Legal Research

Law students lucky enough to have landed summer jobs or internships in these tough times are working harder than ever to make a good impression on their employers.

One sure bet is to get known as a great researcher. Students who've taken an advanced legal research class have the edge here, but anyone can give their research skills a big boost by following this precept (coined by Dean Cowan and Schelle Simcox, librarians at U.C. Berkeley?s law school and Paul Hastings, respectively) ?

The deliberate redundancy drives home the point that researchers who start with practice guides, treatises, continuing legal ed. publications, and other similar so-called "secondary" sources will get a firmer grasp on the context of the client's problem and the issues it raises, and will wind up doing better work in less time.

So where to find practice materials? There are lots of ways. Perhaps the best is to ask the librarian, if your office has one, or to ask the attorneys you're working with for their favorites. Or you can call the reference librarians back at your law school to get their suggestions.

These web sites are handy guides to practice materials dealing with the various areas of law:

• Kent Olson's Treatises & Services by Subject [PDF; 32 pages] ? or UVa's customized version of Treatises & Services by Subject
• For California law, the Zief Library's California Practice Guides list
• Harvard Law Library's Legal Treatises by Subject
• The Georgetown Law Library Treatise Finder
• Santa Clara Heafey Law Library's Major Legal Treatises
• Pace Law Library's Subject Guide to Legal Treatises

For more advice on acing your summer job, try Suffolk Law School's podcasts on Transition from One-L to Summer Legal Work. [Hat tip on this one to the Moritz Legal Information Blog.]