legal research assignments

Legal Research Strategy

Preliminary analysis, organization, secondary sources, primary sources, updating research, identifying an end point, getting help, about this guide.

This guide will walk a beginning researcher though the legal research process step-by-step. These materials are created with the 1L Legal Research & Writing course in mind. However, these resources will also assist upper-level students engaged in any legal research project.

How to Strategize

Legal research must be comprehensive and precise.  One contrary source that you miss may invalidate other sources you plan to rely on.  Sticking to a strategy will save you time, ensure completeness, and improve your work product. 

Follow These Steps

Running Time: 3 minutes, 13 seconds.

Make sure that you don't miss any steps by using our:

• Legal Research Strategy Checklist

If you get stuck at any time during the process, check this out:

• Ten Tips for Moving Beyond the Brick Wall in the Legal Research Process, by Marsha L. Baum

Understanding the Legal Questions

A legal question often originates as a problem or story about a series of events. In law school, these stories are called fact patterns. In practice, facts may arise from a manager or an interview with a potential client. Start by doing the following:

• Read anything you have been given
• Analyze the facts and frame the legal issues
• Assess what you know and need to learn
• Note the jurisdiction and any primary law you have been given
• Generate potential search terms

Jurisdiction

Legal rules will vary depending on where geographically your legal question will be answered. You must determine the jurisdiction in which your claim will be heard. These resources can help you learn more about jurisdiction and how it is determined:

• Legal Treatises on Jurisdiction
• LII Wex Entry on Jurisdiction

This map indicates which states are in each federal appellate circuit:

Getting Started

Once you have begun your research, you will need to keep track of your work. Logging your research will help you to avoid missing sources and explain your research strategy. You will likely be asked to explain your research process when in practice. Researchers can keep paper logs, folders on Westlaw or Lexis, or online citation management platforms.

Organizational Methods

Tracking with paper or excel.

Many researchers create their own tracking charts.  Be sure to include:

• Search Date
• Topics/Keywords/Search Strategy
• Citation to Relevant Source Found
• Save Locations
• Follow Up Needed

Consider using the following research log as a starting place: 

• Sample Research Log

Tracking with Folders

Westlaw and Lexis offer options to create folders, then save and organize your materials there.

• Lexis Advance Folders
• Westlaw Edge Folders

Tracking with Citation Management Software

For long term projects, platforms such as Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, or Refworks might be useful. These are good tools to keep your research well organized. Note, however, that none of these platforms substitute for doing your own proper Bluebook citations. Learn more about citation management software on our other research guides:

• Guide to Zotero for Harvard Law Students by Harvard Law School Library Research Services Last Updated Aug 9, 2024 383 views this year

Types of Sources

There are three different types of sources: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.  When doing legal research you will be using mostly primary and secondary sources.  We will explore these different types of sources in the sections below.

Secondary sources often explain legal principles more thoroughly than a single case or statute. Starting with them can help you save time.

Secondary sources are particularly useful for:

• Learning the basics of a particular area of law
• Understanding key terms of art in an area
• Identifying essential cases and statutes

Consider the following when deciding which type of secondary source is right for you:

• Scope/Breadth
• Depth of Treatment
• Currentness/Reliability

For a deep dive into secondary sources visit:

• Secondary Sources: ALRs, Encyclopedias, Law Reviews, Restatements, & Treatises by Catherine Biondo Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 6265 views this year

Legal Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Legal dictionaries.

Legal dictionaries are similar to other dictionaries that you have likely used before.

• Black's Law Dictionary
• Ballentine's Law Dictionary

Legal Encyclopedias

Legal encyclopedias contain brief, broad summaries of legal topics, providing introductions and explaining terms of art. They also provide citations to primary law and relevant major law review articles.  

Here are the two major national encyclopedias:

• American Jurisprudence (AmJur) This resource is also available in Westlaw & Lexis .
• Corpus Juris Secundum (CJS)

Treatises are books on legal topics.  These books are a good place to begin your research.  They provide explanation, analysis, and citations to the most relevant primary sources. Treatises range from single subject overviews to deep treatments of broad subject areas.

It is important to check the date when the treatise was published. Many are either not updated, or are updated through the release of newer editions.

To find a relevant treatise explore:

• Legal Treatises by Subject by Catherine Biondo Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 5868 views this year

American Law Reports (ALR)

American Law Reports (ALR) contains in-depth articles on narrow topics of the law. ALR articles, are often called annotations. They provide background, analysis, and citations to relevant cases, statutes, articles, and other annotations. ALR annotations are invaluable tools to quickly find primary law on narrow legal questions.

This resource is available in both Westlaw and Lexis:

• American Law Reports on Westlaw (includes index)
• American Law Reports on Lexis

Law Reviews & Journals

Law reviews are scholarly publications, usually edited by law students in conjunction with faculty members. They contain both lengthy articles and shorter essays by professors and lawyers. They also contain comments, notes, or developments in the law written by law students. Articles often focus on new or emerging areas of law and may offer critical commentary. Some law reviews are dedicated to a particular topic while others are general. Occasionally, law reviews will include issues devoted to proceedings of panels and symposia.

Law review and journal articles are extremely narrow and deep with extensive references. 

To find law review articles visit:

• Law Journal Library on HeinOnline
• Law Reviews & Journals on LexisNexis
• Law Reviews & Journals on Westlaw

Restatements

Restatements are highly regarded distillations of common law, prepared by the American Law Institute (ALI). ALI is a prestigious organization comprised of judges, professors, and lawyers. They distill the "black letter law" from cases to indicate trends in common law. Resulting in a “restatement” of existing common law into a series of principles or rules. Occasionally, they make recommendations on what a rule of law should be.

Restatements are not primary law. However, they are considered persuasive authority by many courts.

Restatements are organized into chapters, titles, and sections.  Sections contain the following:

• a concisely stated rule of law,
• comments to clarify the rule,
• hypothetical examples,
• explanation of purpose, and
• exceptions to the rule  

To access restatements visit:

• American Law Institute Library on HeinOnline
• Restatements & Principles of the Law on LexisNexis
• Restatements & Principles of Law on Westlaw

Primary Authority

Primary authority is "authority that issues directly from a law-making body."   Authority , Black's Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019).   Sources of primary authority include:

• Constitutions
• Statutes 

Regulations

Access to primary legal sources is available through:

• Bloomberg Law
• Free & Low Cost Alternatives

Statutes (also called legislation) are "laws enacted by legislative bodies", such as Congress and state legislatures.  Statute , Black's Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019).

We typically start primary law research here. If there is a controlling statute, cases you look for later will interpret that law. There are two types of statutes, annotated and unannotated.

Annotated codes are a great place to start your research. They combine statutory language with citations to cases, regulations, secondary sources, and other relevant statutes. This can quickly connect you to the most relevant cases related to a particular law. Unannotated Codes provide only the text of the statute without editorial additions. Unannotated codes, however, are more often considered official and used for citation purposes.

For a deep dive on federal and state statutes, visit:

• Statutes: US and State Codes by Mindy Kent Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 4680 views this year
• 50 State Surveys

Want to learn more about the history or legislative intent of a law?  Learn how to get started here:

• Legislative History Get an introduction to legislative histories in less than 5 minutes.
• Federal Legislative History Research Guide

Regulations are rules made by executive departments and agencies. Not every legal question will require you to search regulations. However, many areas of law are affected by regulations. So make sure not to skip this step if they are relevant to your question.

To learn more about working with regulations, visit:

• Administrative Law Research by AJ Blechner Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 801 views this year

Case Basics

In many areas, finding relevant caselaw will comprise a significant part of your research. This Is particularly true in legal areas that rely heavily on common law principles.

Running Time: 3 minutes, 10 seconds.

Unpublished Cases

Up to  86% of federal case opinions are unpublished. You must determine whether your jurisdiction will consider these unpublished cases as persuasive authority. The Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure have an overarching rule, Rule 32.1  Each circuit also has local rules regarding citations to unpublished opinions. You must understand both the Federal Rule and the rule in your jurisdiction.

• Federal and Local Rules of Appellate Procedure 32.1 (Dec. 2021).
• Type of Opinion or Order Filed in Cases Terminated on the Merits, by Circuit (Sept. 2021).

Each state also has its own local rules which can often be accessed through:

• State Bar Associations
• State Courts Websites

First Circuit

• First Circuit Court Rule 32.1.0

Second Circuit

• Second Circuit Court Rule 32.1.1

Third Circuit

• Third Circuit Court Rule 5.7

Fourth Circuit

• Fourth Circuit Court Rule 32.1

Fifth Circuit

• Fifth Circuit Court Rule 47.5

Sixth Circuit

• Sixth Circuit Court Rule 32.1

Seventh Circuit

• Seventh Circuit Court Rule 32.1

Eighth Circuit

• Eighth Circuit Court Rule 32.1A

Ninth Circuit

• Ninth Circuit Court Rule 36-3

Tenth Circuit

• Tenth Circuit Court Rule 32.1

Eleventh Circuit

• Eleventh Circuit Court Rule 32.1

D.C. Circuit

• D.C. Circuit Court Rule 32.1

Federal Circuit

• Federal Circuit Court Rule 32.1

Finding Cases

Headnotes show the key legal points in a case. Legal databases use these headnotes to guide researchers to other cases on the same topic. They also use them to organize concepts explored in cases by subject. Publishers, like Westlaw and Lexis, create headnotes, so they are not consistent across databases.

Headnotes are organized by subject into an outline that allows you to search by subject. This outline is known as a "digest of cases." By browsing or searching the digest you can retrieve all headnotes covering a particular topic. This can help you identify particularly important cases on the relevant subject.

Running Time: 4 minutes, 43 seconds.

Each major legal database has its own digest:

• Topic Navigator (Lexis)
• Key Digest System (Westlaw)

Start by identifying a relevant topic in a digest.  Then you can limit those results to your jurisdiction for more relevant results.  Sometimes, you can keyword search within only the results on your topic in your jurisdiction.  This is a particularly powerful research method.

One Good Case Method

After following the steps above, you will have identified some relevant cases on your topic. You can use good cases you find to locate other cases addressing the same topic. These other cases often apply similar rules to a range of diverse fact patterns.

• in Lexis click "More Like This Headnote"
• in Westlaw click "Cases that Cite This Headnote"

to focus on the terms of art or key words in a particular headnote. You can use this feature to find more cases with similar language and concepts.  ​

Ways to Use Citators

A citator is "a catalogued list of cases, statutes, and other legal sources showing the subsequent history and current precedential value of those sources.  Citators allow researchers to verify the authority of a precedent and to find additional sources relating to a given subject." Citator , Black's Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019).

Each major legal database has its own citator.  The two most popular are Keycite on Westlaw and Shepard's on Lexis.

• Keycite Information Page
• Shepard's Information Page

Making Sure Your Case is Still Good Law

This video answers common questions about citators:

For step-by-step instructions on how to use Keycite and Shepard's see the following:

• Shepard's Video Tutorial
• Shepard's Handout
• Shepard's Editorial Phrase Dictionary
• KeyCite Video Tutorial
• KeyCite Handout
• KeyCite Editorial Phrase Dictionary

Using Citators For

Citators serve three purposes: (1) case validation, (2) better understanding, and (3) additional research.

Case Validation

Is my case or statute good law?

• Parallel citations
• Prior and subsequent history
• Negative treatment suggesting you should no longer cite to holding.

Better Understanding

Has the law in this area changed?

• Later cases on the same point of law
• Positive treatment, explaining or expanding the law.
• Negative Treatment, narrowing or distinguishing the law.

Track Research

Who is citing and writing about my case or statute?

• Secondary sources that discuss your case or statute.
• Cases in other jurisdictions that discuss your case or statute.

Knowing When to Start Writing

For more guidance on when to stop your research see:

• Terminating Research, by Christina L. Kunz

Automated Services

Automated services can check your work and ensure that you are not missing important resources. You can learn more about several automated brief check services.  However, these services are not a replacement for conducting your own diligent research .

• Automated Brief Check Instructional Video

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• Last Updated: Sep 21, 2023 2:56 PM
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How to do legal research in 3 steps

Knowing where to start a difficult legal research project can be a challenge. But if you already understand the basics of legal research, the process can be significantly easier — not to mention quicker.

Solid research skills are crucial to crafting a winning argument. So, whether you are a law school student or a seasoned attorney with years of experience, knowing how to perform legal research is important — including where to start and the steps to follow.

What is legal research, and where do I start? 

Black's Law Dictionary defines legal research as “[t]he finding and assembling of authorities that bear on a question of law." But what does that actually mean? It means that legal research is the process you use to identify and find the laws — including statutes, regulations, and court opinions — that apply to the facts of your case.

In most instances, the purpose of legal research is to find support for a specific legal issue or decision. For example, attorneys must conduct legal research if they need court opinions — that is, case law — to back up a legal argument they are making in a motion or brief filed with the court.

Alternatively, lawyers may need legal research to provide clients with accurate legal guidance . In the case of law students, they often use legal research to complete memos and briefs for class. But these are just a few situations in which legal research is necessary.

Why is legal research hard?

Each step — from defining research questions to synthesizing findings — demands critical thinking and rigorous analysis.

1. Identifying the legal issue is not so straightforward. Legal research involves interpreting many legal precedents and theories to justify your questions. Finding the right issue takes time and patience.

2. There's too much to research. Attorneys now face a great deal of case law and statutory material. The sheer volume forces the researcher to be efficient by following a methodology based on a solid foundation of legal knowledge and principles.

3. The law is a fluid doctrine. It changes with time, and staying updated with the latest legal codes, precedents, and statutes means the most resourceful lawyer needs to assess the relevance and importance of new decisions.

Legal research can pose quite a challenge, but professionals can improve it at every stage of the process . 

Step 1: Key questions to ask yourself when starting legal research

Before you begin looking for laws and court opinions, you first need to define the scope of your legal research project. There are several key questions you can use to help do this.

What are the facts?

Always gather the essential facts so you know the “who, what, why, when, where, and how” of your case. Take the time to write everything down, especially since you will likely need to include a statement of facts in an eventual filing or brief anyway. Even if you don't think a fact may be relevant now, write it down because it may be relevant later. These facts will also be helpful when identifying your legal issue.

What is the actual legal issue?

You will never know what to research if you don't know what your legal issue is. Does your client need help collecting money from an insurance company following a car accident involving a negligent driver? How about a criminal case involving excluding evidence found during an alleged illegal stop?

No matter the legal research project, you must identify the relevant legal problem and the outcome or relief sought. This information will guide your research so you can stay focused and on topic.

What is the relevant jurisdiction?

Don't cast your net too wide regarding legal research; you should focus on the relevant jurisdiction. For example, does your case deal with federal or state law? If it is state law, which state? You may find a case in California state court that is precisely on point, but it won't be beneficial if your legal project involves New York law.

Where to start legal research: The library, online, or even AI?

In years past, future attorneys were trained in law school to perform research in the library. But now, you can find almost everything from the library — and more — online. While you can certainly still use the library if you want, you will probably be costing yourself valuable time if you do.

When it comes to online research, some people start with free legal research options , including search engines like Google or Bing. But to ensure your legal research is comprehensive, you will want to use an online research service designed specifically for the law, such as Westlaw . Not only do online solutions like Westlaw have all the legal sources you need, but they also include artificial intelligence research features that help make quick work of your research

Step 2: How to find relevant case law and other primary sources of law

Now that you have gathered the facts and know your legal issue, the next step is knowing what to look for. After all, you will need the law to support your legal argument, whether providing guidance to a client or writing an internal memo, brief, or some other legal document.

But what type of law do you need? The answer: primary sources of law. Some of the more important types of primary law include:

• Case law, which are court opinions or decisions issued by federal or state courts
• Statutes, including legislation passed by both the U.S. Congress and state lawmakers
• Regulations, including those issued by either federal or state agencies
• Constitutions, both federal and state

Searching for primary sources of law

So, if it's primary law you want, it makes sense to begin searching there first, right? Not so fast. While you will need primary sources of law to support your case, in many instances, it is much easier — and a more efficient use of your time — to begin your search with secondary sources such as practice guides, treatises, and legal articles.

Why? Because secondary sources provide a thorough overview of legal topics, meaning you don't have to start your research from scratch. After secondary sources, you can move on to primary sources of law.

For example, while no two legal research projects are the same, the order in which you will want to search different types of sources may look something like this:

• Secondary sources . If you are researching a new legal principle or an unfamiliar area of the law, the best place to start is secondary sources, including law journals, practice guides , legal encyclopedias, and treatises. They are a good jumping-off point for legal research since they've already done the work for you. As an added bonus, they can save you additional time since they often identify and cite important statutes and seminal cases.
• Case law . If you have already found some case law in secondary sources, great, you have something to work with. But if not, don't fret. You can still search for relevant case law in a variety of ways, including running a search in a case law research tool.

Once you find a helpful case, you can use it to find others. For example, in Westlaw, most cases contain headnotes that summarize each of the case's important legal issues. These headnotes are also assigned a Key Number based on the topic associated with that legal issue. So, once you find a good case, you can use the headnotes and Key Numbers within it to quickly find more relevant case law.

• Statutes and regulations . In many instances, secondary sources and case law list the statutes and regulations relevant to your legal issue. But if you haven't found anything yet, you can still search for statutes and regs online like you do with cases.

Once you know which statute or reg is pertinent to your case, pull up the annotated version on Westlaw. Why the annotated version? Because the annotations will include vital information, such as a list of important cases that cite your statute or reg. Sometimes, these cases are even organized by topic — just one more way to find the case law you need to support your legal argument.

Keep in mind, though, that legal research isn't always a linear process. You may start out going from source to source as outlined above and then find yourself needing to go back to secondary sources once you have a better grasp of the legal issue. In other instances, you may even find the answer you are looking for in a source not listed above, like a sample brief filed with the court by another attorney. Ultimately, you need to go where the information takes you.

Step 3: Make sure you are using ‘good’ law

One of the most important steps with every legal research project is to verify that you are using “good" law — meaning a court hasn't invalidated it or struck it down in some way. After all, it probably won't look good to a judge if you cite a case that has been overruled or use a statute deemed unconstitutional. It doesn't necessarily mean you can never cite these sources; you just need to take a closer look before you do.

The simplest way to find out if something is still good law is to use a legal tool known as a citator, which will show you subsequent cases that have cited your source as well as any negative history, including if it has been overruled, reversed, questioned, or merely differentiated.

For instance, if a case, statute, or regulation has any negative history — and therefore may no longer be good law — KeyCite, the citator on Westlaw, will warn you. Specifically, KeyCite will show a flag or icon at the top of the document, along with a little blurb about the negative history. This alert system allows you to quickly know if there may be anything you need to worry about.

Some examples of these flags and icons include:

• A red flag on a case warns you it is no longer good for at least one point of law, meaning it may have been overruled or reversed on appeal.
• A yellow flag on a case warns that it has some negative history but is not expressly overruled or reversed, meaning another court may have criticized it or pointed out the holding was limited to a specific fact pattern.
• A blue-striped flag on a case warns you that it has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court or the U.S. Court of Appeals.
• The KeyCite Overruling Risk icon on a case warns you that the case may be implicitly undermined because it relies on another case that has been overruled.

Another bonus of using a citator like KeyCite is that it also provides a list of other cases that merely cite your source — it can lead to additional sources you previously didn't know about.

Perseverance is vital when it comes to legal research

Given that legal research is a complex process, it will likely come as no surprise that this guide cannot provide everything you need to know.

There is a reason why there are entire law school courses and countless books focused solely on legal research methodology. In fact, many attorneys will spend their entire careers honing their research skills — and even then, they may not have perfected the process.

So, if you are just beginning, don't get discouraged if you find legal research difficult — almost everyone does at first. With enough time, patience, and dedication, you can master the art of legal research.

Thomson Reuters originally published this article on November 10, 2020.

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Legal Research Basics: A Step-By-Step Guide to Brushing Up on Your Skills

Legal research is imperative to the practice of law. Depending on where you are in your legal career, there could be multiple reasons to brush up on the basics of legal research. You could be a: 

• Law student or recent graduate preparing for your career 
• Seasoned attorney aiming to brush up on the basics amidst ever-evolving legal research technology 
• Growing law firm preparing to train new attorneys or paralegals 

Regardless of which of these categories you align with most, reviewing the basics of legal research should become regular practice. After all, the importance of legal research cannot be overstated – pinpointing the best facts and knowledge for your case can make the difference between winning and losing.  

Use this article to review the basics and set yourself (and your firm) up for success. First, we’ll define legal research and its components. Then, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step process for conducting superior legal research. Finally, we’ll close with recommendations for tools that can help you become both an accurate and efficient legal researcher – which ultimately equips you with a reputation for success in the courtroom.  

What is Legal Research?

Legal research is defined as the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making. There are multiple reasons you might conduct legal research: 

• To find “good” case law that backs up your motion or brief  
• To provide legal counsel to clients  
• To provide a memo or brief for class (law students only)  
• To identify case law that refutes an opposing argument 
• To support the over-arching narrative of your case 

What is the Importance of Legal Research?

Legal research provides support for decision-making on complex issues, by providing specific facts and legal precedent that allow you to produce complete answers for clients. Quality legal research is critical to the practice of law.

Historically, attorneys combed through books and libraries for the perfect facts, cases, and issues; now, technology has largely replaced this process. While the prominence of ever-evolving technology has made the process more efficient (and, in many ways, easier), the sheer number of products and options available can be overwhelming.  

The Legal Research Process

Understanding that the legal research process can be overwhelming and time-consuming, we’ve broken the legal research process down into three key steps: 

• Understand the facts of your case 
• Gather sources of law 
• Check your citations for “good” law 

Each of these steps is detailed below, alongside a quick-view checklist.  

Step 1: Record the Facts of Your Case and Create a Research Plan  

Handling a legal task with authority requires confidence in the process. This is true in any practice, jurisdictional setting, or level of legal expertise. A good process should start by taking time to identify and understand the facts of your case. Ask yourself the following questions: 

• What is the legal issue at hand?  
• What are the details of the case?  
• What jurisdiction is most relevant?  
• Do you need state or federal case law? 

Record your facts in a case management tool before beginning – this can help you develop a course of action and narrow down where to start your research. While it may be tempting to skip this step, a commitment to this process saves you time in the long run by helping you efficiently juggle multiple clients. Not to mention, you will likely need what you’ve recorded to file a motion or brief. 

With the facts of the case recorded, you can begin your research. Because this will help you develop a plan for gathering your sources, we will briefly discuss creating a research plan before moving on to Step 2.  

Did you know? LexisNexis boasts a collection of state case law superior to its leading competitors. Easily filter by jurisdiction before or after your search.  

Creating a Research Plan  

Review the facts you recorded to determine what information you will need to build your case. When legal research first moved online, many attorneys felt the need to start with a free service like Google to identify terms of art before conducting a search in a legal research platform. However, this is no longer necessary. Research platforms like Lexis+ allow you to start your search with a natural language search or question and equip you to quickly comb both primary and secondary sources. Litigators, specifically, can use Fact and Issue Finder – integrated directly with Lexis+ – to help quickly identify the best terms of art for their search.  

Creating your research plan is less about planning where you will search and more about planning what you will search. You know your research can be conducted on one, fully integrated platform. So, what questions will you ask to get started? What legal issues do you need more information about? What filters will you need (jurisdiction, time period, etc.)?  

Once you know what you will search for, you are ready to gather sources.  

Step 2: Gather Sources of Law  

The next step in your process is to gather relevant sources of law. Below, we detail the difference between primary law and secondary law. Importantly, when gathering sources, start with secondary law materials. This helps ensure you are up-to-speed on what experts have to say about a topic before you begin your case law search. Why does this matter? Think about it as building your knowledge base before crafting an argument – you’ll be less likely to make mistakes and more inclined to spot case-winning primary law.  

What are Secondary Sources of Law?  

Secondary legal sources are materials that describe or interpret the law. They are educational resources that provide analysis of the law. These documents are cited by attorneys to persuade a court to reach a particular decision in a case, but which the court is not obligated to follow. Start with secondary sources to learn from legal experts that have already explored a given topic.  

Secondary sources may include: 

• Practice guides 
• Legal treatises 
• Law review articles 
• Scholarly journals 
• Legal news 
• Jury instructions 
• Legal dictionaries and encyclopedias 

What are Primary Sources of Law?  

A primary legal source is a formal document officially issued by the government that establishes the law on a particular matter, such as a case decision or legislative act. Primary sources are the law. This is the most authoritative step in the legal research process. You can support arguments with primary sources as they are not only authoritative, but precedential and controlling.  

Your primary sources may include: 

• Case law (federal and/or state) 
• Orders 
• Decisions 
• Statutes and regulations 
• Constitutions  
• Treatises 

Step 3: Check to See If You’re Using Good Law   

The final step in your research process should include a final check to ensure you have used “good” law – this means you are using case law that has been treated positively in court (as opposed to case law that has been overturned or brought into question). 

Check your case citations as you collect them, especially since legal research software can allow a quick view of how your case has been treated in court directly from your search results. However, it is best practice to review your citations once your research process is complete to check for any gaps, changes, or oversights.  

Read more about using good law and the process of " Shepardizing ."

Conduct Winning Legal Research  

Following this three-step process ensures you’re taking the right measures to find the most accurate, relevant and valuable data to achieve your objectives. Now that you’re ready to conduct winning legal research, take some time to review products and tools that can help you in your path to success.  

Getting Started with Legal Research Tools   

Legal research is key to drafting effective documents and building winning cases. Legal research solutions have evolved substantially – helping you conduct legal research with increased efficiency and accuracy . Below is a list of legal research tools to help you build a winning case:  

• Lexis +:  This is the premier LexisNexis fully integrated legal research platform. Features such as Shepard's At Risk ensures you’re citing only the most authoritative sources, with unprecedented visibility into whether a case is at risk of being overruled or undermined. Other Lexis+ features include, but aren’t limited to: 
• Brief Analysis: Get a clear picture of the contents of your legal brief to identify any missteps and bolster your arguments against opposing counsel. Simply upload and file and quickly evaluate the legal authority cited in your (or an opposing) brief in granular detail and receive recommendations for additional searches.  
• Litigation Analytics: Get the most accurate insights into judges, courts, attorneys, and law firms to ensure your success in litigation. Understand critical insights regarding caseloads, experience across case types, timing to key milestones, and damages by comparing federal districts and judges. 
• Shepard's ® Citations Service:  See if a case has been overturned, reaffirmed, questioned, or cited by later cases, or is at risk of negative treatment. Your research needs to provide precedential value. Using reversed or overruled authority doesn't qualify as "Good Law" and your research may be ineffectual or harmful to your case.  
• Practical Guidance: View professional insights on 20 different practice areas. Accomplish any task with practice notes, annotated templates, and checklists.  
• Legal News Hub: Receive up-to-the-minute, award-winning journalism and legal news from Law360 and Law360 Pulse anytime you need it — without having to leave the Lexis+ ecosystem. Stay current on critical developments across legal practice areas, with over 70 coverage areas spanning the practice and business of law. 

LexisNexis is here to support your firm in winning your next case. With Lexis+, all of your legal research needs are integrated into one platform as a true start-to-finish solution. Ready to learn more? Take a guided tour of Lexis+ today. 

Buy Now    Free Lexis+ Access

• Practical Guidance
• Legal Research
• Shepard's Citations Service

Course Overview

First-Year Legal Research and Writing Program

1 North   Griswold Hall 1525 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge ,  MA 02138

Before you begin your studies in the First-Year Legal Research and Writing Program (LRW), it will help you to situate the course in the broader context of your legal education and your future law practice. To follow is a brief overview of the program, and an introduction to several themes that will recur throughout the year.

Program Overview

LRW uses a series of writing, research, and advocacy projects to engage you in the process of legal reasoning. The course instructs you in basic methods of legal analysis, effective written and oral communication of your analysis, and essential legal research tools and methodologies.

The first semester of LRW focuses on the writing of two predictive memos, in which you assess the arguments on each side of the issue and predict which side would prevail.  In the spring, you will learn how to write an appellate brief, in which you present your client’s best arguments to a court. For all three assignments, you will produce both a draft and a final version, the better to respond to feedback and hone your writing and analysis.  In practice, as in LRW, the writing process will help you take your internal understanding of an issue and make it external, so that you may hold it at arm’s length and examine it critically. As novice lawyers become expert lawyers, they develop greater ability to monitor their own level of understanding, and may resort somewhat less frequently (although not infrequently) to a formal written product like a predictive memo. Nevertheless, even when they eschew a formal written memo, they continue to apply the same analytical steps that are required to complete the writing assignments you will undertake in this course.

Lawyers cannot provide effective representation unless they master the necessary research skills. At a minimum, lawyers must be able to find and update the constitutional provisions, statutes, regulations, and cases that determine their clients’ rights and obligations. To that end, the legal research component of LRW will introduce you to core tools and methodologies that will be essential in your internships next summer, as well as in your future law practice. Indeed, without such skills you will have a difficult time satisfying your employers and competing with fellow students in summer practice and the early years of law practice. More advanced research instruction is available in upper-level elective courses.

LRW’s learning model depends on the substantial feedback that we provide on your work. LRW will likely be the first law school course in which you receive any feedback on written work, and it will be the course in which you receive the most individual feedback by far. Keep in mind that our goals for your achievement are quite high, in keeping with your potential. Our feedback will naturally focus on areas for improvement, so you ought not interpret this emphasis negatively. Our feedback is intended not to discourage you, but to facilitate your learning.

LRW meets weekly in the fall and spring semester of your first year. LRW is graded Honors, Pass, Low Pass, and  Fail.

In the fall semester, you will complete two major writing assignments. The first is a  “Closed Memo,” in which you write a predictive memo based on a set of research materials that are provided for you. The second is an “Open Memo,” in which you must research the applicable law and write a predictive memo based on your own research.

In the spring semester, the major course assignment is the First-Year Ames Moot Court Program. Working in pairs, you will research and draft an appellate brief concerning a simulated case set in a federal or state appeals court. At the end of the semester, you will argue your case before a three-judge panel. Judges are drawn from Harvard Law School faculty, practicing lawyers, and upper-level law students. With this course overview in mind, we turn next to a discussion of several recurring themes in LRW.

The Conventions of Legal Discourse

Any discourse community has its own discourse conventions, and lawyers have done a particularly thorough job of developing theirs. LRW is intended to familiarize you with these discourse conventions.

LRW introduces you to the generally accepted modes of legal reasoning: rule-based reasoning; analogical reasoning; and policy reasoning. As you progress through the course assignments, you will see the interdependence among these three modes of legal reasoning. When LRW turns to advocacy, you will learn how lawyers use narrative devices to complement the conventional modes of legal reasoning and make their arguments more persuasive.

Discourse conventions govern not only the modes of argument, but also the authorities that frame the argument. You will learn what types of materials constitute acceptable sources of authority in legal discourse, as well as the different hierarchies within which those authorities exist.

Most concretely, LRW will introduce you to two basic forms through which lawyers communicate their legal reasoning. You will learn the conventions applicable to a predictive memo and an appellate oral argument.

Of course, you will be learning the conventions of legal discourse in all of your first-year courses, indeed in all of law school. LRW, however, is intended to focus very specifically on the conventions themselves, more so than in your other courses.

Legal Reasoning and Judicial Discretion

Throughout your legal education, you will encounter a debate over the role of judicial discretion in adjudication. At the extremes, some would suggest that adjudication is rationally constrained by the available legal authorities, while others would argue that adjudication is effectively constrained only by the judge’s own beliefs and values. LRW is not intended to resolve that debate. Nevertheless, your work in this course should illustrate several different concepts about the degrees to which legal authorities can constrain judicial discretion.

Over the course of the year’s projects, you should see that a series of authorities applying the same rule can restrict–at least to some degree–the decision in a future situation governed by that rule. For example, if a statute says “No vehicles in the park,” and the state’s highest court interprets the statute to mean no “motor vehicles,” you can be pretty sure that the statute won’t prohibit you from riding your elephant through the park.

One might think that the ever-increasing number of decisions necessarily increases the degree of constraint. That may be so in some situations, but several factors can have a destabilizing influence. One such factor is the contingent nature of language. You may have seen in other contexts, and you will surely see in your legal career, that saying more about a topic often creates more uncertainty, not less. Each new opinion creates the potential for misstatement and misunderstanding, enabling future lawyers to reinterpret the pre-existing rule. A second destabilizing factor is the social context of our legal system. Authorities rest on a foundation of policy, of societal goals and values, even if those values are not always stated explicitly. As societal goals and values shift, a body of law resting on the discarded goals and values may become obsolete, and eventually reoriented in support of a new rule.

Finally, you should recognize that the limits on judicial discretion are often less substantial than they might seem at first. Each of the major projects in LRW should demonstrate that, with regard to a given legal problem, there is usually more than one possible outcome, even if one outcome seems more likely than the others. Skilled lawyers read authorities with a critical eye, constantly on the lookout for the gap of ambiguity within a seemingly solid wall of legal authorities.

Tension Between the Abstract and the Concrete

To complete any substantial task of legal analysis, the lawyer must at some point bridge the boundary between the abstract and the concrete. Rules rarely, if ever, cover every situation imaginable. For example, the “No vehicles in the park” statute could simply list every make and model of car and truck in existence, to clarify that they are all prohibited from the park. But the rule would be unmanageably long, and new makes and models would come into existence after the rule’s enactment. So the drafters would instead choose a term to describe the category of situations to which their rule was addressed. Rules that denote categories rather than specific situations necessarily involve a degree of abstraction, whether a moderate degree (e.g., “motor vehicle”) or a substantial degree (e.g., “best interest of the child”).

Fortunately for us, this inherent uncertainty is one of the things that makes law practice a creative endeavor. For example, if the vehicles in the park statute referred to “motor vehicles,” would that include airplanes? Mopeds? Golf carts? The “Segway” personal scooters? Lawyers and judges would try to use the policies underlying the rule and analogies to prior decisions to decide each example. But the jump from abstract to concrete would involve a measure of uncertainty, and it is this uncertainty that allows lawyers to make plausible arguments on both sides of a case.

Your Audience

In the oral and written communications that you undertake in this course, you must focus not only on the substantive ideas that you try to communicate, but also on the way in which your audience will receive those ideas. Communication is a two-step process, and even brilliant arguments suffer if the audience is distracted by substandard prose. That is why the feedback in this course will consider the form and style of your writing.

Additionally, you must recognize that your audience has a particular task before it, and will be using your communication (i.e., your memo, brief, or oral argument) as an instrument in completing that task. The audience’s task will often be to decide how to advise a client or rule in a case. To be effective, your communication must be suited to your audience’s needs. So in a memo addressed to an attorney who must decide how to advise a client, simply stating your prediction is not enough. You must also help the attorney understand the applicable legal standard and its likely application, as well as any plausible counter-arguments and the reasons why those arguments would not prevail. Only then will your communication allow the attorney to make an informed decision about how to advise the client.

You are at the start of a fascinating journey. We in the First-Year Legal Research and Writing Program wish you great success and enjoyment as you begin your legal education.

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Content Overview

On-Demand Learning for Students

Westlaw and beyond ● multiple content types ● assignable.

• Intermediate
• Foundations
• Litigation *updated*
• Transactional *updated*
• Prepare to Practice

Basic Certification

Learn the fundamental Westlaw tools and techniques for effective research:

• Plain-language searching, filters, and Precision Search
• Discover various types of secondary sources and how to find them
• Westlaw's annotations to find cases, statutes, and other authorities
• Streamline your research with shortcuts, like Copy with Reference
• KeyCite to validate your findings and expand research.

Intermediate Certification

Amplify your research skills with Westlaw tools that will help you work more efficiently and competently:

• Learn how to search using the Key Number System
• Use KeyCite tools like the red-striped flag, Cited With technology, and advanced Citing References
• Leverage statutory research tools like Notes of Decisions, Context & Analysis, and Graphical History
• Find sources and get up to speed quickly with the Secondary Resource Index and Practical Law
• Take advantage of Outline Builder and Quick Check to link your research to your writing assignments.

Advanced Certification

There is always something new to discover and master when it comes to Westlaw:

• Learn how to quickly run precise searches using terms & connectors and field searches
• Delve into Westlaw's legislative history tools to find and use regulations.
• Uncover new developments in the law and quickly understand the procedural posture of a case.
• Utilize Folder Analysis to discover missed issues and Graphical History to retrace your steps
• Access court documents for useful insights on drafting, and explore legal forms for examples.

Legal Research & Writing Certification

An introduction to legal research & writing, the core skills for all future attorneys:

• Learn the basics of legal research & writing and how they are practiced by students and attorneys
• Explore the various types of legal analysis frameworks and writing styles
• Understand the core components of case briefs and the briefing process
• Recognize the need for properly formatted legal citations
• Discover how to effectively research and draft a legal memorandum

Essential Legal Research Certification

An introduction to Westlaw and the essential elements of legal research

• Create searches and refine search results
• Utilize Secondary Sources
• Learn the anatomy of cases and statutes
• Employ annotations in cases and statutes to expand research
• Introduce Citators and use KeyCite to validate authority

Advanced Legal Research Certification

Techniques designed to increase the depth, breadth and quality of legal research

• Construct Terms & Connectors searches
• Leverage the statutory indices and tables of contents
• Research regulations and when to use them
• Perform Legislative History research

Litigation Research Certification

An overview of trial practice and research techniques for all future attorneys.

• Gain trial preparation skills, including strategy and evidence presentation techniques.
• Understand jury selection and the importance of voir dire processes.
• Learn to draft and argue motions, and understand trial objections.
• Comprehend appellate court structures and standards for reviewing trial court decisions.
• Master appellate brief writing, including research and argument construction.

Transactional Research Certification

An introduction transactional practice for all future attorneys.

• Transactional drafting principles, document types, and the role of negotiation in deals.
• Key transactional vocabulary, due diligence, and the importance of precedent documents.
• Utilizing technology like Westlaw for research, drafting, and ensuring compliance.
• The lifecycle of transactional documents from pre-drafting to finalization and execution.
• Crafting complex clauses, avoiding common pitfalls, and adhering to ethical standards.

Prepare to Practice Certification

Prepare students to bridge the gap between law school and practice

• Understand the business of law, and the role research plays
• Utilize different methods of billing and tracking time
• Employ practice tools to avoid conflicts and missed deadlines
• Research both time-efficiently and cost-effectively

Foundations of Legal Research

Understand the legal system and how to put a research plan into action.

• An overview of the legal system, precedent and types of authority.
• Build effective research plans
• Identify gaps in legal knowledge and overcome them
• Construct legal arguments utilizing different types of legal authority

Sample Classes

Not sure what to assign? Check out these sample classes.

Getting Started with Westlaw

Students will learn the workings of the American Legal System and the power of precedent types of legal authority and the basics of Westlaw.

First Semester: Research Memo Essentials

Students will prepare and execute research plans, identify and resolve knowledge gaps, and carry out intermediate-level research on Westlaw.

Second Semester: Advanced Techniques

Students will be challenged to apply advanced research skills, such as terms & connectors, and adjust their techniques to suit private legal practice.

On-Demand Learning User Guide

TWEN User Guide

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Teaching this semester? Manage your course on TWEN.

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Fuel Your Research with Key Numbers - Bonus Entries

Need some inspiration check out these key numbers by using the digest searches below., find your rhythm with black's law dictionary - bonus entries, need some inspiration check out these legal terms by using the the links below., westlaw's "no skips" tips playlist, real property, civil procedure, criminal law, constitutional law, show westlaw some love.

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Statutes on Westlaw - Bonus Entries

Need some inspiration check out the statutes below., key numbers on westlaw - bonus entries, searching on westlaw - bonus entries, need some search inspiration for your entries check out the sample searches below.

Because neurodivergent people often need visual prompts or sensory tools, it is helpful to figure out what works best for you. Maybe you need a quiet fidget to use under your desk in class to help you focus. Maybe you need to incorporate the use of timers throughout your day. If you struggle with time blindness, you can use hourglasses to help you visualize time. Perhaps you struggle with extraneous sounds and need to use noise-cancelling headphones. More and more tools and gadgets are being made for neurodiverse individuals that can help you throughout law school.

Society can dictate when you are supposed to be most productive. See the traditional 9-5 work schedule. However, that model does not always work best for neurodiverse individuals. Some people are not morning people, and that is fine. Figure out when you have the most energy during your day to be your most productive self.

Find one system to use for organization and don’t change it. Trying too many organizational systems can become overwhelming. If your phone calendar works best, use that. If you are a list person, write all the lists. If you are a planner person, find the coolest one to use throughout the school year.

It would be nice to think that you can remember every task or deadline, but let’s be honest, that’s probably not true. Write down every deadline, every task, meeting, assignment, important date, etc. in the organizational system that you use.

Just like you can only put so much gasoline in a car, most neurodiverse individuals only have so much room in their focus tank. Figure out how long you can truly focus and apply yourself to a task before you need a break. That amount of time is typically shorter for neurodiverse individuals. If you can only truly focus for 20 minutes, study for 20 minutes, take a break, and then come back for another 20 minutes.

You may have started law school with your mind full of horror stories. Throw them out the window. Most of the people you attend law school with are genuinely kind and helpful people. Try to find a group or a couple of people that you can trust and lean on when necessary. Your law school friends can help you stay on task, body double, and even provide notes on the days you may be struggling. These friends can be one of your greatest assets throughout your law school journey.

Only discuss your neurodivergence with your professors to the extent that you are comfortable. If there are things you are concerned about related to your neurodivergence, it can be beneficial to make your professors aware at the beginning of the semester. Whether you are worried about cold calling or need a topic broken down, most professors love opportunities to discuss their area of law! They can’t know that you may need help if you don’t let them know. This is especially important if you aren’t successful in getting accommodations from your school’s Disability Services.

As a neurodivergent student, you may not fit the traditional mold of all the things a law student is “supposed to do” in order to be successful. You have been in school for years, and now is the time to trust yourself and not be afraid to be an “outside of the box” law student. There is no harm in trying new study methods, but never fear going back to your personal basics. If you need help figuring those out, see if your law school has a learning center or faculty member that can assist you.

Outlining with jury instructions.

• On your Westlaw Precision home screen, click on Secondary Sources and then Jury Instructions .
• On the Jury Instructions page, use the Jurisdiction filter to select your desired jurisdiction.
• Search for your cause of action. (Ex. elements of libel in Federal Jury Practice & Instructions )
• Open your relevant jury instruction and don't forget to check the related notes.
• To see more instructions, check out the table of contents to your left or click on View Full TOC.

Citation in a Click

• Highlight the text you want to copy. Try it out with Miranda v. Arizona
• Select "Copy with Reference" from the pop-up box.
• Paste into your word document...and you're done!

Black's Law Dictionary

Don't guess the meaning of a legal term. know it., by using black’s law dictionary, exclusively on westlaw , you’ll know the meanings of key terms that will help you understand your cases faster, be prepared for cold-calls and beef up your class notes. 1. access black's law dictionary on westlaw., 2. type your term into the dictionary term box. (ex. demurrer ) if your term contains multiple words, place the terms in quotes. (ex. "rule against perpetuities" ), 3. open up your desired term, copy it and paste it into your notes., looking for some inspiration here are a few legal terms to get you started contracts - collateral estoppel - consequential damages civil procedure - minimum contacts - in personam jurisdiction torts - negligence - invasion of privacy criminal law - mayhem - wobbler, where can i learn more about a firm so i can ask good questions in an interview, news is an excellent source for learning about a firm. you’ll see the clients and matters they represent along with the accolades they earned from their communities. 1. click on news under “specialty areas” on your westlaw edge home screen., 2. start by trying a plain language search for your firm. (ex. gibson dunn crutcher ), 3. to up your search game, consider running a terms & connectors search with an index field. (ex. gibson /2 dunn /s crutcher & in(law lawsuit legal) ), start writing your brief without starting from scratch, what is a brief, a brief is a summary of a case in your own words that includes the key facts, procedural history, issues addressed, along with the court's holdings. how can i find a case on westlaw, cases on westlaw contain a synopsis, a summary of the main facts, issues and holdings of a case, and headnotes, summaries of points of law organizes by topic. you can locate cases on westlaw in a variety of ways. find by citation: if you know your case's citation, just type one of the citations in the search box. (ex. 113 sct 2217 ), find by party name: if you know the names of your parties, just start typing them in the search box and select corresponding case from the drop-down menu. (ex. international shoe).

Note: If your case has common party names, you may need to enter more than one party.

Download your synopsis and headnotes: once you've pulled up your case, click on download under delivery options, select brief it under what to deliver and click on download..

The right search terms can make a difference. Here is an easy way to come up with smart search terms.

Rules, Codes & Restatements

Exporting tables of contents, exporting a table of contents is an easy way to get access to a list of rules, codes or restatements that you can reference on the fly and add to your outlines, as needed. locate your rules, codes or restatement: to export a toc (table of contents), you'll first want to locate your resource. restatement of torts restatement of contracts restatement of property federal rules of civil procedure ucc article 2 federal rules of evidence united states constitution, export your toc: click on download, select outline of current view under what to deliver and then click on download..

Strengthen Your Interview Discussions with News

• Search for a particular firm, attorney, or agency. (Ex. Kirkland and Ellis or Fourth Circuit )
• Or select a specific practice area (Ex. Mergers & Acquisitions )

American Law Reports

Your go-to secondary source, finding an a.l.r. (american law reports) article covering your topic is a great starting point for research. you'll get a quick summary of the legal issue you're researching and a table of cases, laws, and rules to see the law across all jurisdictions. you can also use annotations to find additional secondary sources, such as legal encyclopedias, treatises, and periodicals. no wonder they're nicknamed already done legal research see it in action: the legal discussion to compensate student athletes is heating up. check out this alr article to see how the legal picture for tomorrow’s student athletes comes together in one place., keycite graphical history, procedural history made easy, are you reading a case and not sure how you got there procedurally reversed, remanded or otherwise, we got you. just sign into westlaw and follow the steps below... 1. grab one of the citations you see in your case book and type it into the search box on westlaw . (ex. 480 u.s. 102), 2. click on your case in the drop-down menu., 3. click on the history tab to see your procedural history., keycite graphical history works best when you have a federal case and a complex issue. check out some additional examples from your classes below. contracts - koken v. black & veatch const., inc. - lamps plus, inc. v. varela civil procedure - national equipment rental v. szukhent - helicopteros nacionales de colombia, s.a. v. hall torts - palsgraf v. long island r. co. - kentucky fried chicken of cal., inc. v. superior court, law school resource center, flowcharts, overviews & more..

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1. Copy the Code Below

2. click on copy another class, 3. enter your copy code, set your options, click copy course, determining whether a federal court has subject matter jurisdiction over a non-class action case..

If the case arises out of the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws, rules or regulations, or a treaty signed by the U.S., and the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction, then the case must be litigated in federal court.

If the case does not arise out of the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws, rules or regulations, or a treaty signed by the U.S., and there is not complete diversity between the plaintiffs and defendants (a.k.a they are both from different states or one is a citizen of a foreign country), then the case must be litigated in state court.

Restatement of Contracts 2d

Counter-offers.

(1) A counter-offer is an offer made by an offeree to his offeror relating to the same matter as the original offer and proposing a substituted bargain differing from that proposed by the original offer.

(2) An offeree’s power of acceptance is terminated by his making of a counter-offer, unless the offeror has manifested a contrary intention or unless the counter-offer manifests a contrary intention of the offeree.

Negligence Defined

Restatement (second) of torts 282.

In the Restatement of this Subject, negligence is conduct which falls below the standard established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm. It does not include conduct recklessly disregardful of an interest of others.

Black’s Law Dictionary (10th ed.2014)

Demurrer: A means of objecting to the sufficiency in law of a pleading by admitting the actual allegations made by disputing that they frame an adequate claim. Demurrer is commonly known as a motion to dismiss.

(2) An offeree’s power of acceptance is terminated by his making a counter-off, unless the offeror has manifested a contrary intention or unless the counter-offer manifests a contrary intention of the offeree.

testing footnote

What is common law and is it written by the courts of law?

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Negligence defined

Restatement (second) of torts § 282.

Sample Assignments

Advanced Legal Research: Process and Practice Copyright © by Megan Austin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Legal Research: An Overview: Introduction

• Introduction
• Secondary Sources
• Courts, Case Reporters & Publication of Cases
• Mandatory v. Persuasive Authority
• Caselaw Searching
• Validating Your Research
• Statutory Codes
• Searching in the Codes
• Regulations
• Search Techniques

Legal Research: Getting Started

• Before You Start
• Suggested Research Strategy
• Knowing When Your Research Is Done

Good research begins with knowing what it is you are researching. New attorneys often overlook the importance of their initial communications with those assigning them projects. In their zeal to impress their employers and to appear informed, new attorneys may draw their own assumptions about the objectives for the research, neglect to ask clarifying questions, or may even appear disinterested in the assignment. Good communication skills are vital to having a solid understanding of your assignments and that those giving you assignments know they can count on you. Keep these tips in mind when you get new assignments:

Clarify the nature and scope of the project . For assignments given to you via e-mail, read the e-mail thoroughly, and for assignments given to you during a meeting, listen carefully and take detailed notes. When you receive an assignment, ask questions to clarify the scope of the project and anything that is confusing. Your questions should include asking for recommendations for key sources to consult; clarifying the format that your work product should take (i.e. research memorandum, hard copies of relevant material, draft insert for document, etc.); and confirming the deadline for completion of the assignment.

Reiterate your understanding of the project . After you have been given an assignment, send a follow up e-mail confirming your understanding of the assignment, including the key issue(s) to be researched, the format your work product will take, and the deadline.  This provides a good roadmap for you of the project and also gives your supervisor the opportunity to clarify any additional details.

Maintain good communication throughout the process . As you work on the project, check in regularly to let your supervisor know of your progress, to confirm that you are on the right-track, and to get additional guidance. If you are unsure about the extent of communication your supervisor desires, consult with other attorneys who have successfully worked with your supervisor. 

Timely respond to e-mails . It is important to timely acknowledge e-mails that your receive, even if you cannot get to the substance of the e-mail right away. For example, if you are sent an e-mail asking for a bit of research, respond to the e-mail at your earliest opportunity to let the sender know that you received their e-mail and advise the sender of when they can expect to receive at least some preliminary work on the project.

Project confidence . As a new attorney, it is natural to feel overwhelmed and unsure of your abilities when given a new assignment. Do not let these feelings compromise your professionalism when communicating with your supervisor. Show enthusiasm for the project and ask appropriate questions about deadlines and suggestions for getting started. Should you feel confused or overwhelmed as you work on a project, identify what it is you need guidance on, such as help prioritizing research items or confirmation that you are researching in the right sources, and go to your supervisor with specific questions.

Your research strategy will vary depending on your legal issue and the nature of your project. While there is no one path that works for every research question, these steps are a useful starting point:

Determine the relevant jurisdiction . Before you begin your research, you need to determine which law is controlling for your issue. Is the issue governed by state or federal law? For state law questions, what state(s) law is at issue? For federal law questions, what are the relevant Circuit and District courts?

Identify the legal issue and determine keywords to describe the issue . It is common for those new to legal research to go directly to a search engine and start typing away, hoping to find an answer quickly. Taking some time to step back from the search engine and think through the issue to be researched will save you time in the long run, as it will make your searching more efficient and effective. Identify what area(s) of the law are implicated by your issue, what is the question to be researched, what topics are implicated by that question, are there sub-issues that should be considered? You may find it helpful to write out the question(s) that you are researching. Also, think through keywords that describe your issue that would be useful for generating good searches. For those keywords, think through synonyms that may be used in lieu of those words.

Begin your research by consulting a secondary source . Secondary sources offer guidance on legal topics and questions. They are a critical resource to help you get a "lay-of-the-land" regarding your issue and will identify statutes and leading cases to jump start your research.

Locate relevant statutes . If there is an on-point statute for your issue, look up that statute in an annotated code. Take note not just of the language of the specific statute but also review the rest of the "chapter" in which the statute appears to identify other related and relevant statutes. For each relevant statute, review the annotations for citations to cases and secondary sources.

Find relevant cases . If you have identified relevant cases by looking at secondary sources and/or annotated codes, review those cases. Use the on-point headnotes of each case to search for other relevant cases in your jurisdiction, and use the citator (Shepard's in Lexis, KeyCite in Westlaw, and BCite in Bloomberg) to identify cases that have cited to your cases. Also, do additional keyword type searches to find other relevant cases.

Confirm that your authority is still good law . Use a citator (Shepard's in Lexis, KeyCite in Westlaw, or BCite in Bloomberg) to confirm that your cases and statutes are still good law.

One of the trickiest research tasks is knowing when your research is completed. Legal analysis is nuanced, and thorough research involves looking at a number of sources and types of materials. Finding one on-point authority does not mean your research is complete. However, it also is simply not possible to run every conceivable search in every conceivable resource and review every conceivable search result. Good legal researchers find the sweet-spot between one-and-done and scorched-earth type research.

The following may signal that you have found a good spot to conclude your research:

Your searches keep turning up the same set of relevant authorities. If you are no longer finding relevant new sources, you have probably found the bulk of what is available.

You have searched in a variety of available sources (i.e. secondary sources, cases, etc.) and resources (Westlaw/Lexis/Bloomberg, government websites, other available resources).

You have searched using a variety of keywords.

You have searched using a variety of methods (using secondary sources to find primary authority, keyword searching, mining headnotes to explore Topics/Key Numbers, reviewing citing references, etc.).

For your most relevant search results, you have reviewed both the sources they cite and sources that cite to those materials.

Other Useful UCLA Legal Research Resources

Law Library Home Page . The Law Library home page provides access to a wide array of research resources and information.

Law Library Research Guides . The Law Library has prepared more than 80 research guides to assist UCLA Law students with their research needs. Guides of particular interest for law students include: Guide for First Year Law Students; Law School Study Aids; Mobile Applications for Law Students and Lawyers; and Career Planning, Job Search and More for Law Students.

How to Access UCLA Databases . This guide provides instructions for UCLA Law students on how to access UC, UCLA, and UCLA Law licensed databases remotely.

Law Library Digital Collection . The Digital Collection page provides links to commonly used legal databases.

UC Library Search . Use the Catalog to search for books and other library materials available at UCLA and the other UC libraries.

UCLA Library A-Z Databases List . The UCLA Library system provides access to non-legal databases and other research resources available at UCLA.

• Next: Secondary Sources >>
• Last Updated: Feb 2, 2024 1:31 PM
• URL: https://libguides.law.ucla.edu/researchoverview

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Master the Legal Memo Format

September 20, 2022

[Bloomberg Law’s Essential Career Toolkit can help you excel in class and jump-start your legal career to successfully transition from law student to lawyer.]

What is the legal memo assignment?

The legal memo is an objective memorandum that provides you the opportunity to review and research relevant case law, investigate relevant facts using available resources, analyze those facts under that law, and impartially assess the potential outcome of a matter. The legal memo is an assignment that law firm associates are frequently asked to provide to senior attorneys.

Far too often, however, the assigning attorney takes one look at the result and replies, “I knew this already.” To prevent this outcome, it’s important to write a legal memo with sufficient understanding of audience, scope, purpose, and format. With proper planning, law firm associates can maximize the odds of favorable reception at the outset.

Bloomberg Law can help you understand and apply legal issues to your legal memo assignment, so your final product addresses all relevant points right out of the gate.

What’s the difference between a closed legal memo and an open legal memo?

A closed legal memo is an assignment where you are given the case law or other primary law to be used in your writing. Far more challenging is an open legal memo, where you will need to research and identify the relevant law, investigate and analyze the most legally significant facts involving a particular client, and provide a critical assessment of how the court may apply the law to the matter.

By extension, unlike a court brief, the legal memo is not the place to wager a legal opinion or argue facts. The legal memorandum serves as an objective standalone document and identifies the risks and any unknown facts that need investigation. It should maintain an impartial tone, with no implied preference for one side or the other.

What’s the standard legal memo format?

Generally, a legal memorandum comprises six sections, with the following information:

1. Heading or caption

A section, titled, “Memorandum,” identifies the recipient (To: _______), the author (From: ____), the assignment submission date (typically in MMMM DD YYYY format), and subject of the memo (Re: __________).

2. Question presented

A brief one-sentence statement that defines how the law applies to the legal question at hand, and the jurisdiction where the matter will be decided. The question presented is specific and impartial and doesn’t assume a legal conclusion.

3. Brief answer

A quick-hit legal prediction to the question presented, based on a short (four to five sentences) explanation that references relevant law and facts.

4. Statement of facts

A concise, impartial statement of the facts that captures the heart of the legal matter, as well as current and past legal proceedings related to the issue. The facts can be chronological or grouped thematically, whichever format presents the facts in the clearest manner.

5. Discussion

Restates the main facts and delineates the overarching legal rule. Several paragraphs outline the various legal topics to be addressed in the case and provide an analysis of the legal issues, usually ordered in subsections.

6. Conclusion

The assigning attorney will likely read this section first. It predicts how the court will apply the law, and how confident you are in your prediction based on the data. With an impartial advisory tone, you identify next steps and propose a legal strategy to proceed.

How to write a legal memo

Legal research memos can come in many forms—from broad 50-state surveys to more nuanced research on a particular point of law—but whatever the format, it’s important that you fully understand the task entrusted to you before you start typing.

If you tackle your assignment by following the recommended approaches in the legal memo example below, you’ll be more likely to find an appreciative supervising attorney, deliver better work product, cut down on the number of drafts required to arrive at a final product, and, most importantly, please the client.

Learn the essentials of litigation writing, research, and document review with our Core Litigation Skills Practical Guidance Toolkit , available to Bloomberg Law subscribers.

Legal memorandum sample assignment

Assignment:  Prepare an open legal memo on whether, under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, there is personal jurisdiction over a foreign car manufacturer involving a products liability case.

Step 1: Understand the legal issues

Review legal memo assignment materials.

In an open legal memo, you will be tasked with researching relevant primary and secondary resources, such as from national, single, or multiple state entities, as well as appeals circuits, to include in your analysis.

Locate secondary sources

Secondary sources, such as books, treatises, law reviews, legal analysis publications, and Practical Guidance are a great starting point to assist with your legal memo research. Although secondary sources are not binding on courts, meaning courts are not required to follow these sources, they are still helpful tools to use when you know little about a topic.

However, remember that while you may know little about a topic, the same may not hold true for your audience. Readers like law partners and assigning attorneys will already know general law. Identify your audience’s presumed level of knowledge, then the most mission-critical questions to address. These identified gaps will inform your fact-finding and research.

Use secondary resources to better fill in the main legal topics and issues as they relate to the facts in the legal memo assignment. Your legal research should help frame the issue and lead to other relevant materials, including cases and statutes.

Throughout, utilize legal memo space wisely. Remember, legal memo length varies by subject. Some topics require only a short summary, while others compel long-form treatment. For guidance, search your firm’s office document management system for previous legal memos.

Sample assignment – Step 1

Understand the legal issues:  Legal research depends on the right search terms. In the case, for example, you can use the keywords: (“personal jurisdiction” and manufacture!)) to locate relevant resources on the Bloomberg Law platform.

More broadly, while your search into secondary sources may span books and treatises, law review articles, and other legal analysis publications, make sure to vet all legal authorities for relevance.

[Research tip: It can be challenging to know all relevant keywords. Bloomberg Law provides a convenient search results page, where relevant article blurbs showcase additional keywords to explore. Based on targeted keywords, you can better gather the most relevant background information to assist with your analysis.]

Step 2: Develop a research plan

Identify primary law.

Primary sources can often be identified with research tools, such as court opinions searches for relevant case law. However, primary sources are not always apparent. In such cases, work your way backward. Reviewing secondary sources can help you identify a list of relevant primary law resources, like case law and related statutes. Keep your research organized and create a research plan to identify key resources. The research plan will list the relevant primary law and how the case or statute relates to your comprehensive legal analysis.

Stay organized

Save the relevant cases and statutes to a designated workspace. Bloomberg Law provides a streamlined and secure digital working area where you can add your notes as well as upload and store your drafts to keep organized.

Sample assignment – Step 2

Develop a research plan:  In the  assignment, some legal research may mention cases on what contacts a foreign defendant must have for the court to have personal jurisdiction over it, such as Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court .  Read through these articles to reveal additional relevant cases and statutes to support your analysis.

Step 3: Confirm your legal memo research

Once you have your research plan, you want to verify all your research to make sure you’re relying on the most current case law available. Bloomberg Law’s litigation tools like the BCite citator tool help you work smarter and faster to validate your case law research—specifically, to determine whether a citation still represents good law and can be relied upon—and helps you to conduct additional research to find more cases and resources that support your legal memo’s findings and conclusions.

Robust verification should ensure you know the following information:

• Composite analysis – the overall treatment of the cited case by other courts.
• Direct history – How a cited case has moved through the court system.
• Case analysis – Cases that have subsequently cited to the case.
• Authorities – Cases relied on by the court in the main case.
• Citing documents – Legal materials, such as court opinions, administrative decisions, and secondary sources that reference your case by citation.

Sample assignment – Step 3

Confirm your research:  To see whether  Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court  is still good law, you will of course need to pull up and review the case status. As part of this verification, you should review how other courts have treated the case. Once you have verified case status, you can better find additional secondary cases and other sources that cite to your case.

[Research tip: Carefully review whether case law citation can be relied on in your legal memo. While a legal memo is written for internal stakeholders like the assigning attorney, and not for the court system, it may nonetheless serve as a primer for future material.]

Attorneys may later incorporate any case law citations within the legal memo into court filings in support of their arguments. Given this broad potential reach, it’s imperative to verify all case law within your legal memo. Any unverified case law that later makes its way into public documents will result in an admonition from the court.

It is also important not to cherry-pick case citations. Remember the legal memo’s purpose is to inform, not to argue the facts. The legal memo must therefore provide an objective summary of all relevant case law and how it applies to the facts at hand. The omission of negative case law only compromises future legal strategy and heightens client legal exposure.

Step 4: Write an objective analysis

The legal memo showcases your critical legal thinking skills. Use your research plan and research materials to help organize your analysis. Remember to clearly state the law and the facts, in the active voice, and present your analysis in a logical manner.

Even with the IRAC legal memo format (Issue, Rule, Application, and Conclusion), it can be a challenge to write with precision. For example, it may not be clear which details to include in the statement of facts. Skilled legal memo writers often begin with the discussion. With complementary considerations of legal authority and factual criteria, this section clarifies the most legally significant facts and informs other earlier sections like the question presented and brief answer.

Across all stages, Bloomberg Law provides a vast trove of articles and resources to assist you in preparing your legal memo. Whether this is your first or fiftieth legal memo assignment, you can showcase clear and impartial legal analysis in your legal memo and other writing assignments in ways that establish you as a strong legal mind.

Reference Shelf

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Legal Research Lessons

• Legal Research Lessons This Subject Area Index lists all CALI lessons covering Legal Research.
• Sources of American Law: An Introduction to Legal Research Sources of Law focuses on realistic goals for 1Ls to learn in a relatively small amount of instruction time, and so focuses mainly on the basics. It does introduce some advanced material so that 1Ls can recognize pieces of information they may encounter in research, but it does not fully cover researching materials outside the scope of the traditional 1L course. As such, it is best-suited for introductory legal research courses for 1Ls.
• Legal Research Methodology This exercise is designed to help law students develop their abilities to handle legal research assignments. Students who have some experience doing legal research or who have completed their first year legal research course will benefit the most. However, these lessons may be used to supplement the learning process for students studying legal research for the first time.
• American Law Reports This lesson is an introduction to the American Law Reports (ALR) and is intended for use by students in introductory legal research classes. The goal is to give you an understanding of the features of the resource, the best methods for using it, and an understanding of when to use it.
• Anatomy of a Case This brief lesson will familiarize the student with the basic parts of a case (i.e., the written decision of a court published in a print reporter).
• Evaluating Web Sites This lesson will provide the student with the tools to effectively judge the content of web pages. Included in the exercise are four criteria for evaluation: authority, accuracy, comprehensiveness and currency. Each of these concepts is defined through the use of descriptive text followed by screen images of actual law-related web sites to illustrate the concepts.
• Introduction to Secondary Resources This lesson will provide an overview of secondary resources used in legal research. Secondary resources are books and other material ABOUT legal subjects and issues: they discuss and explain primary resources such as cases and statutes and can be useful in assisting our understanding about specific areas of law. The student will learn about the different types of secondary resources and what secondary resources are most useful for specific types of legal research tasks.

Legal Writing Lessons

• Legal Writing Lessons This Subject Area Index lists all CALI lessons covering Legal Writing.
• Citation Form for Briefs and Legal Memoranda This exercise is to help users learn the rules of proper citation form for briefs and legal memoranda. It does not deal with proper citation form for law review footnotes. It is divided into three sections: Section A deals with cases, B with statutory materials and C with secondary authorities.
• Email Correspondence: Ethical and Professional Considerations This is one in a series of lessons directed at the ethical and professional considerations associated with the production of particular lawyering documents. This lesson is intended to introduce first year law students to the ethical and professional considerations associated with email correspondence in law practice. No prior instruction in professional responsibility is required.
• How to Brief a Case This is an exercise designed to introduce first-semester law and graduate students to the basic elements of a typical case "brief" and to teach them general methodology for writing their own briefs. The exercise consists of three parts: (1) an introduction to the purposes and uses of a case brief; (2) a detailed examination of each of the ten components of a typical case brief (with examples); and (3) two actual cases that students are asked to read and then to brief, using the methodology described in this exercise. A sample brief for each of the two cases is also provided, thereby allowing students to correct and modify their briefs by way of comparison.
• Issue Statements for Memos and Briefs This lesson introduces a modern approach to writing issue statements for traditional memos and briefs. The lesson steers users away from single-sentence issue statements. It bases much of its approach on the syllogism.
• Learning Legal Analysis Through Its Components: Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion—IRAC The purpose of this exercise is to help students—especially first-year students—understand the process of legal analysis and improve their legal writing and legal analysis skills. Specifically, students will work on their ability to apply the law to the facts of a problem.
• Punctuation and Grammar Basics for Students This lesson covers punctuation and some key points of grammar every law student should know. Getting these key rules down will keep you from losing credibility with your legal-writing teacher, employers, clients, and judges.
• Punctuation and Grammar: Advanced Most students do all right with commas, periods, sentence fragments, and verb agreement. But what about colons, dashes, passive voice, and parallelism? This lesson covers several advanced topics in grammar and punctuation for the legal writer who is ready to move beyond the basics.
• Stating Facts: Objective and Persuasive Approaches This lesson is designed to cover how to distinguish legally relevant facts, contextually relevant facts, and nonrelevant facts; plus, how to use each of those types of facts. It is also designed to cover beginning and organizing a statement of facts, writing facts briefly and readably, stating facts objectively, and stating facts persuasively.
• Top 10 Tips for Successfully Writing a Law School Essay In this podcast, Prof. Jennifer Martin discusses the top ten mistakes law students make in law school examinations. These are poor issue spotting, poor knowledge and understanding of the law, poor application of the law to the facts, giving only conclusory answers, lack of organization, errors in the facts, failure to understand the role you are given in the examination, padding, fact inventing, and question begging. Included in this discussion is guidance on spotting the issues, avoiding being bottom line oriented, how to use the facts, how to approach a question, and using words efficiently. Prof. Martin also discusses the hallmarks of a good essay answer. These answers are lawyerlike, responsive to the question asked, logical, thought out, well organized, fact and issue centered, and use cogent reasoning and good rule application.

Legal Research By State Lessons 

• Legal Research By State Lessons This Subject Area Index lists all CALI lessons covering Legal Research by State
• North Carolina Legal Research: Primary Resources This lesson on North Carolina primary legal research materials will provide an introduction on how to locate North Carolina legal materials including North Carolina constitutional provisions, statutes, case law, regulations, and municipal provisions. In addition to discussing how to locate these materials in print, we will also discuss how to locate them in the major databases and free and low cost databases.
• North Carolina Legal Research: Secondary Resources This lesson is designed to give a basic overview of secondary sources used in North Carolina legal research. Secondary resources are commentary on the law written by legal professionals or legal publishers. They are useful for finding background information and citations to primary resources, but it is important to remember that secondary resources are not the law.

Online Study Aids are accessible within the library.  Note that off-campus access requires EZproxy login with your NCCU username and password.  For more information visit the  Online Study Aid Collections  webpage.

The resources below are just a few of the many resources available to assist with studying for legal research and writing.  To locate more resources, search the  Library's Online Catalog  using search terms related to legal research and writing or subject headings.

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• Last Updated: Jul 9, 2024 1:00 PM
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Writing a law school research paper or law review note

• Books and articles

Basics of Format & Content

Research papers are not as strictly structured as legal memos, briefs, and other documents that you've learned about in legal writing and drafting courses. For example, there is no prescribed content/format similar to to the Questions Presented, Brief Answers, etc. that you learned for a legal memo.

A general approach to thinking about the content of a research paper is:

• Introduction in which you give some background and a clear statement of your thesis
• Status quo -- what is the existing law and why is it a problem
• Proposals for change

See this blog post by Jonathan Burns , an IU McKinney alum, for more on basic content.

If you're writing for a law review or seminar, you should get formatting instructions regarding things like margins, font size, line spacing. If you don't, or if you're doing an independent study, here are some basic guidelines to follow:

• Times New Roman or similar, 12 pt font.
• Double spaced lines.
• One inch margins all around.
• Footnotes in academic Bluebook style (use the rules on the main white pages instead of the light blue pages at the front of the Bluebook).
• Footnotes in same font as text, 10 pt font.
• Use Roman numerals and/or letters on headings and subheadings or style the fonts so that the difference between headings and subheadings is clear.   
• Page numbers in the footer, preferably centered, especially on first page. You could do bottom center on first page and then upper right in the header thereafter. Use the header and footer functions for this. If you don't know how to use headers and footers in Word, here is help:  https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/word2016/headers-and-footers/1/ . 

Headings and subheadings

Research papers should have headings and subheadings. These help your reader follow your logic--and a logical structure is very important. Headings and subheadings can also help you keep your thoughts organized. Just don't overuse them--you don't want every paragaph to have a subheading. 

Road map paragraph

Often, research papers will also include a paragraph at the end of the introduction that narrates the road map the paper will follow.   Here is an example of this kind of paragraph:

"The section that follows [this introduction] sets the stage by recounting two scenarios from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, with discussion of the knowledge and implementation of accessibility features in online instructional materials. The next section provides an overview of various impairments and their effects on a user's experience of the online environment. Next is a review of the laws relevant to accessibility with attention to their potential application to online instruction, along with standards used to guide accessibility compliance. The article then explores the concept of universal design and its guiding principles, followed by a discussion of how to use the universal design principles to organize and better understand accessibility standards and practices. The final section briefly summarizes the discussion and encourages law librarians and professors to become knowledgeable and skilled in universal design for online materials to benefit all their students."

Table of Contents

A table of contents can also be helpful, though it's not necessary. If you add a table of contents to your papers, put it right at the beginning, before the introduction. Here's part of the table of contents for the same paper the paragraph above was taken from--it really just lays out the heading and subheadings with page numbers: 

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• Last Updated: Jul 29, 2022 11:08 AM
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Summer Associate Research Guide: Your First Research Project

• Library and Vendor Info
• Your First Research Project
• Researching an Unfamiliar Area of Law
• Where to Start Chart
• Research Constitutions and Statutes in Print
• Research Legislative History
• Research Administrative Law
• Research Caselaw Using Digests
• Locate and Use Secondary Sources
• Locate Model Forms and Sample Documents for Drafting
• Guides for Summer Success

Introduction

Legal research and writing projects will likely constitute a high percentage of your summer work. Research assignments form the most basic means of skills assessment. As one well-known litigator and legal author once expounded in regard to young associates, “[t]hey arrive from law school, factory-fresh, eager to work, and we immediately assign them research projects, because new lawyers (understandably) aren't qualified to do much else.” Performing these tasks is more than a rite of passage, it is an opportunity to distinguish yourself from your peers.

The best way to ensure success on your initial assignments is to have and execute a solid legal research plan and to record your steps along the way.  This page outlines how to formulate and execute such a plan from beginning to end. It's broken into the following sections:

• what to do before you leave school,
• what to do when you arrive at the office,
• receiving your first assignment,
• what to do when you arrive back at your office
• following up with the assigning attorney, and
• knowing when to quit.

Before You Leave School

• If you know what area of law you will be concentrating in, consult with one of the reference librarians to discuss the important resources in that practice area. Reference librarians are a great resource because they can provide a vendor-neutral review of the full spectrum of “go to” resources for a particular field.

If you know in advance that the firm or agency you will be working for subscribes to a particular commercial service, be proactive and complete that vendor’s certification classes before you arrive for the summer. Information on certification is available at each of the vendors’ law student homepages. You may also wish to meet with that vendor’s law school representative before you arrive for your summer job or internship.

When You Arrive at the Law Office

a.    Find out what resources you have available to you:

i.    Major Commercial Services (Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg, others):

1.    If you do not know already, find out what, if any, commercial service(s) the office subscribes to.  Also, you should be aware that, currently, both Lexis and Bloomberg Law allow you to use your academic subscription for work.

2.    If the law office subscribes to one of the major commercial services, does it prefer you access resources through its subscription?  It may prefer you use its subscription, rather than your academic subscription, for a number of reasons: attorney-client privilege, billing purposes, research tracking etc.

3.    If the law office has a paid subscription to one or more commercial services, find out what is included and what is not included in that subscription. Unlike academic subscriptions, many law office subscriptions often include only a “slice” of the full range of products available. If you use resources “outside” the office’s subscription, it will be charged at higher retail rates.

4.    Does the law office have a librarian and/or vendor representative you can meet with before your first project so you can get an overview of the resources available and charges for use of those resources? Vendor representatives also may give you free “training time.”

ii.    Are there other specialized databases or resources the law office requires you to use that you have not been exposed to in law school? If so, ask to contact a vendor representative for training if the law office does not already training scheduled.

iii.    Are there print materials that your supervising attorneys will expect you to be able to use? If so, you may want to meet with one of the reference librarians at Loyola to review how to conduct research using those resources. Also, there are links here to using annotated statutes in print, using the West digest system in print, and using secondary sources, like treatises or legal encyclopedias, in print. For more information and helpful videos on using print resources, go to the  How do I . . . pages in this Guide.

b.    Be prepared to field questions at any time. Translation: always have a pad of paper and a pen, or a tablet, or whatever you take notes with at the ready. Busy attorneys do not always have time to plan a meeting.  ‘Meetings’ may occur in a break room, hallway, elevator, or wherever you may be when the attorney remembers the question. When an attorney has a question to be answered and spots a resource (you) to answer it, you need to be ready.

When You Receive Your First Assignment: Initial Meeting with Assigning Attorney

a.    Relax . If you are a little nervous or perhaps even a little intimidated when you first meet with a supervising attorney, then you suffer from a condition called “you’re perfectly normal.” One of the most important tips here is to relax and focus to make sure that you leave that meeting with all, or as much information, as you need to successfully complete the project that you are receiving.

b.    Inquire . Practicing attorneys are busy people. When they assign projects, they do not always have time to consider every bit of information you may need to answer a question or every source of information you should consider. It is your job as a researcher to ensure you have all the information that you will need to understand the scope of the project and to answer the question asked. Here are some basic questions to consider.

i.    Client matter information . Who is the client? What is the client and matter number? Even if you are not billing your research to a client, you may need a client and matter number for other purposes, like copying and phone calls.

ii.    Point person . If the partner or person in charge is someone other than the assigning attorney, get the name of that person.

iii.    Timeframe . What is the deadline? Try to get specifics. “In a few days” may mean something different to one person than another. Also, it might be a good idea to ask if the assigning attorney would like a progress report before the assignment is due.  A progress report will provide an opportunity to review your results and inquire about additional facts or whether there are other resources you may have missed.

iv.    Scope . Get a sense of the approximate amount of time the assigning attorney wants you to spend doing the research. There may be many reasons why an attorney may want an associate to limit the time spent on a project. If any of those reasons exist, you’ll want to know before you use an elephant gun to kill a mosquito.

v.    Cost limits . Can you use the firm’s paid subscription service to perform research on the project? Should you stick with print or freely-available sources? May you use one of the academic IDs that you are allowed to use for work? An important note here is that you should not be intimidated about using a firm’s paid subscription service to answer a question, if you have been told you can do so, but, it is best not to run up a $1200 bill answering a simple non-billable question.

vi.    Jurisdiction . If the answer to the question is jurisdiction-specific, you will want to know the relevant jurisdiction.  Is it a question of federal or state law or both, what court governs? Is the attorney looking for a comparison or a survey of different jurisdictions’ laws on a topic?

vii.    Format . Does the assigning attorney want your answer as a verbal explanation, an interoffice memorandum, e-mail, a copy of the controlling statute or primary source, a list of the most important cases, or copies of all the cases? Does the firm or agency have a specific format for the document you are creating? Does the assigning attorney have an individual preference? Does the assigning attorney have a sample?

viii.    Purpose . What will the research be used for? Drafting a court document? A sensitive client communication? Are there confidentiality issues? The answers may impact how you frame and conduct your research.

ix.    Facts . Don’t leave the meeting until you believe you have a firm understanding of the question that you are being asked to answer. That means understanding the facts—who, what, where, when, how, etc.  Ask if there are other sources of facts. For example, are there other documents—a client interview memo or discovery documents that might shed light on the issue? Has anyone already worked on this issue that you can consult with?

x.    Starting points. You may, depending on the situation, be able to ask the assigning attorney for suggested starting points. The attorney may be able to refer you to a particular treatise or point you to an attorney-expert within the firm. If you’re not comfortable asking the assigning attorney, you may wish to contact one of the reference librarians. We are here to help, not to judge.

When You Arrive Back at Your Office

a.    Read and review everything you have been given with great care.

i.    If it is possible, do so immediately , so the details of the meeting, and things you may have forgotten to record, are fresh in your mind. It is OK to ask follow-up questions, but do not pester an assigning attorney because you failed to take adequate notes.  Also, the attorney may be busy and unavailable, so it is best to understand the assignment before you leave the first meeting.

ii.    Here are some points to consider when you sit down to review the meeting.

1.    Remember that in a dispute involving a written document (e.g. a contract, lease, or will), the language of the document itself should be the starting point for your research.

2.    Again, remember to read everything carefully – a lot of legal language may seem “boring”, but you don’t want to skip over important language from legal documents or primary source material.

3.    Define unfamiliar terms – use a law dictionary to help you with jargon and “terms of art”. Do not skip over words that you do not understand. Every word in a well-drafted legal document, whether a case or an agreement, has meaning. If you do not understand what the documents say, you cannot understand how they apply.

b.    Engage in preliminary analysis. You cannot find a needle in a haystack until you find the right haystack. Translation: think before you start ‘googling’ for an immediate answer. Before you can answer a legal question, you have to determine what the precise legal issue is. This task requires an in-depth examination of the basic “who, what, where, when, why, and how questions.” So here are some questions to consider before you start researching. 

1.    Who are the parties? Think about legal relationships like employer/employee or landlord/tenant, not just names or labels.

2.    What is/are the things in controversy? A contract? A harm (slander, breach)? Property (condominium, formula)? The answer to this question may direct you to start your research in a particular area of law (condominium law, construction law etc.).  

3.    What law governs? If you have not been told this by the assigning attorney, it is time to start thinking about whether the legal issue involved is governed by state or federal law and what type of primary law would address the question.

4.    Can I state my issue in a sentence? Your review of facts should yield an initial list of search terms or phrases. If you can state your legal issue in a sentence centering on your key terms or phrases, you are well on your way to beginning your search. Conversely, if you do not know enough about your issue to state it in a coherent sentence you need to do some background research first. Background research requires the use of secondary sources. Perhaps your assigning attorney recommended some? If not, this is a good time to contact your friendly reference librarian.

c.     Once you have formulated an initial search, you will need to determine the resources you have at your disposal. You should, at this point, know what firm resources you have at your disposal and what other resources—academic IDs, free resources, librarians, you can tap into for assistance.

d.    Now that you know what to search for (possible key terms, legal topic, and jurisdiction) and where to search (possible sources), you can begin to draft a strategy and record your results. You will want to make a list of resources and a list (at least an initial one) of what order you intend to search them.

e.    Record your process. On your first assignment, it is imperative that you have a plan and keep track of every step you take. In fact, it is an excellent idea to establish that habit for all your research projects. Think of it as the legal research equivalent of briefing cases. Once you start doing it, it will become second nature.

i.    There are several important reasons why it is imperative to record your research process while you are working over the summer:

1.    It saves you from needlessly repeating steps (and thereby wasting time and possibly incurring unnecessary charges);

2.    The assigning attorney will expect you to keep track of your research in order to determine whether you have overlooked any key resources;

3.    Even if the assigning attorney does not expect you to record your research, keeping a record will establish you as  diligent and organized, and  able to create and execute a plan. These are all positive attributes of attorneys;

4.    In the event that you are not able to discover an answer to the assigning attorney's question you will want to detail the entire process of your research. “I can’t find anything and I don’t know why” is a much different answer than “I’ve looked in every source you suggested and every source the law librarian suggested and none of them seem to answer your question, here are my notes.”

5.    It is entirely possible someone else may pick up your assignment from where you left off.  That person should know where you have searched and what you have found.

ii.    What a research journal might look like:

Derived from Robert M. Linz, Research Analysis and Planning: The Undervalued Skill in Legal Research Instruction , Legal Reference Services Quarterly, 34:1, 60-99 (2015)

Following up with the Assigning Attorney

When you had your initial meeting, did you schedule a time for a progress report? You should report what you found, your assessment so far based on what you found, and what additional information you need, if any. You also should be ready to report on your research process, particularly if you do not find anything. Sometimes the answer to a question depends on facts which you do not have, rather than legal research.  The attorney may have the fact or tell you where to retrieve it.  If you believe additional legal research is necessary, you should indicate what research is necessary.

When Do I Quit?

a.    General Misconceptions. When should you stop researching?  This is often one of the hardest questions to answer for a few reasons. First, research is an iterative or circular process. As you follow your research strategy and accumulate knowledge, the questions you need to ask to hone in on an answer may change, so you may feel the need to re-visit sources that you have already consulted. That is not uncommon. Likewise, many students and young attorneys believe there ought to be some magic case or dispositive document that answers the question asked. Most answers require in depth analysis of multiple and often conflicting sources, and often require consideration of analogous situations.  

b.    Guidelines : Here are a few guidelines to follow to help you feel more confident that your research is completed (or nearly completed) without fearing that the answer you missed is lurking right around the next corner.

i.    Cost benefit analysis . One of the most obvious ways to know it is time to wrap up your research, for better or worse, is reaching a deadline or a project constraint, either you have invested as much time as the assigning attorney allotted for you, or you have spent as much money on the project as the assigning attorney considered. Often the latter occurs when research is being billed to a client. Regarding deadlines, keep in mind that you need to leave ample time to produce a written document if you have been instructed to do so. Too often students and young associates spend too much time researching and too little time drafting, resulting in sloppy work product that leads assigning attorneys to question the writer’s credibility.

ii.    All roads lead to Rome . As your research proceeds, you may find that different sources yield the same set of useful references.  For example, if you were researching a question under the Americans with Disabilities Act, you might find that the pertinent cases you locate in a treatise on employment discrimination, an annotated version of the statute, and via your terms and connectors search for employment cases are all the same.

iii.    What if you haven’t found anything? That will happen. One thing to keep in mind is that it will be much easier to explain that you have not found anything if you have kept a research log detailing what searches you ran and what sources you consulted. If you have run appropriate searches and you have looked in all the right places, your assigning attorney will be more inclined to agree with you that there is no good answer. It is more likely the attorney will re-focus your search or suggest alternative sources or strategies. Research is, after all, an iterative process.

iv.    Updating .  You are not finished researching until you have updated all your primary sources to make sure that they are still good law and to make sure that they don’t lead you to newer cases.

Subject Guide

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Online sessions begin October 21, 2024. ENROLL NOW! Call 1-800-522-7737, email [email protected] or click here to contact us.

Advanced Legal Research Course

About this course.

Advanced and specialized approaches to utilize the legal resources available in a law library, and elsewhere, will be examined. The conceptual differences between computer-assisted legal research and hard copy research will be taught. You will also learn how to formulate WESTLAW search queries and effectively and efficiently use WESTLAW and other online legal research methods as timesaving devices in legal research and legal writing. Coursework in Advanced Legal Research is equivalent to 45 clock hours of study.

Course Objectives:

Participants will demonstrate the following skills through successful completion of all required coursework and assignments:

• Explain the hierarchy and structure of our court systems
• Discuss the importance of and applications of the different types of legal authority
• Define the doctrine of stare decisis
• Differentiate common law and civil law
• Discuss the necessity for preemption by the federal government.
• Define the concepts of jurisdiction and venue
• Explain the purposes of the different sets of books
• Summarize the elements of research
• Demonstrate how to organize a research project
• Demonstrate how to define issues
• Demonstrate how to narrow and refine a research project
• Explain how to begin a research project
• Discuss how to search by key number
• Discuss how to search by topic
• Explain the purpose of head notes and annotations

Expectations

You will be expected to spend approximately 7 to 8 hours per lesson reading and completing writing assignments. Please note that extensions will not be granted for this online course. 70% is the minimum passing score on all tests and assignments for this course. Students may consider working ahead in the curriculum if they have the time.

Prerequisites

Successful completion of the core Paralegal Certificate Course, or the equivalent, or law office experience.

Course Books

Required textbooks for this course:

• Legal Research in a Nutshell , most recent edition, by Morris L. Cohen and Kent C. Olson.
• A Uniform System of Citation (a.k.a. “The Bluebook”) , most recent edition, Harvard Law Review.
• WESTLAW , online legal research access, available for the duration of the course for only $89.00. Order online

Highly Recommended Legal Resources:

• Oran’s Dictionary of the Law , 4th Edition, by Daniel Oran. Clifton Park: Delmar Cengage Learning

Reading Assignments for Lesson Topics:

Lesson One: Legal Research: Review Of Basic Concepts

• Read Chapters 1 & 2 in Legal Research in a Nutshell (Nutshell)

Lesson Two: Elements Of Research and Westlaw

• Read Chapters 3, 4 & 5 in Nutshell

Lesson Three: Elements Of Research and Westlaw Continued

• Review Chapters 3, 4 & 5 in Nutshell

Lesson Four: Legal Research On The Internet

• Read Chapters 6, 7 & 8 and review Appendix A in Nutshell

Lesson Five: Legal Research On The Internet Continued

• Review Chapters 6, 7 & 8 and review Appendix A in Nutshell

Lesson Six: Citation Format And Primary Sources Of Law

• No required reading

Lesson Seven: Course Review

For each of the six lessons you will submit a 50-point test covering the information within that topic.

Bulletin Board Assignments:

You will also post your responses to six class participation assignments each worth 10 points. These Bulletin Board Assignments assignments make up your class participation grade. All lesson objectives, assignments, and tests can be found within the Lesson Material and also under Activities. Additional resources are available by accessing the URL Library tool.

Your grade will be based on your completion of six tests and class participation. You will have the opportunity to engage in “class participation” by using the Bulletin Board forums to respond to the bulletin board assignments throughout the course. Also, participating in the bulletin board assignments will enhance your understanding of the reading material.

Your final grade will be figured as follows:

• The six exams comprise 80% of your grade.
• Your participation in class participation assignments comprises 20% of your grade.

Every assignment must be completed with 70% or better in order to pass the course.

Withdrawal Policy

Students may drop the course with a full tuition refund less a non-refundable $50 administrative fee if written notice is sent to CLS by BARBRI by email at [email protected] by the Wednesday before class begins. Students may drop the course with a 50% tuition refund if written notice is sent to CLS by BARBRI by email at [email protected] anytime from the Thursday before the course begins until the first Thursday of class. After the first Thursday of class, no refunds will be issued.

Please NOTE: If you registered for a CLS course directly with the college or university, you are subject to the school’s refund/drop policies.

• Legal Research Worksheet from Georgia State Law Library

Legal Research Worksheet  

Client & Case Number: Date Received: Assigned By: Date Due: Time & Cost Restraints: End Product:                  ( ) Opinion Letter         ( ) Memo           ( ) Brief               ( ) Other

Background Facts: What are the legally significant facts?  

Issue Statement:  The issue statement should be a concise statement of the legal issue . What are the legal concepts, rules of law, and the significant facts?

Jurisdiction (State, Federal, etc.):

Key Terms: Terms that are most related to your issue. Exclude terms that are so common that they would return results not related to the issue.  Consider synonyms and antonyms for your terms.  Also consider broader or narrower related terms.  

Source Selection: At this point, you should decide what sources to consult.  Secondary sources are a great place to start if you are unfamiliar with a particular are of law or if you do not have any citations to primary sources.  Alternatively, primary sources may be a good place to start if you already have a citation. Shepardizing, KeyCiting, or BCiting a case, as well as consulting an annotated code can provide you with additional sources. 

Secondary Sources: Treatises, Legal Encyclopedias, ALR, Restatements, and Law Reviews & Journals

Search Terms:

Terms : ______________ and, or, w/p, w/s, w/___ ______________ and, or, w/p, w/s, w/___ ______________

             ______________ and, or, w/p, w/s, w/___ ______________ and, or, w/p, w/s, w/___ ______________              ______________ and, or, w/p, w/s, w/___ ______________ and, or, w/p, w/s, w/___ ______________            

Relevant Cases, Statutes, Regulations, and Topics & Key Numbers:

Prepared by Austin Martin Williams, Updated 10/18/2018 Consulted guides from NYLS Mendik Library and USF Dorraine Zief Law Library to create this guide.

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Abhayraj Naik did his BA LLB (Hons.) from NLSIU Bangalore in 2006 and LLM from Yale Law School in 2009.

He is currently an independent researcher and consultant and has previously taught in colleges like JGLS, Azim Premji University, and NLSIU. He has also been a research fellow at SARAI-CSDS, and a researcher at the Environment Support Group in Bangalore.

Shrutanjaya Bhardwaj is the lead researcher and content developer of this course and worked closely under the guidance of Abhayraj. He completed his BA LLB (Hons.) from NLUD in 2017 where he was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Gold Medal for the Best Overall Student (Male).

He then worked at the chambers of Gopal Sankarnarayanan for a year and then went on to complete LLM from Michigan Law School in 2019.

Prof. Anupama Sharma is an Assistant Professor at JGLS, Sonipat. She has completed B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from the NUJS, Kolkata in 2014, and LL.M. from the University of Cambridge, UK in June 2015, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong.

She has been a part of various research projects run by institutions and organizations, such as Cambridge Pro Bono Project, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), International Justice Mission, etc. She has also been a Legislative Review Team member for the Journal of Indian Law and Society (JILS).

Mansi Mankotia graduated with a B.A.LL.B (Hons.) from H.P. University in 2020 and pursued an LLM specializing in criminal law from NLU Shimla. Currently, Mansi is dedicated to advancing her expertise through a PhD in Law. With professional experience as an in-house counsel, she currently serves as a Learning Manager at Lawctopus Law School, contributing to the development and delivery of practical law courses.

Who is this course for?

• Undergraduate and postgraduate students of law.
• Faculty members in the fields of law, social sciences, and business wishing to revisit the fundamental of legal research and writing.
• Young lawyers (both litigators and those working in law firms who are interested in these topics.
• Students of other streams interested in gaining legal research and writing skills

Learner’s Feedback

Course Details

Duration: 8 weeks.

Fees: 6900 INR (Including GST)

Life-time Access

By purchasing this course, you are granted lifetime access.

Life-time access means that the course access will be available to you as long as the company continues to offer the course or remains in existence. In the event the course is discontinued or the company ceases operations, access to the course will no longer be available.

Mode of learning:

• Completely online and self-paced. (Except for the weekly live sessions. The recordings of the live sessions is also available)
• Detailed reading modules and resources
• Recorded video lectures
• Weekly live lectures which build on the reading modules, clear your doubts, explain assignments, etc.
• Online forum for doubt clarification
• Regular communication over Whatsapp and Email so that you do not miss any live class or assignment deadline. We deeply ‘care’ for your learning.
• Assignment: submission of a short research paper (this assignment is divided into 3 mini-assignments)
• Personal 3-level feedback on your assignments.
• Optional reflective exercises
• Recorded webinars on careers in legal research, CV-building, earning through freelancing, etc.
• Access to alumni group which will keep you updated about future career opportunities

We go out of our way to support our students!

• Live orientation session which tells you about our platform and how to make full use of the course.
• A broadcast-only Whatsapp group to check updates easily and fast.
• Access to recorded version of the live lectures in case you miss attending them live!

Add-on benefits:

• Get a certificate issued by Lawctopus Law School after the successful completion of the course. (Don’t worry, if you put in a sincere effort in this course, you’ll get a certificate. We are liberal in our markings and give you a second chance. We do want sincere efforts from our learners).
• Free career counselling, CV, and career guidance webinars for everyone.
• A chance to get published on Academike , Lawctopus’ Law Journal (ISSN: 2349-9796).
• An opportunity to mentor future batches for senior students, academicians, and practitioners (this is a paid, part-time, work-from-home position at Lawctopus)

Free Access to Manupatra for 2 Months!

Students of this course will get free access to Manupatra for the duration of the course, i.e for 2 months. Manupatra is India’s most popular and trustworthy tool for legal research and we believe having access to the platform for 2 months will help students gain familiarity and develop competence in using this excellent resource.

Lawctopus and Manupatra also conduct joint webinars every 2-3 months. The webinars are around the topics of legal research, using Manupatra for legal research, etc. and students of this course will have the opportunity to attend those webinars on priority.

Some achievements of the students of Lawctopus’ Legal Research and Writing Course till now:

• NUALS Law Journal
• LawAndOtherThings
• Law School Policy Review
• Presenting their papers in an international seminar on Liberty
• Securing a Research Assistantship with a Professor from the Oxford University
• Working on a legal history project in the Bombay High Court.
• Securing a research internship with a leading education provider
• Winning top-notch legal essay writing competitions
• Securing internships and freelance gigs based on their writing samples
• Thanks to the excellent research, writing, and editing skills, many of our students submit better CVs and writing samples which has lead to a dozen of internship offers.
• Many of our students have won the country’s best legal essay writing competitions after this course!

These are just indicative list of achievements. While these achievements are due to the students’ own initiative and hard work, they have told us that the course helped them towards these, and we couldn’t be happier!

This course teaches you Legal Research and Writing from A to Z!

Whether you are a 1st-year law student from a lesser-ranked law college, whether you are an experienced faculty member who already has a Ph.D. or you may even be a practicing lawyer wishing to know what the exact process behind quality legal research and writing can look like, you’ll find this course of great utility and spark!

FAQs [click on the Qs to read the As]:

No. You’ll have 7-8 live lectures each lasting approximately 90 minutes. The schedule of the live sessions is released when the course starts. Most of our live sessions happen on weekends or on late evenings so that all learners (students or working professionals) can attend them without skipping their regular classes or office.

We suggest that you spend approximately  3-5 hours/week doing the course. When you spend these 3-5 hours is up to you. You may spend around 40 minutes each day or do it over the weekend.

Yes, this course is designed to help an absolute newbie to learn the fundamentals and nuances of legal research and writing. Even senior academicians find the course of immense use. If you are a professional looking to improve their research and writing skills, this course will help you too.

We encourage you to attend the live classes after thorough preparations. Just like the real  charm of a live match/performance  is watching it live, the real value of a live class is in attending it live! A lot of new, practical things are covered; and of course, your questions are addressed too. However, if you miss the live class, you can watch the recorded version of the live class which is uploaded for the specific batch only.

Good research and writing skills are absolutely crucial (no questions asked) for any knowledge professional. Every legal professional, whether a corporate lawyer or a litigator, a judge or an academician, requires good legal research and writing skills. Through this course, you’ll learn these core skills. Consider this: even your CV and cover letters are evaluated by recruiters as short writing samples. Is it written well, formatted well? Interestingly, our students have told us that after this course their internship applications which were rejected earlier were not getting accepted! Good research, writing, and presentation skills are transferable to multiple domains. The course will also help you do well in moots, publications, and conferences and seminars.

There is only one compulsory assignment: submission of a 1500-2500 word short research essay. The assignment is divided into 3 mini-assignments. Submission of: 1. A research topic and questions 2. Submission of a rough draft with references and footnotes 3. Final research paper Each mini-assignment is followed by feedback from the faculty. Each student is given feedback. We pride ourselves on being able to give personalized, 3-level feedback.

The intention of the course is to teach you legal research and writing skills. Any type of legal drafting, civil or criminal or corporate, requires good research and writing skills. The focus of this course is not on particular drafts, but on legal research and writing as the broader skill-set. Your drafting will surely improve after doing this course.

Yes. There are many free, open sources available online that can help you with your research. SSRN, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, IndianKanoon, Government websites, and many free and open law journals (both from India and abroad), are an excellent repositories of knowledge, information, and insights. We also provide a list of such sources.

Need help to decide? Feel free to reach out to us on these channels.

Phone calls/WhatsApp Number: 935 968 4056 (Ishani Patankar, Counsellor, Lawctopus Law School)

Email: [email protected]

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94 Responses

I am interested in doing this course. I am a second-year law student. But my problem is that network on my campus is not good…so I will be needing recorded classes. As the network goes anytime. Will it be possible?

I am always struggling in legal writing. Thanks for making this course accessible and I m going to join it right now.

Hey! • The course is marked as from Aug 5 to sep 30 while the duration of the course as mentioned is 2 months(+2 months for review) Could you please confirm the duration of the course?? What are the dates mentioned here relevant for??? • Also, are the studying materials (both reading & videos or other sources) accessible for future use beyond the +2 expansion???? It would be so kind of you to clear my doubts as soon as possible as I am interested to enroll for the course and today is the last date for the same.

Hi, you can write to [email protected] to get all your queries resolved. The course is actually taught for 2 months. You get an additional 2 months to review content on your own.

please someone answer this comment, since the lawctopus people aren’t responding. Can i access the course from different accounts and device, because i have to travel constantly

Hi! May I know which email you wrote to? Answering your query, yes you can. You’re given login credentials through which you can access the course from different devices. However, the account remains the same through which you signed up for the course.

Hi, Good day. I would like to ask if we can pay in dollars and if so how

I am a life-long learner. All along I have studied in night colleges while working during the day. I did my B. A (Economics) in 1976, LL. B. in 1979, D. B. M in 1980, MMM (Masters in Marketing Management) from JBIMS in 1987, did my M. Sc. Psychology from Tamil Nadu Open University, Chennai, Diploma in English Journalism from Annamalai University, had a colourful career in Marketing from Sales Asstt. To Vice President Marketing from a Birla Group Company, did many certificate and short-term courses in law, even now I am doing an Advanced Diploma in Real Estate Law. I am passionate about legal research and want to do the course, which will help me in my writing. My problem is that I will not be able to do it in four months, I want it at my pace. I am a Blogger, Writer and Columnist. How can you help me. I want to do legal research and want to specialise in Constitutional Law. I am writing a paper on total gender equality. If the course is dounloadable I will go for it. Please let me know. Thanks.

Respected sir/mam, i wanted to confirm that after the completion of this course would we be able to access the study material (particularly recorded lectures) for future use?

Hi I’m from Pakistan Can I enrol in this course? Is it beneficial for me?

Do you have a sample video may of 10-20 minutes available, where we can get a taster of the course or content?

Hey Admin, do they provide demo of the course.

Your blog is simply amazing, congratulations on your great work.

Hey, can you please clarify if doing citations will also be taught in this course?

Yes, they’ll be taught.

Hey, can you please clarify if we will be taught how to cite also in this course? Thank you!

I am unable to enroll in the Jan-Feb course as the payment option isn’t operational. Will the payment option be open later on?

I really wanted to enroll for this course, however the last date has passed, is there any chance I can make the payment(today, for the next coming batch – post jan)and access the study material (videos and text resources) december onwards?

Hi Tanisha, you can still register for the Dec-Jan batch. Best,

Can i please apply today, I was unable to apply yesterday due to technical reasons.

Very helpful and Great information, I appreciate advice especially coming from a professional.

Sir…will there be a 7th batch too? As today is the last day to register for the 6th batch and right now I won’t be able to enroll. Please reply asap

It says that the registration is open till November 5th but the 6th batch has officially started from October 1st. Can you please clarify since I’m willing to join.

Hi, the next batch is from December 1. Best,

Thanks for this informative blog. its really helps me as this blog gives all information

Hi. Will there be a 7 th batch for this course?

Hi, when will the next batch (7th) starts ? as right now due to college exams I wouldn’t be join the current batch.

I have no command over English. should I go for this course first or improve my English first?

Hi Rahul, if you have no command over English then you might not be able to do the course well. However, if you are willing to work harder, you can do this course. You’ll have to read/watch everything twice, and you’ll be good to go.

This course looks promising but I didnt see anything that would inform me about the procedure to put this knowledge into action i.e. getting my articles published on reputed platforms. Please throw some light on that.

Can 1st year law students take up this course?( If we’re pursuing 5year law degree)

Yes, Samridhi.

I would love to join this course but i have a issue that my mid semester examination will be going on between the course period i.e from 21 – 25 sep. will i be able to manage this course simultaneously with my examinations?

Hi Deept, you’ll be able to manage. If an assignment falls within this duration, you can ask for an extension. But you must communicate it with us.

When will the next batch start?

Hi, September 1.

Sir today is 19th Aug.. Can I enroll today… Please reply asap

Hello. There is one typo error in FAQ 6, para starting with .. consider this…are now* (instead of not*) getting accepted. Thank you.

Hello, I was planning on registering for the Batch starting on August 1st. Are slots still available?

Please do reply ASAP, I would really look forward to enrolling for this course

Hello, I am Tanishka, online sources like SCC or Manupatra are usually required for research but I don’t have access to any of these, will it be a problem to join the course if I don’t have access of the afore?

Hi Tanishka, not at all. There are many ‘free’ and trusted egal databases which can be used. Best,

Hey sir Rajat here Sir i m from jk ! And I have internet connection problems as u know 2g is working there! So videos are available offline also? Can we watch them offline !?

Hi Rajat, sorry, the videos can’t be accessed offline. 🙁

Hello, Is this course easy to understand for the first year enrolled students of LLB? Waiting for a reply soon. Best Regards Mohit

Yes. It’s easy to understand. The purpose of this course is to teach you legal research and writing and we have many 1st year students doing the course. Even academicians do this course to brush up their skills/revise.

hey, i just submitted my payment and i went to my id to change the password but i forgot the old password can you please help me

Is there any free course because there are students who aren’t able to pay the fees but wanted to study various courses if there are then please do convey.

You can check our Youtube page for free webinars.

Please go to courses.lawctopus.com. If there is any issue, please email at [email protected]

Hello,I am inquiring  regarding Online Legal research and writing. Please let me can I register now?what are the timings?will I be able cover backlog sessions?Please reply ASAP

Can we still apply for the course

You have stated in “achievements of students who took this course” that one student 3 got published in Law School Policy Review and got Research Assistantship with a Professor from Oxford University. He’ll be working on a legal history project in the Bombay High Court” — can you please tell me which professor from oxford university and how he got the RA?

I am looking forward to starting this course soon, after this query is responded to

Can’t disclose the name till our student gives us the permission. Can introduce you to the student directly and you guys can talk. Email at [email protected]

im going to be enroll as a research scholar wanted to join this course. can i join it now on 29th of may by paying 3500?

I am a Govt Law College Professor and Research Guide and has experience in handling classes for scholars and guides in fora including those of Christ University Banglore. If you are interested, I would like to associate with you by taking online classes and by providing materials including ppt and other materials.

Hi, sure, it will be responded to asap. Don’t worry at all! Best,

i want to talk to Tanuj Kalia sir, please contact me on 9947300916 I would like to join Legal research course

Hi sir, i just go through the course. If the registration is open…is it possible to make payment in installments for the course?

Hi Vrinda, sorry but you cannot make payments in installments. We are trying to have scholarships and partial payments from August 1 onwards to make our courses more accessible. Best,

Can you please tell us about these scholarships?

Is the Course still Open? Please Revert back ASAP!

hi just go to know about the course,i have registered but i am facing an issue with the transaction

Can we now submit to become a college manager?

Hello, I have just gone through the legal research course about to begin from 1st of June. Can you please let me know that wil there be any online session (if yes, what wil be the time slot) or recorded lecture?

There are recorded lectures and live sessions. Timings for live lectures will be informed later.

Hi, since the course starts on 1 June, can I enrol for Batch 3 now?

Hi, we’ll start a new batch that starts from July 1.

hello, I just came across the post. is there any vacancy in the batch? if yes, I would love to join in.

Is this course is still open?!

IS THE COURSE STILL OPEN

HI can I apply for the course now?

Hi can i join this course, i ll make the payment right now if registration is still open. I just came across the course now

Hi, we’ll look into this. When did you email us about this (if you did)?

I am from Nepal , how can I pay the program fee and get enroll in this.

Yes, we are sure that even international students can get immense value out of the program.

Since we are already at home due to the prevailing health crisis, is it possible the course could be started earlier – say in the month of May itself? If things smoothen out, my college may open in July, preventing me from learning the key aspects of the last four modules.

Hi Jei, you’ll be given 50% of the course access from April 21 onwards. You can read the modules and watch the videos for the first 4/5 modules from April 21 onwards.

Hi. Is there a possiblity to enrol past the deadline for the third batch ?

i wasnt aware about this course , is there any chance i can enroll now ?

Hii,can I puchase the course by involving one of my friends to purchase it so that we both have access to material. I want to go dutch

Sorry, that is not allowed. 🙁

Hi, we are extending the date of registration to April 12.

Its 21st April and registration deadline seems to be passed…can I still enroll for course?

hey I’m having some payment issues. I tried paying with a card and today is the last date

Will there be a 3rd batch for this course?

Hi Can I please join this course, I saw the notification a day after the deadline.

Hi Anchal, you can join the 2nd batch of this course. The 2nd batch will officially start from June 1. However, you can access the study material (videos and text resources) from April 11 onwards. Best,

Can I join the course scheduled for next month. . Please convey the dates of Registration

Thanks & Regards

Rajesh Choudhary

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Intellectual Property Ownership: Legal Principles

Intellectual property ownership is a complex legal concept governed by various principles and frameworks. In employment, intellectual property rights often default to the employer, unless explicitly addressed through contractual agreements or policies. Joint ownership arises in collaborative research and development projects, where parties must determine how to allocate ownership and rights. Effective management of intellectual property rights is crucial in business partnerships, government-funded research, and university research. To navigate the complexities of intellectual property ownership, it is imperative to understand the legal principles and frameworks governing creation, protection, and utilization of intellectual property rights, and exploring these complexities further will reveal the intricate nuances of this multifaceted concept.

Table of Contents

Ownership Rights in Employment

In the context of employment, intellectual property ownership rights often default to the employer, unless explicitly addressed through contractual agreements or policies. This is because an employee's work product, including inventions, discoveries, and creative works, is typically considered to be the property of the employer. This default rule is rooted in the concept of 'work made for hire,' which holds that an employer owns the intellectual property rights in any work created by an employee within the scope of their employment.

Employee obligations play a significant function in shaping the contours of intellectual property ownership rights in the employment context. Employees have a fiduciary duty to their employers, which includes a duty of loyalty and a duty to disclose and assign intellectual property rights to the employer. This means that employees are obligated to disclose any inventions, ideas, or creative works developed during the course of their employment, and to assign their intellectual property rights to the employer.

In this context, the work product doctrine operates to vest ownership of intellectual property rights in the employer, unless otherwise agreed upon. This doctrine is rooted in the principle that an employer has the right to control and exploit the fruits of an employee's labor, including intellectual property.

Contractual Agreements and Assignments

Employers often reinforce their intellectual property ownership rights through contractual agreements and assignments, which explicitly outline the terms of intellectual property ownership and the obligations of employees in this regard. These agreements can take various forms, including employment contracts, non-disclosure agreements, and intellectual property assignment agreements. By entering into these agreements, employers can safeguard that intellectual property created by employees during the course of their employment is owned by the employer.

These agreements can also address specific intellectual property-related issues, such as licensing terms and patent swaps, to secure that employers' intellectual property rights are protected. By using these contractual agreements and assignments, employers can effectively manage their intellectual property portfolio and minimize the risk of intellectual property disputes.

Joint Ownership and Collaboration

Joint ownership of intellectual property often arises in collaborative research and development projects, where multiple parties contribute to the creation of intellectual property. In such cases, parties may adopt collaborative models that facilitate shared ownership and utilization of intellectual property. This can be achieved through mutual licensing agreements, which enable parties to use and develop the intellectual property while maintaining joint accountability.

Key considerations in joint ownership and collaboration include:

• Shared Inventions : Collaborators must determine how to allocate ownership and rights to shared inventions, taking into account the contributions of each party.
• Creative Commons : Partners may adopt Creative Commons licenses to facilitate open access and collaboration, while maintaining some control over the intellectual property.
• Joint Decision-Making : Collaborators must establish decision-making processes to manage the joint ownership, guaranteeing that all parties have a voice in the development and utilization of the intellectual property.

IP Protection in Business Partnerships

Effective management of intellectual property rights is vital in business partnerships, where the misappropriation of trade secrets, patents, or copyrights can have devastating consequences for a company's competitive edge. In partnerships, it is imperative to establish clear guidelines and protocols for IP protection to prevent unauthorized use, disclosure, or theft of proprietary information . To achieve this, partnership agreements should include specific clauses outlining the ownership, use, and protection of IP rights. These Partnership Clauses should define the scope of IP rights, including confidentiality obligations, licensing agreements, and dispute resolution mechanisms. A well-drafted partnership agreement can help prevent IP disputes and guarantee that business strategies align with IP protection goals. In addition, business partners should develop thorough Business Strategies that incorporate IP protection as a core component. This includes implementing robust confidentiality agreements, employee nondisclosure agreements, and secure data management practices. By prioritizing IP protection, business partners can safeguard their competitive advantage and maintain a strong market position.

Government Funding and IP Rights

Government funding for research and development initiatives often raises critical questions about the ownership and management of resulting intellectual property rights. When the government provides funding for research, it is crucial to establish clear guidelines for intellectual property ownership and management to avoid disputes and guarantee that the ensuing innovations benefit the public.

In the United States, the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 allows universities and small businesses to retain intellectual property rights to inventions developed with federal funding. However, the government retains a non-exclusive license to use the invention.

Some key considerations for government-funded research and intellectual property rights are:

• Federal Grants : The terms of federal grants often dictate the ownership and management of intellectual property rights, and researchers must comply with these terms to maintain continued funding.
• Public Domain : The government may require that research outcomes be dedicated to the public domain, allowing for widespread use and adaptation without intellectual property restrictions.
• Licensing Agreements : Researchers may negotiate licensing agreements with the government to commercialize their inventions, guaranteeing that the public benefits from the research while also generating revenue.

University Research and IP Ownership

In the domain of university research, intellectual property ownership is a critical consideration. Effective research agreements, well-defined university IP policies, and clear collaborative project rights are vital for traversing the complex landscape of intellectual property ownership. By examining these key factors, researchers and institutions can safeguard that innovative discoveries are properly protected and harnessed for the greater good.

Research Agreements Matter

When collaborating with industry partners, universities must carefully craft research agreements that clearly define intellectual property ownership to avoid disputes and guarantee mutually beneficial outcomes. These agreements play a crucial role in ensuring that all parties involved understand their rights and obligations regarding intellectual property developed during the research collaboration.

To ensure successful collaborations, research agreements should address the following key aspects:

• Confidentiality clauses : Clearly outline the terms of confidentiality to protect sensitive information and intellectual property.
• Funding obligations : Specify the funding obligations of each party, including the amount, duration, and purpose of the funding.
• IP ownership and licensing : Define the ownership and licensing terms of any intellectual property developed during the collaboration, including patents, copyrights, and trade secrets.

University IP Policies

University intellectual property (IP) policies play a vital function in governing the ownership and management of intellectual property arising from university research, safeguarding that the rights of creators, inventors, and the institution are protected and respected. These policies provide a framework for faculty, students, and staff to understand their responsibilities and obligations in creating and managing IP. Faculty Guidelines are typically established to clarify the ownership and rights of faculty members in their creations, including inventions, publications, and other scholarly works. Student Creations, such as thesis, dissertations, and other academic projects, are also subject to university IP policies, which outline the rights and obligations of students in relation to their work. By establishing clear guidelines, universities can promote innovation, collaboration, and knowledge sharing while protecting the intellectual property rights of all parties involved. Effective IP policies also facilitate the commercialization of research outcomes, enabling universities to translate their research into tangible benefits for society.

Collaborative Project Rights

Collaborative research projects involving multiple institutions or external partners often necessitate carefully negotiated agreements to clarify rights and ownership of resulting intellectual property discoveries. This is vital to verify that all parties involved are aware of their rights and responsibilities regarding the use and commercialization of the intellectual property.

Effective project governance is imperative to manage these complex collaborations. This includes establishing clear guidelines for intellectual property ownership, licensing, and usage. In some cases, creative commons licenses may be used to facilitate open access and collaboration.

Key considerations for collaborative project rights include:

• IP Ownership : Clearly defining ownership of intellectual property discoveries to avoid disputes and guarantee fair allocation of rights.
• Licensing Agreements : Establishing licensing agreements that balance the interests of all parties involved, including researchers, institutions, and external partners.
• Access and Sharing : Defining access and sharing protocols for project data, findings, and intellectual property to ensure seamless collaboration and knowledge sharing.

International IP Ownership Disputes

Cross-border intellectual property disputes have become increasingly prevalent in today's globalized economy, often involving complex jurisdictional issues and conflicting national laws. These disputes frequently arise when companies with global operations find themselves embroiled in intellectual property infringement claims spanning multiple jurisdictions. The legal complexities inherent in cross-border litigation demand careful consideration of jurisdictional conflicts, as courts in different countries may have competing claims to jurisdiction over the same dispute.

In cross-border litigation, the determination of jurisdiction is a pivotal preliminary issue. Courts must navigate the often-complex web of international treaties, conventions, and national laws to establish jurisdiction over the dispute. The application of forum non conveniens, a doctrine allowing courts to decline jurisdiction in favor of a more convenient forum, further complicates the issue. Effective management of international IP ownership disputes necessitates a deep understanding of these complexities, as well as the strategic deployment of international legal frameworks to achieve favorable outcomes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can independent contractors retain ip rights to their work?.

Independent contractors can retain IP rights to their work if negotiated in the contract, providing creative freedom. However, contractor liability may arise if IP rights are not explicitly addressed, leading to potential disputes over ownership.

Do IP Laws Vary Significantly Between Countries?

Jurisdictional differences in intellectual property laws are significant, with national policies varying substantially between countries, leading to distinct legal frameworks that govern IP rights, patentability, and enforcement, necessitating careful consideration in global IP strategies.

Can IP Ownership Be Transferred via Verbal Agreements?

Verbal agreements can facilitate implicit transfers of IP ownership, but such transfers are precarious and often unenforceable without explicit, written contracts, as verbal contracts may lack the requisite specificity and formalities.

Are IP Rights Automatically Protected Worldwide?

"IP rights are not automatically protected worldwide, as territorial boundaries dictate varying legal frameworks; global harmonization efforts aim to synchronize protection, but national laws and treaties govern IP rights, necessitating deliberate international registration and enforcement."

Do IP Laws Protect Ideas, or Just Expressions?

Intellectual property laws protect expressions, not ideas, as they traverse the conceptual boundaries between creative freedom and legal ownership, safeguarding that original expressions are protected while leaving room for innovation and inspiration.

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LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs

Download here

Dataset Description

In this retrospective, HIPAA-compliant, IRB-approved study, we collected data from 182 patients who underwent a radiographic examination at the Stanford University Medical Center between 2003 and 2014. The dataset consists of images of the foot, knee, ankle, or hip associated with each patient.

Canonical URL

https://aimi.stanford.edu/lera-lower-extremity-radiographs

Full Description

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which encompass a wide variety of bone, soft tissue, and joint abnormalities, are a major healthcare challenge around the world. MSDs are typically diagnosed using radiographs; however, variations in diagnostic interpretation quality can often lead to diagnostic errors. This problem is often compounded by a lack of available tools to triage large volumes of unread examinations, which can result in numerous adverse downstream effects related to delay of diagnosis and treatment.

The recent revolution in deep learning techniques for image analysis suggests that convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can serve as an effective tool for computer-aided detection of radiograph abnormalities. To aid computational models in accurately identifying diverse abnormalities in highly-variable radiographs of multiple body parts, we are releasing LERA (Lower Extremity RAdiographs). This dataset was used as the held-out test set in our recent study, which found that a single pre-trained CNN was effective in performing generalized abnormality detection in lower extremities [citation after publication].

Dataset Details

Assignment of labels.

Our dataset includes a .csv file matching patient identification numbers to diagnosis labels and radiograph types. Diagnosis labels were assigned as follows. After prospective evaluation of all radiographs associated with a patient, the attending radiologist at the time of initial interpretation assigned each patient a binary classification of normal (y=0) or abnormal (y=1). The designation of a radiograph as normal refers to the attending radiologist’s interpretation of a radiograph as normal given the age of the patient; all radiographs that fall outside this categorization are designated as abnormal (which may be as varied as degeneration, hardware, arthritis, and fractures, among others). Due to these loose constraints as well as the fact that ground truth in radiographic examinations can be difficult to establish, we predicted that the dataset contained a small percentage of incorrect labels; in order to correct for this, two board-certified radiologists, each with 6 years of post-graduate experience, independently labeled the images in this dataset through majority vote consensus between the two radiologists and the prospective exam report. As a result, we are confident that dataset is highly accurate and will serve a suitable resource for testing deep learning models.

Additional Information

Please note that all labels are assigned at the patient level, indicating that the same classification applies to all images for a particular patient. Also, since images were collected over a twelve-year period, the dataset includes highly variable images, with radiographs in varying in size, resolution, and color; there may also be duplicate images.

This study was supported by the Stanford Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Imaging (AIMI). The research reported in this publication was supported by the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01LM012966 and Stanford Child Health Research Institute (Stanford NIH-NCATS-CTSA Grant #UL1 TR001085). This research used data or services provided by STARR, "STAnford medicine Research data Repository,” a clinical data warehouse made possible by the Stanford School of Medicine Research Office.

Terms & Conditions

Stanford university school of medicine lera- lower extremity radiographs dataset research use agreement.

By registering for downloads from the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset, you are agreeing to this Research Use Agreement, as well as to the Terms of Use of the Stanford University School of Medicine website as posted and updated periodically at http://www.stanford.edu/site/terms/ .

1. Permission is granted to view and use the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset without charge for personal, non-commercial research purposes only. Any commercial use, sale, or other monetization is prohibited.

2. Other than the rights granted herein, the Stanford University School of Medicine (“School of Medicine”) retains all rights, title, and interest in the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset.

3. You may make a verbatim copy of the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset for personal, non-commercial research use as permitted in this Research Use Agreement. If another user within your organization wishes to use the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset, they must register as an individual user and comply with all the terms of this Research Use Agreement.

4. YOU MAY NOT DISTRIBUTE, PUBLISH, OR REPRODUCE A COPY of any portion or all of the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset to others without specific prior written permission from the School of Medicine.

5. YOU MAY NOT SHARE THE DOWNLOAD LINK to the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs dataset to others. If another user within your organization wishes to use the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset, they must register as an individual user and comply with all the terms of this Research Use Agreement.

6. You must not modify, reverse engineer, decompile, or create derivative works from the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset. You must not remove or alter any copyright or other proprietary notices in the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset.

7. The LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset has not been reviewed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and is for non-clinical, Research Use Only. In no event shall data or images generated through the use of the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset be used or relied upon in the diagnosis or provision of patient care.

8. THE LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs DATASET IS PROVIDED "AS IS," AND STANFORD UNIVERSITY AND ITS COLLABORATORS DO NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NOR DO THEY ASSUME ANY LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE USE OF THIS LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs DATASET.

9. You will not make any attempt to re-identify any of the individual data subjects. Re-identification of individuals is strictly prohibited. Any re-identification of any individual data subject shall be immediately reported to the School of Medicine.

10. Any violation of this Research Use Agreement or other impermissible use shall be grounds for immediate termination of use of this LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset. In the event that the School of Medicine determines that the recipient has violated this Research Use Agreement or other impermissible use has been made, the School of Medicine may direct that the undersigned data recipient immediately return all copies of the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset and retain no copies thereof even if you did not cause the violation or impermissible use.

In consideration for your agreement to the terms and conditions contained here, Stanford grants you permission to view and use the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset for personal, non-commercial research. You may not otherwise copy, reproduce, retransmit, distribute, publish, commercially exploit or otherwise transfer any material.

Limitation of Use

You may use LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset for legal purposes only.

You agree to indemnify and hold Stanford harmless from any claims, losses or damages, including legal fees, arising out of or resulting from your use of the LERA- Lower Extremity RAdiographs Dataset or your violation or role in violation of these Terms. You agree to fully cooperate in Stanford’s defense against any such claims. These Terms shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of California.

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