The convenience of the major commercial legal databases has made them so popular that many law students rely on them almost exclusively for legal research. This session will highlight free tools available via Internet that are increasingly important for lawyers who need to do cost-effective research in the current economic environment. In some cases, these resources are as good as (or better than) anything provided by commercial publishers. We’ll consider resources for both primary and secondary legal sources, including: federal and state government web sites, Google Scholar (and tips for using Google), blogs and other current awareness tools, and more.

The class page is HERE.

Free Legal Research
April 8, 10 & 12 | 1 p.m. (Room 334)
David Bachman, instructor; dbachman@bu.edu

(medical or medicinal) /s marijuana /s states

What will this search turn up?  Why would you want to use this search string instead of simply typing in your terms?  Learn the answers to these questions and more at the Power Searching Certification Class.  This class will be offered Tuesday (4/2), Thursday (4/4), and Friday (4/5) from 1-2 PM in Room 334.  Questions? Email me at jekblaw@bu.edu.

State legislative history can be notoriously difficult to find. Come learn what types of documents are available and where you can find them in a special certification class taught by Bette Siegel, the documents librarian at the State Library of Massachusetts.

This class will be held Thursday, March 21 at 1:00 PM in Room 1420. Please contact Ellen Richardson at emric (at) bu (dot) edu if you have any questions.

Need to find a regulation,  ANPR, proposed rule, final rule, agency adjudication decision or some other acronym unique to Admin law and or feel lost when contemplating the Federal Register or the Code of Federal Regulations?

This might just be the class for you! Come learn how to find regulations, and importantly, research in this important area.

Three sessions are planned next week:

March 26th: Room 334 1-2 pm

March 28th: Room 334 1-2 pm

March 29th: Room 334 2-3 pm

Need to find a brief?  Need to see if that motion to dismiss was granted?  As court documents become available electronically more and more attorneys find that they need to find these documents.  And who has to find them?  You!  Come learn what court documents are, how the system works and how to find these documents.

Monday, March 25th at 1pm in Rm 1570

Wednesday, March 27th and Friday, March 29th at 1pm in Rm 334

Instructor: Stefanie Weigmann

Need to download a copy of the assignment or want to review all that useful information Stefanie and Steven shared with you?  You can access the class page for the Foreign Law Certification Class here.

Due to the large number of registrations, a third offering of the session on Keeping Up with the Law has been scheduled for Friday (March 1) at 1pm, in Room 334. The Thursday session will go on as scheduled: 1pm in Room 334.

To those who responded to the email request to switch to Friday, thank you for your flexibility!

If everyone who is still registered for Thursday’s session comes then, there will not be enough workstations in the computer classroom for everyone, but there should be adequate seating. Please bring a laptop if you can on Thursday, or consider attending the (less crowded) Friday session, if that is an option for you.

The class page is here.

Hello!  Join me for the Caselaw Research in Print Certification Class today and Wednesday at 1pm in room 334.

Here is a handout we’ll use in the class.

Today, law students and lawyers have access to a remarkable range of newer current awareness tools–such as commercial and free updates, blogs, Twitter feeds, and database alerts–while traditional sources such as legal newspapers, bar magazines and topical newsletters are generated now in multiple formats. And there are many tools that you can use to access these resources more conveniently, among them newsreaders and smartphone apps.

The class page is here.

What sources–national, state, or local, topical or general–would best meet your need to keep up? Offered twice next week, this class will present some alternatives and suggest some strategies.

Keeping Up with the Law
February 26 or 28 @ 1 p.m. in Room 334
Instructor: David Bachman – dbachman@bu.edu

Join us starting tomorrow for the Finding the Best Way certification class.

Finding the Best Way
Instructor: Steve Donweber • donweber@bu.edu
Feb. 20 & 22 at 1PM

The partner just walked into your office; the pressure is on. When you get an assignment, whether it’s a citation, fifty-state survey, memo, or oral advice, what are the best tools to do the task you’ve been assigned quickly and efficiently? Learn how to approach different research tasks and choose the appropriate strategy.