Things To Do Before Your First Day (In General)
- Find a research guide for your state and look through it.
- Review the resources for your state in LexisNexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg Law, especially for practice materials you may be less familiar with.
- Review your state's code and court rules.
- Learn the leading treatise(s) for your area of law.
- Review Bloomberg News to find newsletters in your area of law (such as antitrust).
- Determine if the Law Library has a research guide on your area of law.
- Find out if there are other subject specific resources, e.g., VitalLaw for tax law.
- Familiarize yourself with free and low-cost legal research resources.
- Familiarize yourself with non-Lexis and Westlaw databases available through the University of Chicago Library.
- Schedule a research consultation with a law librarian.
If You Are Working at a Big Firm
- Find out whether your firm's Lexis or Westlaw contract is a flat rate/preferred plan or cost by transaction/time.
- Know which content is within the subscription agreement and what content incurs additional cost.
- Find out whether your firm prefers you to use firm-supplied access to Lexis Advance/Bloomberg Law rather than the summer access provided under your Law School passwords.
If You Are Doing Transactional Work
- Familiarize yourself with the transactional tools available in Bloomberg Law (e.g., Precedent Documents and Clauses), Westlaw (e.g. Practical Law) and Lexis (e.g. Practice Advisor).
If You Are Working at a Non-Profit
- Familiarize yourself with free and low-cost legal research resources.
- Find a research guide for your state.
- Review the resources for your state in LexisNexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg Law, especially for practice materials you may be less familiar with.
- Review your state's code and court rules.
