D’Angelo Law Library
Preparing Research Skills for the Summer
May 2015
http://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/summersuccess - some tips for preparing for your summer job
Summer access to Westlaw, Lexis Advance, and Bloomberg Law:
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Westlaw access continues for academic/government (as long as it’s not paid)/not for profit
work during the summer – need to register. See blog post for instructions.
Lexis Advance is available for all types of work during the summer (no need to register for
extension during the summer).
Bloomberg Law may be used for work and academic purposes.
Legal research resources other than Lexis and Westlaw
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Bloomberg Law - combines Bloomberg’s financial information with primary and secondary
legal materials
o Has a citator for cases
o Building an annotated code (ex: 15 U.S.C. § 77f)
o Litigation & Dockets – can search PACER and some state electronic filing systems
o Resource centers for certain subjects that bring together primary and secondary
materials
o Dealmaker—great for transactional law
Practical Law Company
o Access from WestlawNext
Bloomberg BNA
Practising Law Institute
CCH IntelliConnect
Cost of legal information
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LexisNexis and Westlaw costs
o Flat rate - a certain cost per attorney that covers most things, such as case law
databases; would be most similar to law school.
o Transactional cost - varies by database, but can be anywhere from $10-200 per
search or per document.
o Time cost - can be anywhere from $5-25 a minute
o Content often limited to the subscription agreement; other content incurs additional
cost
o Varies from firm to firm
o Ask firm librarians or orientation leaders what resources may be preferred and what
restrictions, if any, may exist on usage
Fixed rate resources licensed by your employer (Bloomberg Law, HeinOnline, CCH, etc.)
Trend away from billing the cost of research to clients and toward research costs covered as
overhead/operating expenses; harder now to make the clients pay for research
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Try using free sources of legal information
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Government (legislative or agency web sites), court web sites, law firm/office web sites;
firms often have extensive intranet sites that will list preferred resources
Law school libraries sites, especially research guides, e.g.,
http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/guides/bankinglaw.cfm
Local public law libraries, public libraries (CPL databases)
Bar association resources, e.g., Fastcase for ISBA
See Free and Low Cost Resources for United States Legal Research.
Know how to do administrative law research
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quasi legislative and quasi judicial
Agency websites – bring together relevant regulations, proposed rules, administrative
decisions, guidance documents
Federal Register and CFR
Regulations.gov – can see comments that have been submitted
Know the key resources for your jurisdiction
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IICLEs
Legal encyclopedias
Practice guides (e.g., Rutter Guides for CA)
Look at a research guide for your state
Strategies for success as a cost effective researcher
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Always do the best you can to understand precisely what you’re being asked to do. If you
don’t understand, ask questions.
Good questions to ask:
o What is the scope of the task?
o What is the deadline?
o How in-depth should my research be?
o What form would you like my results in?
o Is there a particular jurisdictional focus?
o Is there any particular resource or starting place that you recommend?
Take good notes.
Ask when and how you should contact the assigning person if questions arise during your
research.
If you’re confused, seek out the firm librarian for help.
Begin your project with a research plan.
o Think about the types of information you will need to satisfactorily address the issue
and determine how you will obtain that information.
o Make sure all types of primary law are addressed in your research plan
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o Include factual information or corporate or business information if it would be
useful.
o Think about the best methods of finding the law that you need.
Use secondary sources to improve your understanding of unfamiliar topics.
Use resources available in your law office, e.g. document banks and other attorney expertise.
Don’t forget about books! Familiarize yourself with the print library in your law office.
Depending on whom you are working with, they may require you to use print.
Keep track of documents you look at and searches you run. Lexis and Westlaw do this for
you, but keep your own record, since it costs to access them on Lexis and Westlaw.
Understand the cost and value of the information sources available to you.
Be aware that your own time has value. The resource that costs the least is not always to be
preferred. Your comfort with the tool, the searching techniques/features available in a
particular tool, and the comprehensiveness of results all play a role in deciding how to
approach a particular issue or problem.
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RESEARCH EXAMPLES
Federal Administrative Law
Your supervising partner is writing an opinion letter to a client bank that explains the law requiring
insured depository institutions with assets over $50 billion (i.e. huge banks) to file insolvency
resolution plans with the FDIC. The partner tells you that some of the resolution plan requirements
are outlined in the Dodd-Frank Act, but that “the rest of the details are in the regulations.” In
addition to the relevant regulations, the partner would like to know more about the rationale behind
the requirements and wants you to find the background remarks and analysis that were published
with the “final rule” in the Federal Register.
Recommended Resources
 eCFR (on FDsys)
 Code of Federal Regulations (HeinOnline)
 Federal Register (on FDsys)
 FDIC web site
Transactional Law
Your firm is drafting an agreement to license a biotech company’s intellectual property (a method
for extracting and processing certain bacterial toxins) to a pharmaceutical corporation for the
purpose of developing and commercializing a new cosmetic product. Before finalizing the
agreement, your colleagues would like to review some similar contracts, especially those that contain
sublicensing and royalties clauses.
Recommended Resources
 Bloomberg Law – Dealmaker
 Practical Law Company – Checklists & Model Agreements
 Firm’s Intranet/Document Bank
State Common Law
You represent Metamorph Industries, a California stone wholesaler. Metamorph recently entered
into a contract with NorCal Hauling that required NorCal to pick up six one-ton pink granite blocks
from a nearby quarry and deliver them to Metamorph’s stockyard on March 12, 2015. The parties
agreed that time was of the essence because Metamorph had made arrangements for a stonemason
to begin work on the granite on March 13. On March 11 and 12, the area experienced severe
thunderstorms and flash floods. NorCal failed to deliver the granite on time and claims that the
heavy rain prevented access to the quarry on March 12. Metamorph is considering suing for breach,
but has asked you to evaluate its likelihood of success.
Recommended Resources
 Contracts Treatises
o Corbin on Contracts
o Williston on Contracts
 State-Specific Secondary Sources
o California Jurisprudence
o Witkin’s Summary of California Law
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