Spring Class Offerings

The Law Library is offering the following workshops focused on research skills for your summer jobs, whether they are with private law firms, government offices, or public interest organizations.  Students of all class years are welcome. To sign up, just send an email to langref@law.harvard.edu. 

Dominating at Corporate Law Research, April 13th, 12-1, Library Computer Lab (please note, this is a NEW location)

Want to practice corporate law, but don't want to waste time trying to find relevant information? After 45 minutes, you will know how to navigate the SEC website and better harness the power of proprietary databases like Lexis and Westlaw. You will learn, among other things, (1) how to find and create corporate registration statements, and (2) how to find real contracts, including domestic and international M&A agreements. 

Administrative Law Research, April 17th, 12-1 p.m., Areeda 524

An in-depth look at the core literature of federal administrative law, including the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations. Also covered are research techniques for locating, updating and validating regulations, agency decisions and other administrative documents.

Free Internet Legal  Research Sources, April 22nd, 5-6 p.m., Langdell Library Computer Lab

What kind of legal research strategy will you adopt if you end up working in an environment that does not have access to either Westlaw or LexisNexis? Do you really want to tell your supervisor that you found everything they asked for on Google and Wikipedia? Rather than hiding your head in the sand until the recession blows over, you may want to come to this session to learn about the growing number of high quality legal resource databases that are becoming freely available on the Web. This whirlwind tour of some of today’s best free legal resources is particularly relevant to students who will be working in public interest or government, but will also be important for anyone who is heading into a cost conscious corporate environment where every click made in a licensed database will be costing your firm plenty!

Print Sources: When They Throw the Book at You, April 23rd, 12-1 p.m., Areeda 524

Summer law associates are sometimes surprised to learn their employers expect them to use (free) print resources for some or all of their research. This hour-long session will introduce you to many of the types of print resources you may encounter and provide an overview of when and how to use them.

What was Congress Thinking? (Researching Statutes and Legislative History), April 23rd, Hauser 105

3-3:40 (Statutes) and 3:50-4:30 (Legislative History)

If you had to find a federal or state statute by its name, could you do it? Do you know the difference between a session law and a code? Can you quickly and efficiently find cases that interpret a statute?

Where would you look for the legislative history of a federal statute or state statute? How could you be sure you have everything you need? And what if your statute is more than 30 years old?

After these sessions, you'll be a more confident researcher in the legislative branch of the law, able to answer yes to these questions and more. Students may sign up for each session separately, or for both.