Learn to Use BNA Online for Legal Research

BNA, a leading legal publisher used extensively by practicing attorneys, can be a valuable component in your legal research toolbox.  Don’t miss these opportunities to learn how to use it effectively. No preregistration is required for any of the 45-minute sessions.

Legal Research Using BNA

Students will learn how to conduct legal research using BNA online resources. Using BNA’s current awareness services, students will learn how to recognize emerging legal trends, locate paper topics, and sign up for e-mail alerts in subject areas of interest. Using BNA’s online Web libraries, students will gain an in-depth exposure to specific sources such as tax, labor and employment law, and intellectual property law, and will gain an understanding of how to use these secondary sources of law to conduct comprehensive legal research.

Friday September 23rd at 11:00 am – 11:45 am
Tuesday September 27th at 11:00 am – 11:45 am
Room L206

Federal Tax Research with BNA Tax Management Portfolios

Participants will learn how to use BNA’s Tax and Accounting Center (BTAC) — an all-in-one resource—to get the complete answer to any federal tax question quickly.  Learn how to use a variety of search methods, including code section or word searching, and how to use BNA’s topical indexes. The Tax and Accounting Center fully integrates all BNA Federal Tax Management Portfolios— US Income, Estate Gifts & Trusts, Foreign as well as news and analysis in the Tax Management Weekly Report and primary sources.

Friday September 23rd at 12 noon – 12:45 pm
Tuesday September 27th at 12:00 noon – 12:45 pm
Room L206

 


Preparing for Your Summer Employment

Just a reminder that this coming Friday April 8, you can take your research skills up a notch (or two) by attending the annual Bridge the Gap Program, which this year is being held right here at NYLS.  Registration has been extended until Friday and you can register at the door for no extra cost.  All the details, including registration information and the schedule of sessions, are available here.

The program will enhance your research skills in a number of specific practice areas and it concludes with a panel discussion among a variety of law practitioners.  Panel members will describe the typical expectations for summer law student employees, and offer advice on how to be successful in a summer law job.


Bridge the Gap between Law School and Practice

Want to develop practical skills and strategies for success in your summer job?  Register to attend the Bridge the Gap, an educational program sponsored every year by the Law Library Association of Greater New York.  This year’s Bridge the Gap will be held here at New York Law School on Friday, April 8.  Click here for a PDF version of the detailed program announcement and registration form.

The full-day program will enhance your research skills in a number of specific practice areas (including Bankruptcy Litigation, Business/Company Research, Business Related Tax Issues, Consumer Credit/Bankruptcy/Mortgages, Domestic Violence, Immigration, Legal Process of Litigation, Securities & Corporate Law, and Transnational Aspects of Litigation.)  The program concludes with a panel discussion among practitioners from different legal venues. Panel members will describe the typical expectations for summer law student employees, and offer advice on how to be successful in a summer law job.




NY’s New Rules of Professional Conduct

From today’s New York Law Journal:

Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye and the four presiding Appellate Division justices have formally adopted a new set of attorney ethics rules that proponents say brings New York lawyers in line with their counterparts in most of the rest of the country.

The Rules of Professional Conduct align ethics standards in form and numbering sequence with the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct. That change will make it easier for New York attorneys to reference ethics rules and advisory and legal opinions nationwide when researching issues, supporters of the new rules say.

“It is a tremendous relief to now speak the same language as the rest of the country,” said Steven C. Krane, chairman of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct, which proposed the revisions. “The code is dead. Long live the rules.”

Starting April 1, 2009, the Rules of Professional Conduct will replace the New York Code of Professional Responsibility.

Here is the link to the full story (free).


About the Portal’s Link to the New York Law Journal

Among the Quick Links on your NYLS Portal Homepage you’ll see a link to the Website of the New York Law Journal. If you’re not already familiar with the NYLJ, you should take a look. It’s the daily newspaper of record for New York lawyers, providing unique coverage of both local legal issues, and the practicing bar. But the NYLJ contains more than just reportage, it also includes news of recent court decisions, which are often reprinted in full text. All of this is invaluable to New York lawyers, and to students who plan to become New York lawyers.

There’s also something else you should know about the NYLJ Website. Not all of the information presented there is free. The headlines, and the text of many of the major articles are free content for anyone who visits the site. But there are other categories of content on the site, and access to “premium content” is limited to individual paid subscribers. The premium content is clearly identified on the site, with a key icon sitting next to the link. If you click on a link that’s next to a key, you’ll be asked for a subscriber’s username and password.

Since NYLJ markets its subscriptions to individual subscribers only, NYLS Library is not permitted to distribute subscriber usernames and passwords to the NYLS community. If you bring your laptop to the 4th floor Reference Desk, the librarian there can log you on so that you have free access to everything. But the Library cannot help you gain access to premium NYLJ content if you’re outside the Library.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that you have other ways to get NYLJ content. First of all, we receive copies of the paper edition in the Library, so you can come by and read it daily. Also, selected NYLJ news and editorials and all “Decisions of Interest,” dating back to 1989, are available via Westlaw. So if you have a Westlaw password, and Westlaw searching skills, you can easily access the premium materials that the NYLJ Website won’t let you see.

Beyond the NYLJ, the Library recommends another Website: New York Lawyer http://www.nylawyer.com. Produced by the same company that publishes the NYLJ, New York Lawyer is a free news site geared toward students and lawyers who are just starting out in practice. It’s the home of the New York Buzz, a free email service that delivers a daily summary of local legal news to your email box. If you have questions about the New York Lawyer, the NYLJ, or if you need any sort of research help, just contact the Library Reference Desk at 212-431-2332.


Master Your Summer Employment

Want to develop practical skills and approaches to master your summer employment?

Attend the March 28, 2008 Bridge the Gap program at the New York City Bar, sponsored by the Law Library Association of Greater New York. Click here for a PDF version of the program announcement and registration form.

This full-day program will enhance your research skills in a number of specific practice areas (including intellectual property, employment and labor, tax, corporate transactions and securities, criminal law, commercial litigation, legal ethics, bankruptcy, and international and foreign law). The program concludes with a panel discussion about life as a summer associate. Panel members include Judge Elizabeth S. Stong, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of New York, Peter J.W. Sherwin, a litigation partner at Proskauer Rose LLP, Jeffrey Levitt, an associate at Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto, and Heide-Marie Bliss, NY Library Manager at O’Melveny & Meyers LLP.


Beyond the Big Firm

Check out Beyond the Big Firm: Profiles of Lawyers Who Want Something More, a new title in the Mendik Library collection.  The book features profiles of more than thirty lawyers whose choices have led them to a wide variety of careers in law.  [KF299.P8 M67 2007]  Click here to view the table of contents.


Midtown Library Access at ABCNY

The New York City Bar will again be offering free access to the City Bar’s library from May through August for all summer associates employed by a member of the association.   The Library is located at 42 West 44th Street in Manhattan.  Summer hours beginning May 21 will be Monday – Thursday 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. and Friday 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.   For additional information, contact the New York City Bar Library at 212-382-6739 or your firm librarian.