Law Librarian’s Beef: High-Tech Law Students Do ‘Wal-Mart’-Style Research

Law Students

Law Librarian’s Beef: High-Tech Law Students Do ‘Wal-Mart’-Style Research

Posted Aug 4, 2008, 12:03 pm CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The law library director for Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law says law students today are more impatient and less likely to take the time to find complete answers to legal questions.

DeCarlous Spearman talked about her observations in an interview with the Houston Chronicle.

“Students now want quick, fast answers—yesterday,” Spearman told the newspaper. “But they have no idea how to get the complete answers, or what it takes to get the entire picture. Technology's taken that from the student body and even faculty members.

“I call it the microwave age: If it can't go in and come out ready in five minutes, they don't want it. But that's not enough. Research isn't always quick. Complete research has to be comprehensive.

“Sometimes one source won't do it. But today students want what I call Wal-Mart research—one-stop shopping. Students 12 years ago were more patient. They mixed book research with Lexis or Westlaw.”

Apparently some students take to legal research better than others. Spearman said several law students have gone on to work in law libraries or in Texas Southern’s law library.

Comments

Report Abuse

Posted by susan - 3 months, 2 weeks, 23 hours, 30 minutes ago

I clerk for a judge and he’s the impatient one, but his needs are also usually immediate. If it’s a brief, it has to be done by the end of the day; if it’s a legal question from his docket, I have to do it immediately. The courthouse actually doesn’t utilize its library like it used to and just started to encourage use of Lexis because of it’s Shepardizing feature. I have used print volumes, but it’s very rare, only once this summer.
Posted by jon - 3 months, 2 weeks, 21 hours, 59 minutes ago

I liken it to the use of steroids in sports. If you don’t use the most powerful tool at your disposal you are at a disadvantage. The practice of law rarely mimics the tortoise and the hare. We have to execute and move on to the next problem. With the quality writing I see coming from attorneys these days I feel more than confident with a product I put together in one afternoon.
Posted by patrick - 3 months, 2 weeks, 21 hours, 49 minutes ago

Unfortunate story of yet another frustrated librarian. Completely out of touch with the results-oriented environment in which students and attorneys exist. Resarch is not about having fun in the library. It is merely a tool to answer a question for a client. But I will say that the practice of law does sometimes mimic the tortoise and hare—one fatal mistake and a complaint is dismissed, a motion denied, etc. Careful and fast are not mutually exclusive. If, in fact, students are skipping steps and providing incomplete answers, as the librarian suggests, the students will do poorly in school and fail in practice. Why not teach proper use of the internet and teach them when to go to the books, instead of complaining that they are lazy? Also, Walmart does sell more than any other retailer, at a discount price!
Posted by Al - 3 months, 2 weeks, 21 hours, 37 minutes ago

This is so true! Too many young lawyers (including myself) have become so reliant on Westlaw and other electronic databases to search for answers to specific issues that they fail to appreciate how the “answer” they find fits into the overall body of law. This causes two problems: (1) the accuracy of the result is called into question, and (2) the lawyer misses other case law that may be helpful. I find the better approach is to start with a treatise that gives an overview, then use the West Digest hard copies (which show you how your issue fits into a subject area of the law), and THEN do your more narrow search.
Posted by BGR - 3 months, 2 weeks, 21 hours, 21 minutes ago

I don’t know why the previous comments equate computer research with speed. I grew up with Lexis, using other people’s passwords to do debate research since late 1992, so it’s not like I don’t appreciate computer research. Yet I often find by looking in books for head notes to be a faster way to get the general proposition of law that I want faster than computers. Also, I find the basic practice guides that provide quick answers to be almost unusable in computer form, but provide quick answers when I read the books. Of course for a unique facet of a familiar problem, computer research is better. But, I’m not sure how often clients or courts really need to know about any weird twists and turns in case law.
Posted by joe - 3 months, 2 weeks, 21 hours, 18 minutes ago

Lexis and west are more powerful and have more sources than they did 12 years ago. Sometimes it is more cost effective to get it on-line then to go to the library. Attorneys can cut corners no matter what resource they use.
Posted by Bryan - 3 months, 2 weeks, 21 hours, 14 minutes ago

For many law students that are also woking as clerks in firms, we do it this way because we have to. The associates come to us with questions and expect an answer in less than an hour. You have to do quick short work to keep up. We are not the impatient ones, it is those asking us for the answer.
Posted by richard - 3 months, 2 weeks, 21 hours, 13 minutes ago

I’m a 20-year lawyer who wins several cases a year because opposing counsel, sometimes from very good firms, do slapdash legal research. This always happened, but it happens more now. I use a “results-oriented” approach too, but my result is to win. Real-life legal research doesn’t necessarily have to be comprehensive, but it does need to be complete enough for the job—and that’s where baby lawyers are falling down. But you guys keep doing it that way. It makes this ol’ tortoise look just that much better. There are still fast(er) ways into the law—digests and ALRs, and sometimes law review and bar journal articles—in other words, find where someone has already done the research. But treating Westlaw like Google isn’t an effective strategy.
Posted by Mark - 3 months, 2 weeks, 21 hours, 4 minutes ago

Are today’s poor research skills really any worse than yesterday’s poor research skills?
Posted by old lawyer - 3 months, 2 weeks, 20 hours, 53 minutes ago

A choice for every client or perhaps a law firm motto: “We do work that’s good, fast and cheap. Pick two.“
Posted by associate - 3 months, 2 weeks, 20 hours, 43 minutes ago

The limited time I spend researching a question is not dictated by me and my wanting to get the task finished. It’s dictated by the fact that I have to make the budget set by the client.

As old lawyer said, “Pick any two.“
Posted by Jake - 3 months, 2 weeks, 20 hours, 22 minutes ago

I’m surprised no one here has mentioned the fact that often it’s clients that don’t want to pay for extended research.
Posted by thebasics - 3 months, 2 weeks, 19 hours, 23 minutes ago

The original comment was about law STUDENTS. No client or partner is putting demands on them. Law school is the time to learn the complete research method. That background will be their basis for the future and leave them better able to judge where they can cut corners without sacrificing results.
Posted by I Agree with this article - 3 months, 2 weeks, 19 hours, 23 minutes ago

There are several comments referencing clerking, but I think the librarian in this article is referring to research techniques used to complete law school projects which often don’t have the same time constraints as project while clerking at a firm.

The point I think she is trying to make is this: If you throughly learn a pathway, you better know when and where to take shortcuts and still get to your destination. The same holds true for legal research.
Posted by I Agree with this article - 3 months, 2 weeks, 19 hours, 21 minutes ago

I’m with you “thebasics” @ #12.
Posted by Ken - 3 months, 2 weeks, 19 hours, 7 minutes ago

Law School should be where you HAVE to do it the hard way. I remember that in my first semester 13 years ago, we weren’t allowed to use Westlaw and LEXIS. Books, keycites and paper to do your first memo. And in case you young ones think that once you are out the door from law school and won’t see the books again, think again. I worked for a firm where they didn’t even subscribe to LEXIS and use the West digests exclusively. It was a a shock to my system to be sure since I’d not been near the books in years before that, but I had to adapt and it cost me valuable transition time.

Learn all you can learn in law school, including the seemingly pointless stuff. It WILL save your bacon one day.
Posted by Scott Stolley - 3 months, 2 weeks, 18 hours, 21 minutes ago

I wrote an article about the problems of computer legal research — “The Corruption of Legal Research” —published in the April 2004 edition of For the Defense. I still find that our young, computer trained lawyers aren’t as good at finding the law. You can find this article on the internet, including a link to it on my resume on my law firm’s website (www.tklaw.com).
Posted by greg - 3 months, 2 weeks, 18 hours, 16 minutes ago

Yes, the article is about law students, but keep in mind many work as clerks for firms, and so learn ‘bad’ habits (i.e., sloppy research) there. Monkey see, monkey do, so to speak. If their bosses at the firm aren’t putting in the time (or pressuring them not to), what do they learn? That what the librarians say isn’t how it works in the ‘real world’.

It all comes down to money, and clients often don’t like to pay for four hours of research for a six page reply brief, even if you are researching a make-or-break issue.
Posted by R - 3 months, 2 weeks, 17 hours, 55 minutes ago

A partner once gave me very valuable advice. After you’ve been practicing for a while so you kind of know the lay of the land in your practice area, start writing your briefs ASSUMING that the law is what you think it’ll be. Then go do the research and plug in the cites that back up your points. Ninety percent of the time you’ll be right and won’t have to revise your findings. (Of course, if you’re wrong you need to make the necessary adjustments.)
Posted by Java - 3 months, 2 weeks, 17 hours, 35 minutes ago

Long time law librarian here. Last year, while teaching a student to use Westlaw, I told him to note an old citation on a scrap paper, and we’d get the case from the book. He looked at me and said, “I have to write ALL that?“ Yup, all 7 letters and numbers of an A2d cite. Iwondered if he’d rather text it to whoever he had on the other end of the cell phone. I think the attention span of many students has been shortened to about the time it takes you to read a cell phone screen. I just can’t imagine some of them writing an entire complaint or memo.
Posted by Jay - 3 months, 2 weeks, 17 hours, 5 minutes ago

“yet another frustrated librarian” here (see #3). One of our summer associates recently handed in an assignment which was relying on this one relatively new case. Right jurisdiction, topic right on point. One problem - it was a dissenting opinion he found on Westlaw. Whoops. Silly law school student.

POINT - Online is not always superior!
Posted by Martha - 3 months, 2 weeks, 16 hours, 13 minutes ago

As a judge working with law clerks and interns and observing other judge’s clerks, it is striking to me how much law students today rely upon “word searches,“ as opposed to other techniques that include both computer resources and books. I find that, with my 25 years of research experience, I can frequently research an issue more thoroughly in a fraction of the time of most of the law clerks at my court. As a lawyer, I had the same experience as Richard (#7) and won many cases because of better research. If you are skilled at research, you can do “good, fast, and cheap.“ It just takes training, thoughtfulness, and desire. It’s not as much fun as other tasks, but it wins cases (and wins over other judges if you’re clerking).
Posted by lawmom - 3 months, 2 weeks, 15 hours, 30 minutes ago

The lawyer who called it “good” advice to write a brief assuming you know the law and then fix it later if you can’t find a cite, just summed up exactly what is so wrong about how so many of us practice law. Heaven forbid you actually research and understand the law before you decide to file a motion!

In my experience 80 percent of questions can be resolved with books vastly more efficiently than with Lexis or Westlaw, but for the remaining 20 percent, a good lawyer has to be able to do both.
Posted by John Hightower - 3 months, 2 weeks, 15 hours, 12 minutes ago

Response to this comment: “Unfortunate story of yet another frustrated librarian. Completely out of touch with the results-oriented environment in which students and attorneys exist.“ The phenomenon of slap-dash poor online research is not merely the observation of academic law librarians, but is confirmed by the observations of law-firm librarians as well as judicial librarians who work for federal judges. The later two groups often are the ones who have to “clean up after” the work the practicing lawyers (or law clerks) haven’t done properly. And usually, it’s not speed that causes the problem, but rather the failure to explore all the options in finding the correct answer. Indeed, several state bar associations have invested in providing second-rate (if not third-rate) computer-aided research services for their members. Any attorney who uses those second-rate (cheaper) services should expect poor results.
Posted by bg - 3 months, 2 weeks, 9 hours, 55 minutes ago

Another unfortunate trend I have noticed from law students in recent years is a tendency to cut and paste from Westlaw into their memo or brief and then not quote the lifted text. Instead they pass it off as their own analysis. In cite checking the work of clerks for the last six or so years, I have found entire briefs composed this way. It is a pet peeve on par with quoting annotations!

As my firm’s law clerk supervisor, I have tried to teach our clerks the value of combining book and computer research. Some listen, some don’t. As tech savvy young pups, they could care less how practicing attorney reseach, since they believe they have reinvented the wheel. It doesn’t help when the law school tells them “everyone” uses Westlaw and Lexis, and books are for dinosaurs.
Posted by Rick - 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 hours, 29 minutes ago

#22 - Careful reading, please. The lawyer who offered the “sketch it out first” advice did say you shouldn’t use this approach until you’ve been working in that practice area and “know the lay of the land,“ so R did qualify the need to understand the law before researching à la MadLib.

#23 - The NC Bar Association offers us Casemaker, which, while not on par with LN/WL, is a very useful tool if you understand its limitations. It has a decent “sheperdizing” feature, and it’s fairly current. If I have to do some research to get the basic gist of the law, it saves me that initial trip to the library, and gives me a place to start when I get there. As a recent graduate, and a soon-to-be GP/solo practitioner, I don’t have the luxury of a law library at-hand just yet, so these “second-rate” tools are very useful until I can afford Strong’s NC Index. In the worst of cases, I can always do the legwork for free in CaseMaker, and pay a lot less to validate it for a fee on LexisOne.

I came to the law after a 20-year IT career, and while I feel I got quite good at LN/WL, it was certainly not by using it like Google. (But then, I probably don’t use Google the same way most people do….) I happen to enjoy the books, but I have to be careful because I can easily get lost on fascinating tangents there.

One “research tool” nobody ever seems to think of is casebooks. I was always amazed that people sell them as soon as the class is over. I’ve kept all of mine. For me, they’re like having a topical law library at hand. Even if somewhat out-of-date in the worst of cases, they are practically organized like a West index, I am familiar with the “stories,“ and I can use them as a starting place to sheperdize for currency, or to check the rule in my jurisdiction. Want to know that status of subcontractors, reliance, and estoppel? Drennan v. Star Paving. (Still good law in California, last I looked.) Proximate cause? Palsgraf. Take it from there.

In the end, the “theory” you learned in law school was not just all wasted intellectual exercise; it was theory based in canonical, majority-rule law.
Posted by goldenrail - 3 months, 2 weeks, 1 hour, 27 minutes ago

I’m a rising 3L at a top law school. Last year a group of students and I started writing a manual about doing legal research for pro se cases. Figuring our audience wouldn’t have access to Westlaw or Lexis, we headed up to the library. After 15 minutes of wandering around aimlessly, we realized we had absolutely no idea HOW to research without the internet.
In the end, we all learned a lot more from working on that manual than we did in our Legal Research and Writing class. Extra bonus: Understanding how the books works makes the online systems make a lot more sense.
Posted by Rick - 3 months, 1 week, 6 days, 20 hours, 23 minutes ago

We had to learn the books first. But if you don’t practice, you do forget the drill. And, yes, contrary to the belief of many who go straight to the word search boxes, the on-line services DO have key indexes, AmJurs, ALRs, etc.; they’re not paying someone to do all those headnotes for nothing!
Posted by Fmr Clerk - 3 months, 1 week, 3 days, 21 hours, 11 minutes ago

I did a clerkship more than 10 years after LS graduation. I found myself teaching the younger clerks how to research general points of law: Proof of Facts, form books, West digests. I even had to teach the law librarians about West digests, which I find far more useful than a dump of information from West or Lexis if I don’t have a targeted search in mind.

The younguns want quick answers, rather than thorough answers (generally).
Posted by Kelly - 3 months, 1 week, 3 days, 20 hours, 59 minutes ago

Using books and Internet research is fine and dandy for the big firms that can afford to pay for both. If you can only afford one, there is simply no question—you need Lexis or Westlaw, not books. If you absolutely need the books (you know, about once a year) you have to take the time to head down to the law library, but this is time-prohibitive 95% of the time or more, and even worse if you practice in a small town hours away from the nearest law library.
Posted by AC - 3 months, 1 week, 3 days, 14 hours, 48 minutes ago

I am currently a 3rd year student, and I am actually very annoyed that our school never bothered to teach us the nuances of tangible research. We are given free Westlaw and Nexis passcodes for 3 years, and taught to rely primarily on those systems. Sure, the schools get free printers and promotions for faculty and staff, but students are the ones who are hurting from this system. We only received a two day training course in “library research.“ It’s not as easy to navigate as one would think without being given any proper direction.
Posted by SJ - 3 months, 1 week, 2 days, 14 hours, 48 minutes ago

RE: #30, When discussing legal research classes, the library directors at law schools in our city that we’ve talked with have indicated that professors general don’t want to spare any class time to have legal research taught. Kind of like a NIMBY type attitude. Students should know how to do this but not at the expense of any of their lessons.

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

ABA Journal - Law News Now

Law Students