Dear 1L: How to do exhaustive legal research

Dear 1L,

When I worked in BigLaw, I worked with a lot of new associates. One mistake I saw over and over again was this:

They did word searches on Westlaw or Lexis, found a bunch of cases, and then thought they had done “thorough” research.

Don’t be one of those associates.

Among other things, for each case you find, you need to:

▪️ Review all the other (relevant) cases that are cited within it;

▪️ Shepardize it (or cite check/whatever they call it these days);

▪️ Review all the relevant cases from the Shepard’s report.

▪️ Review all the relevant cases that are cited within the cases you’ve already read.

Lawyers: What are your beefs with new associate research?

Fondly,

💌 Amanda