When I was practising law, I got a call from the office of the Minister of Finance in Ottawa
to hook me up with a new man in the office.
I didn't hesitate! I accepted!
But let me start at the beginning.
The night before I got the call, l was listening to the radio with my husband
waiting for news about the new federal budget.
Suddenly my husband jumped up shouting . "You did it. You did it. Your brief made the federal budget.
You've changed a law!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
It's lucky my husband was there listening. I didn't understand a word!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The remarkable thing about this amazing success was that
I had started without any idea of how you change a law.
I just had a powerful drive to do it,
and my inner voice did the rest.
It directed me each step of the way.
First the voice of my client, a distributor of specialty foods, started the budget ball rolling.
"Claire I have a non-alcoholic beer It's being taxed like an alcoholic beer,
write a letter to the government."
Suddenly my inner voice came out of nowhere and shattered my head.
"It ain't fair! This is a great injustice! A letter is not enough.
The law has to be changed!"
But where do i start?
What did I know about changing laws!
Nada Nada!
My voice was back giving instructions
"Call in the researchers you use for your column.
Send them to research Canadian law.
And the question?
When is a beer "non-alcoholic?"
My client's product passed with flying colors...NON-ALCOHOLIC! ...IN EVERY PROVINCE IN CANADA!!!!
(The Yukon was a no brainer. Any beer under 5% alcohol was non-alcoholic!
But Europa matched the toughest test of all in Prince Edward Island,
where a non-alcoholic beer had to be less that half of 1% alcohol!)
What do i do now?
My voice was ready.
"Write a brief to the government!"
One question.
"What's a brief?!!!!!!!!"
My voice was back.
"Speak to your friend in the top law firm in town. He's written briefs to the federal government."
He sent me one of his briefs
YUK. What a dumb looking brief!!!!!!!!!!!
No margins on each side of the 14"long paper
No spacing between paragraphs
No spacing between lines
JUST BLACK BLACK BLACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!#$@#$@%^%$&^%$ @#$&%#$$%^%^* @#^$%#$^$%#^$&%^ #^$^#$@&#$%&%$^ #$%$&#%&#$
You've got to be kidding!!!!!!!!!!!!
who the H... is going to read this YUK MESS!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm back to where I started: How do you write a brief.
The little voice came back into my head.
"Forget what they taught you in school the proper way to write....
STUFFY!!!!!!!!!
You want the government to "buy" your idea
There's only one standard for writing a brief:
IT HAS TO SELL YOUR IDEA!
You need a............MARKETING BRIEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Three rules to follow:
IT HAS TO BE FUN TO READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT HAS TO BE EASY TO READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOBODY HAS TO STRUGGLE TO READ IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 inch margins on either side
double space between the lines
quadruple spaces between paragraphs
#%$@$%^#@^%@
!@#$@^%#$%^#$^ #!@#$!@#!@#$!$!@ !!@$@$@#^$#%^@#^ !%$@#%@%$@%@% %@%#%$^#$%^#^#%^
And when you want to sock it to them..ONE PARAGRAPH ON THE PAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!@#%q!$%q#$%
!@%#@%$@%#$ !%@#%@#$%
Now for the testimonials
And my client had given me reams of them:
The testimonials sent in by customers in return for a T-shirt with the name of the non-alcoholic beer:
E U R O P A
"Me drink too much beer. Me drunk.
Doc told me. "Hey, Mike, Listen to me
Drink non alcoholic beer"
Me listen to my doc.
Now drink Europa!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me no longer drunk!
Great looking brief!
(I almost had a disaster! Ihad to stop my secretary
from editing the testimonial into"good" English!
By the way, all the "stuffy" info was in an Appendix at the end of the brief!)
I called in my voice.
"What's the next step."
And the voice didn't fail me.
"Phone the guys in the office of the Minister of Finance and get a meeting.
They'll advise you the next step"
The next week, there I was in Ottawa, on a Friday afternoon, sitting with 7 guys in the Office of the Minister!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I looked at them with amazement!
Who would have believed that the people at the top echelons of government were so accessible!
They told me the steps I had to take.
And the rest was history....I MADE THE BUDGET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, one last thing.
The guys in the Office knew I was planning to come back with another brief.
The next day after the budget win was announced, I got a call from the Office of the Minister of Finance
"Hey Claire, this is John, How are you doing?
We're getting a new Assistant Deputy Minister
We think you should meet him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"I replied:
Meet him?
Meet him?
Of course i'll meet him!!!!!!
Part 3. An Offer I Refused
