Blog Archives

Welcome to the new Legal Analysis & Writing Department homepage!

As part of our revamped site, we are going to be updating this weekly with new content. One week we may have some tips on good memo organization. The next we might post some advice about outlining (although we don’t need to worry about that for quite some time now). Everything on here, though, will be useful or entertaining – and sometimes both.

This week we’re highlighting some of the basics of legal research. Learning good legal research skills is a lot like learning to ride a bike. It takes a lot of practice. Sometimes you fall on your face. Sometimes you get lost. But when you get the hang of it, when you start developing those skills, it makes your life so much better.

Check out the resources we’re posting about legal research. First, get a view of the big picture of how you go about legal research by checking out our Research Strategies page. 

Then, when you have a good idea of how you want to go about your research, take a look at the Anatomy of a Citation page to learn a little bit more about what the various resources are and why that absurd combination of letters and numbers at the top of each case is really important.

Finally, when you’re ready for the rubber to hit the road, swing by the Terms and Connectors page to get some tips on how to effectively conduct searches.

Make sure check back regularly to take full advantage of all the resources available to you. Happy hunting!