Law Libraries

What’s an inexpensive way to teach tech? Find outside experts, say law school librarians

Law school librarians are expected to teach students about technology, and sometimes that requires creativity—especially if deans won’t allot funds to help with that endeavor.

Mar 9, 2018 3:50 PM CST

In ‘digital-first strategy,’ National Law Journal will switch weekly newspaper to monthly magazine

The National Law Journal announced on Thursday that it is introducing a monthly, glossy magazine that will enhance its daily online stories. The announcement means that the National Law Journal will discontinue its weekly newspaper, report LawSites by Robert Ambrogi and Folio. A press release announcing the new magazine said…

Mar 31, 2017 7:00 AM CDT

Legal publication the Recorder shifts to all-digital format

The Recorder, a San Francisco-based legal publication published by ALM, is switching to an all-digital format. The Recorder’s weekly print newspaper will no longer be published, according to a press release and LawSites by Robert Ambrogi. The Recorder has published since 1857, and it is one of the oldest legal…

Oct 5, 2016 12:26 PM CDT

Sarah Glassmeyer: Opening a window on closed data

Sarah Glassmeyer

Sep 22, 2016 8:30 AM CDT

Dewey B Strategic’s Jean O’Grady leads lawyers through the tech maze (podcast)

Most people see librarians as the quiet personification of technical obsolescence. Jean O’Grady is out to change that. Far from sitting in a dusty room full of outdated books and CD-ROMs and telling visitors to keep quiet, the senior director of research and knowledge at DLA Piper in Washington, D.C.,…

Sep 14, 2016 8:30 AM CDT

Digitization of Harvard case law library will show court patterns and trends

The Harvard Law School library has approximately 40 million pages of case law, which is currently being digitized and scanned so the public can view it for free. It’s the second-largest collection in the country, following the one at the Library of Congress. It includes civil and criminal case law…

Aug 30, 2016 1:15 PM CDT

As governments open access to data, law lags far behind

From municipalities to the White House, governments are launching open data projects—but the judicial branch is falling behind. Such was the opening, frustrated message of “Public Service Legal Technology in the Data.Gov Era,” a Thursday-morning panel at ABA Techshow. Adam Ziegler of Harvard Law School’s Library Innovation Lab hammered home…

Mar 17, 2016 4:30 PM CDT

Job-killing legal technologies? They only look that way

It is stunning how quickly technological advances become a ‘natural’ part of our landscape. In the mid 1990s, Richard Susskind was being labeled “dangerous” and “possibly insane.” His heresy? Susskind suggested that email would become the principal means of communication between lawyers and clients. His detractors asserted that he understood…

Mar 10, 2016 8:30 AM CST

ABA committee recommends tougher, simpler bar passage accreditation standard

An ABA committee has voted to recommend the adoption of a tougher but simpler bar passage requirement in the law school accreditation standards. Under the proposed new standard (PDF), approved Friday by the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar’s Standards Review Committee, a law school would have…

Feb 16, 2016 3:25 PM CST

Outsourcing company will open office in law school library

Suffolk University Law School has found a use for some unused space in its law library. Legal outsourcing company Integreon will create an office there and pay students to work on projects such as due-diligence, e-discovery and document review, contract review and legal spending analytics, according to a story by…

Jan 27, 2016 6:15 AM CST

Former law librarian sues Texas school, alleging racial, gender discrimination

A former law librarian at South Texas College of Law is suing the Houston school for alleged racial and gender discrimination. Joseph Kelly Plumbar, who is black, claims that three white co-workers created a hostile work environment and eventually forced him out of his job, the National Law Journal reports.…

Jan 25, 2016 3:20 PM CST

Yale law librarians dispute ‘wildly erroneous’ claim on Bluebook’s origin

It’s ironic, according to Yale law librarians, that The Bluebook style manual fosters accurate legal citations while the tale of its origin is “wildly erroneous.” The librarians—Fred Shapiro and Julie Graves Krishnaswami—say the style manual can be traced to a citation guide by the Yale Law Journal, not the Harvard…

Dec 8, 2015 11:53 AM CST

ABA committee for third time proposes eliminating ban on academic credit for paid externships

For the third time in less than two years, an ABA committee has proposed lifting the ban in the law school accreditation standards on students receiving academic credit for paid externships. But the Standards Review Committee, which met Friday and Saturday in Atlanta, also agreed to forward such a proposal…

Sep 22, 2015 1:55 PM CDT

Fastcase acquires rival legal-research company Loislaw

Legal research company Fastcase has acquired the competing service Loislaw from Wolters Kluwer. In a Monday post on his blog LawSites, Bob Ambrogi reported that the transaction is an “assets-only deal” that includes the Loislaw brand and website, and will move Loislaw’s subscribers over to Fastcase. According to Ambrogi, Loislaw…

Sep 21, 2015 2:30 PM CDT

EEOC: Female law profs at the University of Denver are underpaid, violating the Equal Pay Act

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has determined that the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law is violating the Equal Pay Act by paying its female professors less than males. The EEOC threatened suit over the gender pay gap in a letter sent to the university on Friday, report the…

Sep 1, 2015 10:21 AM CDT