client-update-drafterlisted

# Client Update Drafter ## What this does Drafts a status update to a client on a matter already in progress: what has happened since the last update, what it means in practical terms, and what happens next. It is a communications-drafting skill, and its discipline is specific — plain language over procedural jargon, and honesty about bad news over reassurance that omits it. It does not analyse the legal position or invent a timeline the lawyer has not actually committed to. ## Before you start **What has actually happened since the last update.** The developments to report — supplied by the lawyer. This is the blocking input; there is no update to draft without it. **Whether there is anything adverse to report.** A missed deadline, an unfavourable development, a delay, a cost overrun. Ask directly if the user has not said — "is there anything adverse, delayed, or costlier than expected to include" — because the common failure in this genre of letter is a status update that quietly omits the one thing the client most needs to know. Do not assume the absence of bad news; confirm it. Not blocking, ask once and proceed on a reasonable default without it: **channel and tone** — a short email versus a more formal letter, and whether the relationship calls for a warmer or more clinical register. ## Method **1. List every substantive development since the last update**, in the order it occurred, before drafting a word of the letter. A list built while drafting tends to lose