Legal Skills I (Fall)

Advanced Legal Research (Spring)

Mining Patent Information in the Digital Age (Summer)

Legal Research Classes

LEGAL SKILLS I

(4 credits, Fall)
Professors Gire, Landau, Shanks and Woods

This course is required in fall of the first year and is graded on professionalism and on writing and research assignments completed throughout the semester.

For research, students learn the types of legal authorities generated by the American legal system. Students learn how to use basic secondary legal resources, how to access and validate primary authority, and how to develop a strategy for completion of research projects. Classes in research are typically divided into thirds: an introductory discussion of the material, a hands-on experience in the stacks, and practical experience in online research.

Four librarians teach the Legal Research portion of this course.

In addition to your required text, Amy E. Sloan, Basic Legal Research: Tools and Strategies, (3d ed. Aspen 2006), the following resources are good starting places for beginning legal researchers. This list is not exhaustive.

Research Books

• Morris L. Cohen and Kent C. Olson, Legal Research in a Nutshell. Library location: KF 240 .C54 2003 - Reserve Collection

  Now in its 8th edition, this little nutshell provides a succinct yet complete introduction to the basics of legal research. A favorite with your legal research professors, the text is quite current and palatable for first year students or for trained researchers who need a quick review. It also has chapters on international and foreign legal research which are not usually included in introductory research texts and Appendix A offers a useful table of sources for state appellate court decisions.

• Christina L. Kunz et al., The Process of Legal Research (6th ed. Aspen). Library location: KF 240 .P76 2000 - Main Stacks

  The Kunz text is a legal research book designed for first year students and includes problem sets for students to practice. It is more detailed in coverage than the Sloan book and, in addition to explaining legal authority and its access, attempts to describe the “best practices” currently employed by lawyers as they research a particular type of legal authority.
  

• Robert C. Berring & Elizabeth A. Edinger, Legal Research Survival Manual (West 2002). Library location: offices of Judy Gire, Barry Shanks, and Cindy Landau.

  This new little manual deliberately steers away from the detailed treatment of legal research typical of most introductory research texts. Instead, the authors’ goal is to “tell you what you need to know to get through the first year of law school, specifically the first semester.” Deliberately informal in style, the authors humorously offer advice about researching cases, statutes and using citators with lots of practical tips.

• Robert C. Berring & Elizabeth A. Edinger, Finding the Law (12th ed. West 2005). Library location: KF 240 .B45 - Main Stacks

  This text is “designed to instruct the reader in the basics of the legal research enterprise.” As such, it is another of the standard introductory legal research texts that marches through the basics of primary and secondary sources and their access. Like the Kunz book, Finding the Law is more comprehensive in its discussion of bibliographic detail than Sloan.

Multi-Media Sources on Legal Research

• Robert C. Berring, Legal Research for the 21st Century (West 2000) (videotapes). Library location: Reserve

In this series of 5 videocassettes, Professor Bob Berring presents his own perspective of legal research with insight and humor. Tape 1 tells beginning students about casebooks, hornbooks, nutshells and outlines as well as giving an overview of the sources of law and case law research. Tape 2 is a masterful discussion of all the ways to find cases while Tape 3 explores the concept of legal citators like Shepards and KeyCite. Berring blitzes through legislative and administrative research on Tape 4 and winds up on Tape 5 with a discussion of the Internet as a source for legal research. These tapes provide a fine introduction to legal research along with some fairly provocative insights from the “Commando” legal researcher himself.

• Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction, Lessons for Law Students (Compact disk)
• Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction, Lessons for Law Students (web site – www.cali.org)

  The CD and the site offer interactive tutorials on a wide range of subjects, including “Legal Writing and Research”. The tutorials cover many specific subjects within legal research, including ALRs, Codification, Digests, Statutes, Federal Legislative History, and Updating Statutes. In addition, there are two comprehensive interactive tutorials devoted to the process of legal research:

  Sheri H. Lewis & Donald A. Arndt, Jr., Legal Research 101: The Tools of the Trade

This tutorial describes basic research tools and how students can begin to research with them. The lesson is organized into four sections including an introduction and three instructional portions and takes about 1 hour to complete. It is designed for first year students to use during their first semester and presumes no prior knowledge of legal research.

Wendy Scott and Kennard R. Strutin, Legal Research Methodology

This exercise is for students who have some expertise doing legal research or want a review after completing their first semester of research. The authors lead students through situations and problems frequently handed to new law clerks. The lessons go from brain-storming and query development to techniques of cost-effective research, up-dating and knowing when-to-stop the research process. Pop-up windows provide mini-lessons on legal ethics, malpractice and legal bibliography.

ADVANCED LEGAL RESEARCH

(2 credits, Spring)
Professor Barry Shanks

This course is for second and third year students and is graded on the completion of two documents and one presentation. Students produce a written collection development project and a final Research Pathfinder in a subject area chosen by each student. The oral presentation requires a comparison/contrast of two or more research tools.

Advanced Legal Research (ALR) is for students who want to explore print and online research sources in depth and to refine their skills as cost effective researchers. There is some review of basic research tools and strategies, the purpose of the course is to examine areas of research not covered in Legal Skills 1 and 2. These areas include administrative research, legislative histories, international research sources, and practitioner materials. Traditional print sources will be evaluated and compared with nontraditional sources, primarily databases and the web. The format of the class consists of a combination of mini-lectures, discussions, demonstrations, guest speakers, and student presentations.

Barry’s treatment of this subject prompted one student to dub the course “The Gospel According to Shanks.”

MINING PATENT INFORMATION in a DIGITAL AGE

(2 credits, Summer)
Professor Jon Cavicchi

Enrollment is limited to 25 students.

Introduction to the manual and computerized search and research tools currently available for intellectual property practice in the United States and strategies for their effective use.