Among the most important skills all lawyers rely upon is the ability to do legal research– to find what’s needed to interpret and analyze legal issues. It’s an integral part of the “competencies” that NYLS and the ABA require of law students.  Effective research skills are vital to students engaged in any type of legal writing, to those who are clerking or participating in externships, and to those entering legal practice.

To help prepare you for the realities of law practice, we offer several courses that will make you a more efficient, confident and successful researcher.

Legal Research: Practical Skills (1 credit)
Builds on fundamental research skills through refining students’ techniques, introducing shortcuts and new approaches, and developing effective strategies.  The course focuses on finding legislation, administrative materials, and related cases; using the secondary sources relied on by practitioners; attaining greater proficiency and comfort with Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg BNA, and other online research tools, including reliable free and low-cost sources.  We also offer this class with a focus on a particular substantive practice area, including Corporate & Business Law; Criminal Law; Family Law; Foreign and International Law; Intellectual Property Law; Labor and Employment Law; and Real Estate Law.

Legal Research: Skills for the Digital World (3 credits)
Continues to build on the fundamentals described in Legal Research: Practical Skills.  Students concentrate on more advanced techniques and strategies and learn to evaluate online and print materials in order to choose the best and most cost-effective source for projects.  Some assignments are geared to students’ individual subject interests.  Take-home assignments test and enhance students’ ability to perform various research tasks and strengthen their understanding of important research process and strategy consideration.

Want more information? Contact Associate Dean and Professor Camille Broussard or Professor Michael Roffer.

Below are the revised schedules for the Mendik Library’s summer hours of operation, from Saturday, May 22 through Sunday, August 8, 2021.

The Mendik library will be offering extended hours from Monday, May 3 to Friday, May 21, 2021.  Please see the schedule below.

A Firm Perspective is written by Martha Goldman, a retired Big Law firm library manager who then returned to the NYLS Mendik Library where her career began…

A deadline exists for a reason, and there should be no assumption that a deadline is flexible.  A deadline date and/or time do not imply that you can do the work if you have the inclination or spare time, or not do it because you prefer to do something fun instead.  When you are given an assignment in law school or on the job, you should presume that the deadline is not negotiable.  A deadline implies a commitment that you will do what you were asked to do as thoroughly as possible within the given time frame.  If you are not told when an assignment is due, ask that question.  You can self-impose a deadline to help meet your goal.  Occasionally, extenuating circumstances can occur on your side or by the assigning attorney or professor that can alter the deadline.  Learning how to budget your time, possibly becoming a clock-watcher, is a necessary skill and comes with experience.  Completing a task to the best of your abilities by meeting the deadline is a reflection of you and your professionalism, so make it count.

Our very own Elevator Ed will again be celebrating Earth Day this year (on April 22). If planting flowers is not your thing, head over to the Earth Day Network, which will be live streaming three days of climate action beginning on April 20, 2021, with a global youth climate summit led by Earth Uprising.