LibGuides: Summer Legal Research Tips: Home

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Succeeding as a Summer Associate

Congratulations! You’re a summer associate at a law firm. This course will help you exceed expectations by doing prime work; presenting yourself well; building rela-tionships; and managing your time, workload, and well-being.

Online Research Guides

How to Research a Legal Problem - AALL
How to Research a Legal Problem - from the American Association of Law Libraries
Cornell's LII: Legal Research: Overview & Sources
A good overview to help you get started with your research.
Library of Congress Guides to Legal Research
These guides can help you begin a legal research project by offering quick techniques and a selection of legal resources and tools. Each guide is prepared by a legal specialist from the Law Library of Congress.

Introduction - Start Here!

Congratulations on finding a placement for the summer. This guide is intended to supplement your first semester Legal Research course, and provide some additional information.

You can still use many of our library's resources, provided that you log in correctly so that our information providers know who you are.

Go to the Law Library page on the Law School Intranet, and click on the Law Library A-Z Resource List link:

Legal Citation Refresher

Here is a quick reminder of how Legal Citation works.

More detailed citation guides are here:

Introduction to Legal Citation
From the Legal Information Institute.
Reading Legal Citation
From Boston College Law Library

Legal Research and Writing Guides

The Law Library has several resources dedicated to legal research and writing. Please drop by the library and peruse our Practical Skills collection.

Black's Law Dictionary 10e GOOD by Bryan A. Garner; Henry Campbell Black
Call Number: KF156 .B53 2014
ISBN: 9780314621306
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
This comprehensive law dictionary contains more than 50,000 terms and includes definitions of more than 1,000 law-related abbreviations and acronyms. More than 7,500 terms new to this edition include bioweapon, gazump, hacker, mommy track, unperson and zero-tolerance law.
The First Trial (Where Do I Sit? What Do I Say?) in a Nutshell by Tracy McCormack; Mike Golden
Call Number: KF8915 .Z9 G59 2024
The First Trial Nutshell is a fresh and unique approach to advocacy instruction. Concentrating on the overall approach to trying a case, it weaves persuasion and procedure to help lawyers and law students prepare for their first trials with confidence. Addressing everything from technology to where to sit and what to say it meshes the practical advice and "how to" instructions with sophisticated persuasive techniques. This book will serve as the perfect first primer and a continuing resource for experienced litigators to read again before trial mediation or arbitration.
Bluebook : A Uniform System of Citation, 20e by Harvard Law Review (Compiled by); Columbia Law Review (Compiled by); University of Pennsylvania Law Review (Compiled by); Yale Law Review (Compiled by)
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Call Number: KF246 .U53 2015 Temporarily Shelved at: Law Reserves
ISBN: 9780692400197
Publication Date: 2015-06-25
Use this legal citation manual to break apart citations and determine the type of resource or use the tables to determine jurisdictional resources.
Prince's Bieber Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations by Mary Miles Prince
Call Number: KF246 .B46 2017
ISBN: 9780837716251
Legal Research in a Nutshell, 13e by Kent Olson
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Call Number: KF240 .C54 2018
Finding and using legal resources effectively is an essential skill for lawyers. This comprehensive but succinct guide covers research procedures using major online services, free Internet resources, and library materials. Several hundred websites are discussed and placed in context for effective and productive use in research. Discussion includes coverage of legislative history, administrative law, specialized and interdisciplinary resources, and research in international and comparative law. Appendices list state research guides and treatises and services by subject, and a companion website has a regularly updated list of URLs and illustrations of online and print resources.
Just Research, 3e (Aspen Coursebook) by Laurel Currie Oates; Anne Enquist
Call Number: KF240 .O18 2011
ISBN: 9781454802945
Publication Date: 2011-06-17
Just Research uses a process approach to teach students how to use print and electronic sources to research issues governed by state and federal statutes, common law, and constitutional law.
Basic Legal Research: Tools and Strategies (7th ed.) by Amy E. Sloan
Call Number: KF240 .S66 2018
Basic Legal Research: Tools and Strategies, Seventh Edition by Amy E. Sloan is known for its clear, step-by-step instruction in the basics. Using a building-block approach, the textbook breaks material into discrete, readily comprehensible parts. Self-contained chapters on sources make the book flexible for any type of legal research course. Useful pedagogy throughout the text includes end-of-chapter checklists, clear examples, and summary charts. Helpful sample pages and examples of research sources guide students through the presentation.