Category: Library Resources

Wolters Kluwer Study Aids and Casebooks: Free Online through June

AndrewLeave a comment

The W&L Law Library is pleased to announce complimentary access to dozens of online study aids and casebooks from leading legal publisher Wolters Kluwer.

Through June 30, 2020, all W&L Law students, faculty, and staff can enjoy the following materials online, free of charge:

Wolters Kluwer Study Aids
Over 180 study aids and supplements on virtually every core law school subject, all available to browse as e-books online or download in PDF. Click here for full access, including:

  • Examples & Explanations
  • Emanuel Law Outlines
  • Law in a Flash flashcards
  • Glannon Guides
  • Casenote Legal Briefs
  • Emanuel CrunchTime

Connected Casebooks
Students may register at CasebookConnect.com/free to access up to five digital e-textbook titles, featuring:

  • Search, highlighting, and note-taking capabilities.
  • Additional learning materials and practice questions from leading study aids such as Examples & Explanations and Glannon Guides.
  • Video explanations, multiple-choice questions, short answer questions, and flashcards.
  • Outlining and case-briefing tools to help you work more efficiently.

Constitutional Law Videos
A helpful supplement for all Constitutional Law courses, An Introduction to Constitutional Law by Randy E. Barnett and Josh Blackman teaches the narrative of constitutional law as it has developed over the past two centuries. The online library of 63 videos brings the Supreme Court’s 100 most important decisions to life. The videos are enriched by photographs, maps, and audio from the Supreme Court. Students can watch the videos to prepare before class, or afterward to fill in any gaps in their notes. The entire collection can be viewed in roughly 12 hours in preparation for exams. See Professor Blackman’s guide to the resource and instructions for accessing it on the Wolters Kluwer platform.

Prepare to Practice Webinars & Online Training: Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg Law

AndrewLeave a comment


In light of current events, Westlaw, LexisNexis, and Bloomberg Law are each offering an expanded range of online “Prepare to Practice” programs this spring. Below is an outline of upcoming virtual trainings and live webinars from these three major legal research platforms, designed to help get you ready for summer positions and post-graduation jobs.

Westlaw

Westlaw will host a live national webinar on Prepare To Practice/Cost Effective Research on Tuesday, March 24 at 12:00pm EDT, and again on Thursday, April 2 at 1:00pm EDT. Visit www.lawschool.tr.com to register. The program description from Westlaw:

Academic and Law Firm specialists will provide you with an awareness of Westlaw – the tools, resources and content that help you to be a successful and productive summer associate. This 45 minute webinar will focus Practical Law, efficiency tips and Westlaw in the law firm. Registered attendees are eligible to win a $100 Amazon gift card.

Bloomberg Law

A series of upcoming live webinars on a range of topics will help students get the most out of the Bloomberg Law platform. All webinars begin at 2:00pm EDT on the specified day and will last 30 minutes. Click on the webinar titles below to register.

  1. Tuesday, March 24 – Legal News & Current Awareness
    • Learn how practicing attorneys stay ahead of new legal developments by reading special legal news publications, including top sources such as US Law Week.
  2. Thursday, March 26 – Searching News
    • Stay on top of the news using Bloomberg Law’s tools to easily browse and search news reports.
  3. Tuesday, March 31 – Advanced News Sources
    • Explore key resources available only to Bloomberg Law customers to stay on the leading edge of legal, business, and government news.
  4. Thursday, April 2 – Business Intelligence Center
    • Use the Bloomberg Law Business Intelligence Center to keep track of news, current awareness, client research, docket tracks, and developing case law.

LexisNexis

Lexis offers a multi-faceted Prepare to Practice online program, focusing on research and other practical skills for summer success. Students who complete the requirements also earn a Practice-Ready Certification to show value to employers.

Visit the LexisNexis Prepare to Practice website to discover training and certification opportunities you can complete at your own pace, including guided modules, on-demand video tutorials, and weekly tips on researching and drafting.

Lexis will also host a nationwide webinar series during the month of April. Click on the program titles to register.

  1. Thursday, April 2 at 4:30pm EDT – Litigation: Problem Solving vs. Researching
    • Are you ready to work with a litigator? They’re a different breed who uses a variety of sources and tools to problem solves issues before, during and after trial. This 30-minute webinar walks you through a typical litigation assignment and the tools litigators use to solve problems for their clients.
  2. Thursday, April 9 at 4:30pm EDT – Working at the Federal Government
    • Whether you’re planning to work for a federal judge, agency, or the DOJ, it’s best to know what to expect. This 60-minute webinar in 20-minute segments walks you through a typical day in the life of three of the most popular government lawyer positions:
      • U.S. Courts: 4:30–4:50pm
      • U.S. Department of Justice: 4:50–5:10pm
      • Federal Agencies: 5:10–5:30pm
  3. Thursday, April 16 at 4:30pm EDT – Ethics of Open Web Searching
    • Have you considered the risks of open web research? You probably don’t even think about it. Everyone starts their research on the open internet. What could go wrong in the practice of law? This 30-minute webinar explores the benefits and risks of performing factual and legal research on the open web.

New eBook Collection: LexisNexis Digital Library

AndrewLeave a comment

The W&L Law Library is pleased to announce our new subscription to LexisNexis Digital Library.

Accessible to all Law School students, faculty, and staff, this leading legal eBook platform provides online access to over 500 print-volume equivalent resources, including core primary law materials like the Code of Virginia and United States Code Service (USCS) and valuable secondary and reference resources like Corbin on Contracts, Immigration Law & Procedure, Michie’s Jurisprudence, and Nimmer on Copyright to name just a few.

Browsable online and fully printable or downloadable in PDF, titles in the Digital Library are paginated just like their print counterparts and can be easily annotated with highlights and comments you can save and share with others. Customizable tools for organizing, viewing, and exporting materials also enhance a reader’s interactive experience, beyond both a traditional print or website format.

Where available, references and citations within texts are hyperlinked to the corresponding materials in Lexis Advance. A mobile app for iOS and Android also allows for easy reading online or offline.

To access LexisNexis Digital Library, go to https://lexisdl.com/welcome/login/wlu. (Off-campus access requires log-in with valid W&L credentials.) For tutorials and guidance on getting started, visit lexisnexis.com/GoDL.

The W&L Law Library reference and instructional team is happy to help with your questions about this new resource. You can reach us at LawRef@wlu.edu.

A sample screen from our new LexisNexis Digital Library:

Know Your Presidents: Some Reading Recommendations

AndrewLeave a comment

Happy Presidents Day!

With so many legendary leaders in American political history, the W&L Law Library has compiled a new display of biographies and scholarly examinations of presidents of the United States of America. We highlight several of the most interesting and inspiring portraits of these remarkable men and the top office they held, also linked below to WorldCat where you can find them at a library near you.

Hail to the chief, and happy reading!

New Law Library Resources – February 2020

AndrewLeave a comment

Each month, the W&L Law Library adds many new books and online resources to our collection. We also issue a monthly newsletter in PDF that highlights our new acquisitions across popular topics for reading and research.

So, please take a moment to review our New Resources for February 2020. W&L Law faculty members may request any of these titles be routed to their office, and all patrons are welcome to browse the New Titles shelves just inside the main Library entrance on the Third Floor.

LexisNexis Training – Spring 2020

AndrewLeave a comment

W&L’s Lexis representative Sabrina Chester ’13L will offer training sessions on the following topics and dates this semester (all Thursdays):

  • Appellate Brief Research – 1/30
  • Shepard’s Citator – 2/6
  • Public Records & Interview Prep – 3/12
  • Prepare to Practice – 4/9

Time and location is 12:30–1:00 in Classroom B for all sessions, and lunch will be provided. Open to all students, staff, and faculty.

Try Exam Prep with West Academic Study Aids Online

AndrewLeave a comment

Enhance your exam prep with West Academic Study Aids!

W&L’s subscription provides easy online access to hundreds of the most popular and trusted hornbooks, outlines, nutshells, treatises, and audio lectures to help you review for exams. It includes study-aids covering virtually every law school course, including first-year subjects like Torts, Contracts, and Civil Procedure. All titles are downloadable for offline use and can also be viewed in any browser or mobile device.

For access, visit https://subscription.westacademic.com. At the top of the page, select “Create an Account,” select “Student” as your account type, and fill in the required information. Be sure to enter your W&L email address as your username to log in. To download items to read and listen to offline, get the West Academic Library app.

Our West Academic Study Aids collection includes:

…and more!

New Law Library Resources – November 2019

AndrewLeave a comment

Each month, the W&L Law Library adds many new books and online resources to our collection. We also issue a monthly newsletter in PDF that highlights our new acquisitions across popular topics for reading and research.

So, please take a moment to review our New Resources for November 2019. W&L Law faculty members may request any of these titles be routed to their office, and all patrons are welcome to browse the New Titles shelves just inside the main Library entrance on the Third Floor.

Newton D. Baker Scrapbooks

JohnLeave a comment

The 27 volumes of newspaper clippings documenting the life of Newton D. Baker Jr., 1894L, and donated to the Powell Archives in 2015 by the law firm BakerHostetler, are now available in Scholarly Commons, the law school’s digital repository.

Below, page from 1912 scrapbook in Baker’s first year as Mayor of Cleveland.

Baker came to Washington and Lee School of Law after graduating from Johns Hopkins University. He practiced law in his home town of Martinsburg, West Virginia and then Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland became his life-long home where served as assistant law director, city solicitor and Mayor (1912-1916.) President Woodrow Wilson named him Secretary of War, an office he held during and immediately after World War I.

Though there was much more to his life after this — prominence in Ohio and then national Democratic party politics, founder of the law firm today know as BakerHosteler, champion of the League of Nations, etc. — it is these years in public service in Cleveland and Washington, DC that are documented in these scrapbooks.

The research value of the Secretary of War years, where he built an army of 2 million men in a matter of weeks, is obvious. The clippings from the Cleveland public office years, however, are rich as well. Baker was a progressive who believed in the ability of municipal government to make city life safer, healthier and richer for its citizens. In reading these news reports, one can see Baker inventing policies and programs in response to the growing pains of this vibrant early twentieth century city.

Above, Newton D. Baker in 1929. Ethel Standiford Collection, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio.

Before Lewis F. Powell Jr. was elevated to the Supreme Court of the United States, Baker and famed Supreme Court advocate, John W. Davis, were considered the most eminent alumni of the law school. When the dormitories, spoken of today in the one term “Baker-Davis,” were built in their honor, they were the law school dorms.

Exams Got You Spooked? Check Out Our Study Aids!

AndrewLeave a comment

LAW STUDENTS BEWARE! Exams are already on the creep this Halloween… But don’t let that haunting feeling get the best of you. Look for a study aid from the Library’s Reserve Room Collection to help put a nail in the coffin on your finals preparation.

Our Reserve Room (third floor, diagonal from the Circulation Desk) offers a wide range of popular study aids in print, including Examples & Explanations (E&E’s), Nutshells, Sum and Substance Audio CDs, Gilbert Law Summaries, and Law in a Flash cards. Items can generally be checked out for 48 hours, after which return or renewal is required.

Dozens of these titles and many more are also accessible and downloadable online, free of charge for W&L Law students, through the Library’s West Academic Study Aids subscription.

Stop by the Reserve Room on Thursday 10/31 for special Halloween treats, and 1Ls: Browse for Contracts, Civil Procedure, and Torts guides anytime online in Beyond the Text: Study Guides for First-Year Classes.