Author: Ellen Augustiniak

Law students: don’t forget to plan for your legal research accounts over the summer.

• Bloomberg Law. Sign up to request a student ID for Bloomberg Law. It can take a few days to process a request for a new password. You do not have to go through a special summer registration, and there are no summertime restrictions on using Bloomberg Law – you can even use your account if you’re at a firm.
  • Questions about Bloomberg Law? Contact Shaina Zamaitis at SZAMAITIS@BLOOMBERG.NET.
• Lexis: If you’ve registered for Lexis Advance, you can use your Advance account to do research over the summer. You do not have to go through a special summer registration for Advance, and there are no summertime restrictions on using Advance – you can even use your account if you’re at a firm.
  • Questions about Lexis Advance? Contact Michelle Yacoob at Michelle.Yacoob@lexisnexis.com.
• Westlaw: For Westlaw, there are important restrictions on law school accounts over the summer, regardless of whether you sign up for a Summer Extension. Non-academic* use is prohibited.
  • If you don’t sign up for the “Summer Extension,” you have only 40 hours per month in June and July to use your academic Westlaw account.
  • Need more than 40 hours per month? Use the Summer Extension form: lawschool.westlaw.com/registration/summerextension.aspx.
  • Questions about Westlaw? Contact Kelly Z. Stein at Kelly.Zermeno@thomsonreuters.com.

*Check Westlaw’s Summer Extension form for details about their distinction between academic and commercial use.

Imagine getting helpful infographics instead of long lists of names when you search for cases. Some research systems are starting to move in that direction by offering innovative, graphic-focused results that make it easy to see relationships among cases. You might consider trying a search in one of these systems if you’ve already done some background research in secondary sources and are having a hard time finding good cases.

Ravel (www.ravellaw.com) is a project that recently came out of Stanford Law School. At this time, there are a few options for the charts, and all of them make it immediately obvious that some cases are more “important” than others. To try Ravel, go to their website and give it a whirl.

Fastcase (www.fastcase.com) has also been offering a visual search result option for a while now. Fastcase is a research platform that’s popular with many smaller firms; over 20 state bar associations offer Fastcase subscriptions for their members. (California is not one of those states.) To try Fastcase, sign up on their website for a 24-hour trial.

*Fastcase image comes from a talk given by Fastcase CEO Ed Walters on “Who Owns the Law” at the 2013 “Reinvent the Law” conference – skip to about 11:30 to see Walters mention this “Interactive Timeline.” (You can also skip to about 1:15 to listen to the story of how Westlaw “stole” the roots of its online research system from the federal government in the 70s. And then skip to 4:04 to listen to the story of how the state of Georgia has locked away their own state statutes in a contract with LexisNexis.)

 

Prepare-to-practice training sessions for law students are at the following times:

• Wed. Mar. 20, 12-1 in Law 3750
• Thu. Mar. 21, 12-1 in Law 3750

RSVP by email to Shaina Zamaitis at SZAMAITIS@BLOOMBERG.NET.

Password information

If you don’t yet have a Bloomberg Law account, you can sign up at http://www.bloomberglaw.com/activate.

Summer use

• No restrictions. At this time, law students can use academic Bloomberg Law accounts at any summer job — paid or unpaid.
• 3Ls take note: Bloomberg Law provides access for six months after graduation.

About Bloomberg Law

Bloomberg Law is an online research platform. You can find: cases and statutes; dockets and filings; SEC filings; BNA content; search and alert tools; and news, market and company information.