Law Commons^™

Hitting The Mark? Aall Legal Research Competencies: From Classroom To Practice, Gail A. Partin, Sally H. Wise

Faculty Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Before They Even Start: Hope And Incoming 1ls, Barbara Brunner

Barbara Brunner

Newly-accepted law school 1Ls often express interest in how they should spend the summer before starting their fall courses in order to be best prepared for success in their first semester. This desire to have a "leg up" on law school success leads those of us teaching first-year courses to think more deeply about what constitutes a "good preparation" for the unique experiences that new law students will face, and what skills are really necessary to increase their possibilities of success, especially in the first semester. Over the past few years, I have compiled a list of activities which I …

Why Can't I Just Use Lexis Or Westlaw? Promoting Lesser Known Legal Research Platforms To Law Students, Theresa K. Tarves

Law Library Faculty Works

It can be difficult to convince law students to try new resources outside of Westlaw and Lexis, especially when these two resources seemingly have it all from a law student’s perspective. How do we expose law students to lesser known legal research resources so that they can be well-informed researchers who do not become dependent on only a few resources to carry them through their entire legal careers?

Teaching Cost-Effective Research Skills: Tips For Effective And Efficient Legal Research, Rebecca Mattson, Theresa K. Tarves

Law Library Faculty Works

Being a cost-effective researcher is not necessarily just about the legal research resources available where an attorney practices. Budgetary concerns are prevalent across all legal markets, from solos and public interest to large law firms. As the legal field struggles with clients who want greater efficiencies from their attorneys and alternative fee arrangements, many of which state that attorneys will not bill clients for legal research database fees, it is becoming more important than ever to teach law students and attorneys how to use alternative resources effectively and efficiently.

The Future Of Law Reviews: Online-Only Journals, Katharine T. Schaffzin

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Law Review Platforms, Andrea Charlow

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Honoring Rick Mckinney And Llsdc’S Legislative Source Book, Roger V. Skalbeck, Joyce Manna Janto, Kathleen Klepfer

Law Faculty Publications

In this essay, through three vignettes inspired by the Legislative Source Book, we honor Rick McKinney for his role as the collection’s guiding light and leading author. We also provide a list of permanent links suitable for scholarly citation, where major parts of the collection are now archived online.

Student-Edited Law Reviews Should Continue To Flourish, Sudha Setty

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Paperless Chase, Steven J. Mulroy

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Virtual Liquid Networks And Other Guiding Principles For Optimizing Future Student-Edited Law Review Platforms, Donald J. Kochan

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Algorithms: The Importance Of Tracking Technology As Legal Educators, Brian Sites

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

From The Editor, Susan Nevelow Mart

Publications

No abstract provided.

Cases And Case-Lawyers, Richard A. Danner

Faculty Scholarship

In the nineteenth century, the term “case-lawyer” was used as a label for lawyers who seemed to care more about locating precedents applicable to their current cases than understanding the principles behind the reported case law. Criticisms of case-lawyers appeared in English journals in the late 1820s, then in the United States, usually from those who believed that every lawyer needed to know and understand the unchanging principles of the common law in order to resolve issues not found in the reported cases. After the Civil War, expressions of concern about caselawyers increased with the significant growth in the amount …

When Should We Teach Our Students To Pay Attention To The Costs Of Legal Research?, Beth H. Wilensky

Articles

It is axiomatic in legal research pedagogy that law schools should teach students how to conduct cost-effective legal research. To do that, we need to teach students to consider the amount of time and money their research requires, how paid legal research platforms like Westlaw and Lexis charge for their services, and how to research in an efficient and cost-sensitive way. But we shouldn’t do those things. Or at least, we shouldn’t do them at first. Instead, we should tell students not to worry about the costs of legal research during their first year of law school—with the possible exception …

Filling The Google Gaps: Harnessing The Power Of Google Through Instruction, Rebecca Mattson

Rebecca A. Mattson

This article discusses teaching proper use of Google and Google Scholar in the legal research classroom.

Filling The Google Gaps: Harnessing The Power Of Google Through Instruction, Rebecca Mattson

Law Library Faculty Works

This article discusses teaching proper use of Google and Google Scholar in the legal research classroom.

Navigating The Dark Morass: A First-Year Student's Guide To The Library, Maureen Straub Kordesh

Maureen Straub Kordesh

No abstract provided.

Forty-Two: The Hitchiker's Guide To Teaching Legal Research To The Google Generation, Ian Gallacher

Akron Law Review

This article is a meditation on contemporary legal research and possible changes in the way the subject should be taught. Absent from this article is any mention of the importance of teaching students about the mechanical workings of the various tools lawyers use to conduct legal research. It seems so resoundingly obvious that law schools should be doing this that any discussion of the issue would appear contrived and sterile. The much more interesting, and more difficult, questions to answer are what else law students should learn, who should teach it to them, and why they should learn it. These …

Toward A Writing-Centered Legal Education, Adam Lamparello

Adam Lamparello

The future of legal education should bridge the divide between learning and practicing the law. This requires three things. First, tuition should bear some reasonable relationship to graduates’ employment outcomes. Perhaps Harvard is justified in charging $50,000 in tuition, but a fourth-tier law school is not. Second, no school should resist infusing more practical skills training into the curriculum. This does not mean that law schools should focus on adding clinics and externships to the curriculum. The focus should be on developing critical thinkers and persuasive writers that can solve real-world legal problems. Third, law schools should be transparent about …

Teaching Legal Research And Writing With Actual Legal Work: Extending Clinical Education Into The First Year, Michael A. Millemann, Steven D. Schwinn

Steven D. Schwinn

In this article, the co-authors argue that legal research and writing (LRW) teachers should use actual legal work to generate assignments. They recommend that clinical and LRW teachers work together to design, co-teach, and evaluate such courses. They describe two experimental courses they developed together and co-taught to support and clarify their arguments. They contend that actual legal work motivates students to learn the basic skills of research, analysis and writing, and thus helps to accomplish the primary goals of LRW courses. It also helps students to explore new dimensions of basic skills, including those related to the development and …

Outcomes In The Balance: The Crisis In Legal Education As Catalyst For Change, Beau Steenken

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this article, the author discusses how changes in the legal education market can force legal research teachers to focus their energies on meaningful assessment.

Answering The Call: Flipping The Classroom To Prepare Practice-Ready Attorneys, Alex Berrio Matamoros

Alex Berrio Matamoros

In the rough and changing landscape of the legal job market, legal employers have called on law schools to prepare “practice ready” attorneys — newly minted members of the bar with better honed practical skills than the first year lawyers of the past. The increasing emphasis on legal skills sheds light on an interesting paradox within legal education; in legal skills courses, those that best lend themselves to active learning experiences, instructors frequently fill valuable classroom time with passive lectures to convey the related theory and best practices. Recently, several legal skills instructors have adopted a flipped classroom model to …

Technology And Legal Research: What Is Taught And What Is Used In The Practice Of Law, Rebecca Sewanee Trammell

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Law schools are criticized for graduating students who lack the skills necessary to practice law. Legal research is a foundational ability necessary to support lawyering competency. The American Bar Association (ABA) establishes standards for legal education that include a requirement that each law student receive substantial instruction in legal skills, including legal research. Despite the recognized importance of legal research in legal education, there is no consensus of what to teach as part of a legal research course or even how to teach such a course.

Legal educators struggle to address these issues. The practicing bar and judiciary have expressed …

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing: Students, Scholars, And Sources In The Law Library, Jeanne Price

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Research Analysis And Planning: The Undervalued Skill In Legal Research Instruction, Robert M. Linz

Publications

This article describes a method of research analysis and planning for legal problems. It introduces the framework of research plan, log, and product and provides a detailed research plan and log that students can use as a template for learning research. The article suggests how to teach the method in legal research classes, shares some of the author's experiences in teaching the method, and addresses some possible criticisms of this approach.

Law Libraries And Laboratories: The Legacies Of Langdell And His Metaphor, Richard A. Danner

Faculty Scholarship

Law Librarians and others have often referred to Harvard Law School Dean C.C. Langdell’s statements that the law library is the lawyer’s laboratory. Professor Danner examines the context of what Langdell through his other writings, the educational environment at Harvard in the late nineteenth century, and the changing perceptions of university libraries generally. He then considers how the “laboratory metaphor” has been applied by librarians and legal scholars during the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. The article closes with thoughts on Langdell’s legacy for law librarians and the usefulness of the laboratory metaphor.

"I See And I Remember; I Do And Understand": Teaching Fundamental Structure In Legal Writing Through The Use Of Samples, Judith B. Tracy

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Experiential Legal Writing: The New Approach To Practicing Like A Lawyer, Adam Lamparello, Charles E. Maclean

Adam Lamparello

Law students engage in various types of “experiential” learning activities while in school, such as clinics and externships, but they graduate without the experience necessary to practice law. This is traceable to a glaring deficiency at most law schools: a writing program that is comprehensive, properly sequenced, and integrated across and throughout the law school curriculum.

First, most graduates have never drafted the documents they will encounter in law practice. Additionally, they have not drafted and re-drafted such documents while also participating in real-world simulations as they would in actual practice. Instead, students graduate having drafted an appellate brief, a …

Stop Me If You’Ve Heard This Before: Transitions In Teaching Legal Research, Patricia Morgan

UF Law Faculty Publications

Law schools are being called upon to produce more “practice ready” graduates. To that end, the University of Florida added a librarian-taught first-year Legal Research course to its curriculum. As a result of the course addition, there was an impact on the existing Advanced Legal Research (ALR) course. For the first time, the ALR students had already received legal research instruction. This required adjustments in this higher level course.

Technology And Client Communications: Preparing Law Students And New Lawyers To Make Choices That Comply With The Ethical Duties Of Confidentiality, Competence, And Communication, Kristin J. Hazelwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

That the use of technology has radically changed the legal profession is beyond dispute. Through technology, lawyers can now represent clients in faraway states and countries, and they can represent even local clients through a “virtual law office.” Gone are the times in which the lawyer’s choices for communicating with clients primarily involve preparing formal business letters to convey advice, holding in-person client meetings in the office, or conducting telephone calls with clients on landlines from the confines of the lawyer’s office. Not only do lawyers have choices about how to communicate with their clients, but they also frequently choose …