October 2009
Law Library Resources for Career Exploration!
In addition to the services offered by the Office of Career Services for career exploration such as the Annual Legal Career Options Day, the Law Library also has resources for information on career options within the legal profession and alternatives to traditional law firm practice. These books and others on job searching are shelved in the Law Library’s Career Collection located next to the Law Library Print Center. All books in the Law Library’s Career Collection can be checked out of the Law Library for twenty-one days. Here are some recommended books to read when you have some time after exams!
For information about legal specialization, read The Official Guide to Legal Specialities: An Insider’s Guide to Every Major Practice Area (KF297 .A27 2000).
Two books for information on alternatives to traditional law practice are Career Opportunities in Law and the Legal Industry (KF297 .E24 2007) and Nonlegal Careers for Lawyers (KF297 .M862 2006).
For international law careers, the American Society of International Law publishes annually the Careers in International Law: A Guide to Career Paths and Internships in International Law (K115 .C47). The American Bar Association’s Section of International Law and Practice publishes Careers in International Law (KZ1238.U5 C37 2008).
The annual Serving the Public: A Job Search Guide (KF299 .P8 P83) is a must read for those who want to pursue a public interest career.
Please do not hesitate to ask a Reference Librarian for assistance in locating additional career materials or resources for job searching!
[Posted October 30, 2009]
Writing Scholarly Papers!
In addition to texts for legal writing, the Law Library’s collection also has publications to consult for writing seminar papers. These publications include Scholarly Writing for Law Students: Seminar Papers, Law Review Notes and Law Review Competition Papers, 3d ed. by Elizabeth Fajans and Mary Falk (Reserve, KF250 .F34 2005) and Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review, 3d ed. by Eugene Volokh (Reserve, KF250 .V6 2007). Older editions of these publications are shelved in the open stacks with the same call number except for a different year to indicate the year of the publication.
Also, there are various style manuals to consult such as Bryan Garner’s The Elements of Legal Style, 2d ed. (Reserve, KF250 .G37 2003) and The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style, 2d ed. (Reserve, KF250 .G3 2006).
For those who are writing papers for graduate courses at other universities, the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3d ed. (Reference, PN147 .G53 2008) is useful.
[Posted October 23, 2009]
Guides to Law Library Study Aids Now on the Web!
The Law Library’s collection has various study aids on numerous legal subject areas. These study aids include the West/Thomson Reuters hornbooks and nutshells, the LexisNexis ”Understanding...” series and Aspen Publishers Explanations and Examples series of study aids. Current editions of these study aids are on Reserve while older editions are shelved in the law library stacks.
The library has prepared a series of guides by subject area to the study aids in the collection. The guides are now accessible via the Law Library’s website. There are guides for the first year courses Civil Procedure, Contracts, Criminal Law and Torts. There are also guides for the 2L and 3L courses Constitutional Law, Evidence, Federal Income Tax, Sales, and Secured Transactions. Study aids guides for Property and Professional Responsibility will be ready for the 2010 spring semester.
If you have any questions about these study aids, ask the Reference Librarian on Duty at the Reference Desk for assistance.
[Posted October 16, 2009]
Off-campus Access to Law Library Databases!
The Law Library subscribes to various databases for legal research. Among them are the BNA subject databases such as U.S. Law Week, HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library, the Foreign Law Guide, LexisNexis Congressional, the Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises 1800 - 1926, and the United Nations Treaty Collection. Use of these databases is restricted to faculty, staff and currently enrolled students of the School of Law.
To access these databases from off-campus, you will need to use the library’s proxy server. Click here for instructions for setting up your browser to use the proxy server. Once you are using the proxy server, you will be prompted for your name and barcode number (from the back of your student ID).
Contact a Reference Librarian if you need assistance with accessing the Law Library’s subscription databases.
[Posted October 8, 2009]
Good Writing and Adhering to Court Rules Does Matter!
From the ABA Journal’s website is a recent story about Florida U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Presnell who criticized attorney David Glasser’s motion for dismissal as “riddled with unprofessional grammatical and typographical errors that nearly render the entire motion incomprehensible.”
Judge Presnell also criticized attorney Glasser for failing to obtain a stipulation of dismissal from the defendant as required by the procedural rules and ordered him to re-read both the local and federal rules in their entirety.
The legal tabloid AbovetheLaw provides Judge Presnell’s mark-up version of the motion.
[Posted October 2, 2009]
