Bar

Congratulations, Graduates!

As you prepare for graduation and bar study, we wanted to remind you about the ways in which you can still benefit from the Mendik Library. Click here for our Alumni Services Guide.

Bar Study Planning

The Mendik Library staff wants to support you and make your bar prep experience as stress-free as possible. We hope you will use the comfortable facilities available in the Library and on campus to study and prepare for the bar exam. Except for Memorial Day weekend and July 3rd and 4th, the Mendik Library will be open every day, including evenings and weekends. Summer hours are posted on the Library’s home page and on Mendik Matters. Extended bar study hours will begin on Saturday, July 5.

Access to Other Libraries

If you wish to use another law school’s library for bar study, you must make arrangements directly with the other library. Most local law school libraries charge other schools’ graduates a small fee for a bar study pass, and several sell only a limited number of passes.

Bar Exam Resources

New York Law School is dedicated to providing each graduate with the tools and help needed to successfully pass the bar exam. The Office of Academic and Bar Success Initiative has a Bar Exam Resources Guide for your use.

Bloomberg Law

Graduating students retain unlimited and unrestricted access through November 31, 2025.

Lexis

Graduating students may continue to use their law school Lexis account through December 31, 2025 and need not do anything further to do so. This access is intended to help you study for the bar, conduct your job search and become more efficient in Lexis research.

ASPIRE Program: The ASPIRE (Associates Serving Public Interest Research) program provides 12 months of free access to federal and state cases, codes, regulations, law reviews, Shepard’s Citation Service and Matthew Bender treatises to graduates who are engaged in verifiable 501(c)(3) public interest work. Graduates who apply to this program must work directly for a non-profit or charitable organization, and be able to provide documentation (e.g. email) from a superior of the same. Exclusions include government work (even if unpaid), work for a law firm (even if it represents a non-profit organization), and solo practice (even if it encompasses non-profit work). Graduates should receive a new Lexis ID about a week after they submit the completed application.

To apply for the ASPIRE program, please contact our LexisNexis representative, Nejat Bumin, Esq. (email: nejat.bumin@lexisnexis.com; 551-580-1920).

Students who have changed their expected graduation date since first issued a LexisNexis ID their first year must contact LexisNexis Customer Service (800-45 LEXIS) to change their graduation date on the LexisNexis system.

Westlaw Grad Elite

Graduates should register now for Grad Elite access, which provides an additional six months following your graduation date access to Westlaw and Practical Law. The Grad Elite access gives graduates 60-hours of usage on these products per month to gain understanding and build confidence in your research skills. While you cannot use it in situations where you are billing a client, Thomson Reuters encourages you to use these tools to build your knowledge of the law and prepare for your bar exam. In addition, you’ll have access to job searching databases on Westlaw and TWEN for 18-months after graduation for 1 hour a month. If you have any questions, please contact our Westlaw Account Manager Shawn Lopez (Shawn.Lopez@thomsonreuters.com)

Please contact the Reference Desk (voice: 212.431.2332; email: reference@Nyls.edu or sign into Microsoft Teams during Reference hours) if you need any assistance.

Bar Study Update

Extended Library study hours begin on Tuesday, July 5. On Sundays thru Thursdays, the Library will remain open until midnight. Starting on July 11, classroom space available outside the library for bar studying will be limited before 5:30 p.m. The Library understands that many of you like to study in small groups and occasionally converse.  To that end, beginning on July 5, reasonable conversations will be allowed on L-4 for the remainder of the bar study period.  If the group study room (L400), the compact shelving area, and two seminar rooms (L402 and L405) are available, please use those first for group study.  The group study rooms on L-2 and L-3 are also available for your use.  As our signs have always said – one person is not a group. But if a group study room is not available, you are welcome to engage in reasonable conversation at the table spaces on L-4.  Floors L-2 and L-3 will remain quiet study spaces.  We understand that July can be a stressful month in bar study land.  Please remember to be kind to your colleagues:  Control the decibel levels and help us keep your Library clean.

 

If you have questions, please let the reference librarians know.  Good Luck and Stay Focused!

Studying for the Bar?

This is a reminder that seminar room L402, located on L4 of the Library, has been designated as a quiet study zone for NYLS graduates who are studying for the upcoming Bar Exam. Students are asked to yield seats in this room to Bar studiers, and all users of the room are asked to observe the strictest silence.

We thank you for your cooperation.

Categories: Bar

Court-PASS: Online Database for NY Court of Appeals

On February 1, the New York Court of Appeals launched a free online document database called Court-PASS. Practitioners will be able to upload court papers and the database will serve as permanent digital archive of all cases filed after January 1, 2013. Researchers will be able to search or browse Court-PASS and view decisions, briefs, motion papers, criminal/civil case records, and videos/transcripts of oral arguments. For more information see the Court’s Notice to the Bar.