Embedded librarians: Teaching legal research as a lawyering skill

Journal of Legal Education

Volumn 61, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 540-559

  Feliú, Vicenç ^a   Frazer, Helen ^b  

^a VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84862083525     PISSN: 00222208     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. Gary Freiburger & Sandra Kramer, Embedded Librarians: One Library's Model for Decentralized Service, 97 J. Med. Libr. Assoc. 139 (2009) (discussing placing librarians from the Arizona Health Sciences Library in a new multidisciplinary research building)
2. Michael F. Moore, Embedded in Systems Engineering: How One Organization Makes It Work, 10 Information Outlook 23 (2006).
3. Barbara Bintliff, Legal Research: MacCrate's "Fundamental Lawyering Skill" Missing in Action, 28 Legal Ref. Serv. Q. 1 (2009).
4. American Lawyer's 2010 annual survey of law firm librarians asked "are any librarians embedded in practice area groups?" The response showed that 9% surveyed said "yes." For free online access, go to http://bit.ly/dwNhzo.
5. See the Model Rules of Prof'l Conduct, available at http://www.abanet. org/cpr/mrpc/mrpc-toc.html, especially Rules 1.1, 1.3, 3.3, and 4.1.
6. Patrick Meyer, Law Firm Legal Research Requirements for New Attorneys, 101 Law Libr. J. 297, 306-07 (2009) (discussing the results of his and prior law firm surveys indicating significant legal research deficits among new associate attorneys)
7. Carolyn R. Young & Barbara A. Blanco, What Students Don't Know Will Hurt Them: A Frank View from the Field on How to Better Prepare Our Clinic and Externship Students, 14 Clinical L. Rev. 105, 116-17 (2007) (citing survey revealing inadequacy of legal research skills of students in clinics and externships).
8. For example, the New Jersey Law Librarians Association sponsors an annual "Bridge the Gap" training program for rising summer associates. 98 Law Libr. J. 783, 796 (2006).
9. Antioch Law School, the predecessor of the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, established in 1972 by Edgar Cahn and Jean Camper Cahn, was prescient in its development of a law school curriculum that incorporated clinics in the first year for all students. Katherine S. Broderick, The Nation's Urban Land-Grant School: Ensuring Justice in the 21st Century, 40 U. Tol. L. Rev. 305 (2009).
10. William M. Sullivan, Anne Colby, Judith Welch Wegner, Lloyd Bond, & Lee S. Shulman, Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (Jossey-Bass 2007) published by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in The Preparation for the Professions Series [hereinafter Educating Lawyers].
11. For discussion of reasoning with analogous law as a lawyering skill, see Wilson R. Huhn, Stages of Legal Reasoning; Formalism, Analogy, and Realism, 48 Villanova L. Rev. 305 (2003)
12. the discussion of reasoning from analogy in Marjorie D. Rombauer, Legal Problem Solving: Analysis, Research and Writing 43-44 (West, 4th ed. 1983)
13. Neil Duxbury, The Nature and Authority of Precedent (Cambridge Univ. Press 2008)
14. Lloyd L. Weinreb, Legal Reason: the Use of Analogy in Legal Argument (Cambridge Univ. Press 2005)
15. Andrea M. Seielstad, Unwritten Laws and Customs, Local Legal Cultures, and Clinical Legal Education, 6 Clinical L. Rev. 127 (1999)
16. Thomas Michael McDonnell, Playing Beyond the Rules: A Realist and Rhetoric-Based Approach to Researching the Law and Solving Legal Problems, 67 UMKC L. Rev. 285 (1998).
17. Margaret Martin Barry, Martin Geer, Catherine F. Klein & Ved Kumari, Justice Education and the Evaluation Process: Crossing Borders, 28 Wash. U. J. L. & Pol'y 195 (2008)
18. Jane Harris Aiken, Striving to Teach "Justice, Fairness, and Morality," 4 Clinical L. Rev. 1 (1997).
19. Paul D. Callister, Time to Blossom: An Inquiry into Bloom's Taxonomy as a Hierarchy and Means for Teaching Legal Research Skills, 102 Law Libr. J. 191 (2010).
20. The last category of non-legal and legal-related general sources is an ever expanding universe that runs the gamut of divergent sources from free-access online knowledge bases, such as Wikipedia, to general access search engines like Google. Robert C. Berring, Legal Research and the World of Thinkable Thoughts, 2 J. App. Prac. & Process 305, 311 (2000)
21. Collapse of the Structure of the Legal Universe: The Imperative of Digital Information, 69 Wash. L. Rev. 9 (1994)
22. Full-Text Databases and Legal Research: Backing Into the Future, 1 High Tech. L.J. 27 (1986).
23. Laura K. Justiss, A Survey of Electronic Research Alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw in Law Firms, 103 L. Libr. J. 71 (2011).
24. Deborah K. Hackerson, Access to Justice Starts in the Library: The Importance of Competent Research Skills and Free/Low-Cost Research Resources, 62 Me. L. Rev. 473, 481 (2010)
25. (citing Sanford N. Greenberg, Legal Research Training: Preparing Students for a Rapidly Changing Research Environment, 13 J. Legal Writing Inst. 241, 246-47 (2007)).
26. Robert C. Berring & Elizabeth A. Edinger, Finding the Law (West, 11th ed. 1999).
27. Morris L. Cohen, Robert C. Berring & Kent C. Olson, How to Find the Law (West, 9th ed. 1989).
28. Christine Kunz, Deborah A. Schmedemann, Ann Bateson & Mehmet Konar-Steenberg, The Process of Legal Research (Aspen Publ. 2004)
29. Amy Sloan, Basic Legal Research (Aspen Publ. 2006)
30. Diana Donahoe, Teaching Law.com, available at http://www.teachinglaw.com.
31. David Shumaker, Who Let the Librarians Out? Embedded Librarianship and the Library Manager, 48 Ref. & User Serv. Q. 239 (2009).
32. Helen Frazer, Research Log Guide, Sample Research Log, and Research Plan Guide, UDC-DCSL Mason Library, Aug. 30, 2010, available at http://library.law. udc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/research-log.pdf.