 10. The importance of writing well and carefully choosing his words was one of the biggest lessons of his clerkship. Every word I would put down on a memo had to mean something, especially at the appellate court.
Every word counts.
Working for an appeal court judge with a reputation for making his clerks work hard was a bit unnerving at first. So is Suen. One of the few trials he was able to observe offered a moment of drama that most law students could only dream about. He attended a preliminary inquiry to determine whether the accused were part of the Rock Machine biker gang. I actually had to get my judge to let me into the courtroom.