Summer Research Success

By Shawn Nevers | Published: April 22, 2013

One week of finals down, a few more days to go.  Good luck to everyone studying hard!  Don’t forget that the Law Library has a number of great resources and services to help you finish strong.

When finals are finished you’ll all be heading off to put into practice what you’ve been learning here.  Legal research is definitely one of those things you’ll be doing this summer–likely something you’ll be doing quite a bit.  To help get you ready I thought I’d pass along a few things I’ve written just for students on legal research.  They’re quick reads, but hopefully they’ll jog your memory and put you in a legal research frame of mind.  Each of these was published in the ABA’s Student Lawyer magazine, which has a lot of great stuff for students.  I especially recommend Bryan Garner’s column on legal writing.

Observations for Summer Research Success

Legal Research: Becoming a Cost-Effective Researcher

Smart Researchers Save Time by Starting with Legal Treatises

Legal Research: Litigation Practice Materials

Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Statutes

Citators: The Power Tools of Legal Research

Legislative History: The Search for Legislative Intent

Legal Research: Transactional Law Research

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Westlaw Printers

By Shawn Nevers | Published: April 18, 2013

As we announced earlier this school year, Westlaw will be removing its printers this summer.  We’re still figuring out an exact date, but it will be around June 30.  We wanted to give you a heads up now so that you can plan for the next few months while we still have the printers and so you won’t be surprised not to find them when you return in the fall.  Lexis printers will still be available.

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Study Break

By Shawn Nevers | Published: April 17, 2013

Finals can be rough and even the most determined studier needs some breaks.  If you want to stay in the legal state of mind and still have some laughs you might want to check out Lowering the Bar.  You won’t ceased to be amazed at the crazy and amusing things that go on in the legal world, like States naming official state microbes or criminal suspects answering the door with contraband.  Just don’t neglect your studying for too long.

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Lexis/Westlaw/Bloomberg Summer Access

By Shawn Nevers | Published: April 10, 2013

The last legal research classes of the semester will be held today.  While that’s likely welcome news for many, it means that the next research you’ll do is for your jobs and externships this summer.  Here is some information on the access you’ll have to the major legal databases.

Lexis Advance – Lexis recently announced that they would allow unrestricted access to Lexis Advance this summer.  That means you can use Lexis Advance in any job or externship, no matter who you are working for.

Westlaw/WestlawNext – Westlaw places limitations on the use of Westlaw/WestlawNext during the summer.  Students have to extend their password and agree to use their passwords for academic purposes.  The agreement has this to say about academic purposes: “‘Academic Purposes’ do include usage for purposes directly related to coursework at the Law School (including pro bono and public service program, unpaid public internships or externships that are part of graduation requirements or law school course credit) or for bar preparation purposes.“Academic Purposes” do not include research conducted for a law firm, corporation or other entity (unrelated to law school) that is paying you to conduct said research or that is passing along the costs of said research to a third party. These are deemed commercial purposes.”

Bloomberg Law – Bloomberg Law allows unrestricted use of their legal research system during the summer.

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Finals Prep

By Shawn Nevers | Published: April 8, 2013

The countdown to finals begins in earnest this week.  We know it’s a stressful time and we wish you all the best of luck.  But, because we know luck isn’t all that matters we want to make sure you know about all the resources the Law Library has to offer in the way of finals prep.  Without further ado:

Sample Exams – We offer a number of professor-specific sample exams on a  TWEN page.  Find directions for accessing the TWEN page here.  For the password email me at neverss@law.byu.edu.

CALI – CALI, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, offers over 800 interactive, online tutorials in 33 legal subject areas. BYU law students have access to all of these lessons through the Law Library’s subscription. The lessons are written by law professors across the country and can be helpful in studying for finals. To get access to CALI you’ll need our school’s authorization code, which you can get by emailing me at neverss@law.byu.edu.

Flash Cards – Our Law in a Flash, Flash Cards are a big hit around finals time.  Flash cards can be checked out at the circulation desk.  Our current sets include Civil Procedure (parts 1 & 2), Con Law (parts 1 & 2), Contracts, Corporations, Criminal Law, Crim. Pro., Evidence, Fed Tax, Future Interests, Professional Responsibility (parts 1 & 2), Real Property, Sales, Secured Transactions, Torts, Wills and Trusts.  These flash cards can also be purchased as an iPhone app if you want to spend your own money on them.

Study Guides – We collect a number of study guides that may be useful as you brush up for finals.  They are available in the Reserve Library and can be found by browsing or through the library catalog.  The best way to find them is to select the “Study Guides” search on the Library’s catalog search bar and search for your topic.

Law students can check study guides out for 2 hours.

Extended Hours – Since last week the Library has been open until 1am on weekdays, 11pm on Saturdays.  After 1am, law students can still gain access to several study rooms on the 3rd floor by swiping in at the 3rd floor entrance.

Study Rooms – The law library is home to 16 group study rooms that are especially popular during finals.  Law students can reserve study rooms in 2 hour blocks.

Quiet Reading Room – The new Quiet Reading Room in the northeast portion of the library’s main floor is also available for study.  This room is for law students only and quiet study will be enforced.  We ask that you help us keep the noise down in there.

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Inns of Court Info. Meeting

By Shawn Nevers | Published: April 2, 2013

Justice Thomas R. Lee of the Utah Supreme Court will be at the law school on Thursday, April 4 at noon in room 306 to talk about the American Inns of Court and to answer any questions.  All students are invited to attend.  The American Inns of Court program is a great opportunity for students to interact with local judges, attorneys and other law students.  Our local Inn, the A. Sherman Christensen Inn of Court I, meets once a month during the school year to eat dinner together and to discuss some topic of legal practice.  Recent topics have included legal writing, legislation, ethics, changes to the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure, and expert witnesses.  Students get to participate in the discussion and hear first-hand the ideas and experiences of experienced attorneys and judges.

Each year the Inn accepts about 25 applicants to be student members of the Inn.  Applications were sent out via lawmailer a week or so ago, but if you need one don’t hesitate to email me at neverss@law.byu.edu.  The deadline to apply is Friday, April 12, 2013.

 

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Google Scholar Legal Docs

By Shawn Nevers | Published: April 1, 2013

Since it came out a few years back, Google Scholar Legal Documents has been a welcome addition to legal research (especially as a free resource).  One attorney who was in the library the other day told me he uses it frequently and I’ve heard the same from many lawyers.

When I wrote about Google Scholar last summer, Google had removed the option of selecting a jurisdiction before searching and was relying entirely on post-search filtering.  While I didn’t love this approach (I generally want to choose the jurisdiction first), it did provide the advantage of getting rid of the cumbersome way that pre-search filtering had been done.

Now it looks like Google has brought back the pre-search jurisdiction filter, but improved how it works.  Now when you select “Legal Documents” you will be given an option to select either Federal Courts or your State’s courts.

You can also select other courts that you may be interested in.  Previously when you clicked on “Select courts,” all courts would be selected and would require the user to “deselect all.”  Google has now fixed this so that no courts are selected and the user can select the needed court without having to deselect first.

Once you run a search (even if you don’t select a jurisdiction first) you are still given the option to filter your search results by court.

This is a great improvement that is more in line with how legal research is conducted.  I’m a fan.

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USB Flash Drives for Sale

By Shawn Nevers | Published: March 26, 2013

The Law Library is now selling 2 GB USB Flash Drives at the circulation desk for $5 each.  We hope selling these flash drives will be useful for those of you using our new KIC scanner.

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Bloomberg Law

By Shawn Nevers | Published: March 21, 2013

As we get closer to summer, it’s time to start thinking about the jobs/externships you’ll be doing once school is out.  One thing you’re guaranteed to be doing is legal research.  I recently blogged about Lexis’s decision to make Lexis Advance available to students without restriction this summer.  Another legal research system that is available to you without restriction is Bloomberg Law.  Bloomberg Law is a newcomer to the legal research world, but is making a push to be a competitor to Westlaw and Lexis.  While it has yet to be widely adopted by law firms, it does offer some intriguing benefits that might be of use to you this summer.

Dockets

Law student Bloomberg Law accounts have free access to federal court pleadings and other materials generally available through PACER.  Bloomberg’s interface is a lot easier to use than PACER’s and students don’t have to pay PACER’s 10 cents per page download fee.  These types of pleadings are accessed fairly often in firms and students would benefit from being familiar with this portion of Bloomberg Law.

Transactional Materials

Students working in transactional law will find that Bloomberg has many great resources.  Bloomberg Law has a nice EDGAR search as well as many example documents and clauses through its DealMaker product.  Because its Bloomberg, Bloomberg Law also has great company and news information that can be quite helpful in areas like mergers and acquisitions.

Secondary Sources

Bloomberg Law is also attempting to expand its collections of secondary sources and has recently acquired some products that could be quite helpful this summer.  Bloomberg’s big acquisition was BNA and all its reports and information.  BNA reports are great sources for firms to stay up to date in many different practice areas.  Bloomberg Law has also recently added Practicing Law Institute materials.  These resources are practitioner oriented and can be very helpful when you’re trying to figure out how something works in practice.

Representatives from Bloomberg Law will be here next week to offer some training on Bloomberg Law.  Come take a closer look at Bloomberg Law on Tuesday, March 26 at 2:30 or Wednesday, March 27 at noon in the Moot Court Room.  To get a Bloomberg Law ID, register here.

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Law and Entrepreneurial Opportunities

By Shawn Nevers | Published: March 18, 2013

Professor Gordon Smith has recently added his newest paper, Law and Entrepreneurial Opportunities, to SSRN.  This article was co-authored with Darian Ibrahim from the University of Wisconsin Law School and will appear in the Cornell Law Review.


 

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