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Law Librarians of New England

a chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries

Legal Research Instruction Program
Syllabus

Harvard Law School Library
Langdell Hall
1545 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02138

Wednesday Evenings
March 14, 2012 to April 18, 2012
5:45 to 8:00 pm

Week 1 – March 14
Laurel Davis, Boston College Law Library
Introduction to Legal Research

• What is Law? - What is Legal Research?
• Primary & Secondary Materials
• The Importance of Cases
• The Concept of Authority
• Information Format
• Importance of Updating
• Knowing Where to Start
• Books on Legal Research
• Basic Finding Aids
• Reading Legal Citations

Week 2 – March 21
Amy Bruce, Goodwin Procter LLP
Case Finding

• Case Law & Precedent

• Court Structure
• Court Reporting

• Case Finding Tools
• Updating Cases – Citator Services

Week 3 – March 28
George Taoultsides, Harvard Law School Library
Statutes & Legislative History

• Finding Statutes - Federal and Massachusetts
• Codes
• Session laws
• Slip laws
• Finding and Compiling Legislative Histories

Week 4 – April 4
Julie Graves Krishnaswami, Yale Law School
Administrative Law

• What are Agencies and Why are They Important for Legal Research
• Researching Agency Regulations
• Using the Code of Federal Regulations
• Using the Federal Register
• Agency Adjudications

Week 5 – April 11
Lisa Junghahn, Harvard Law School Library
Transactional Law

• Review of transactional law versus litigation
• Model forms and contracts
• Precedential language for document drafting
• Learn about information made available by government sites, like the SEC
• Checklists for completing typical legal transactions  

Week 6 –April 18
Alex Berrio Matamoros, Boston College Law Library
Research Strategy or “How to Put it all Together”

• How to Approach a Problem
• Hands-on Research Exercises

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