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Legal Research in a Nutshell by
Finding and using legal resources effectively is an essential skill for lawyers. This comprehensive but succinct guide covers research procedures using major online services, free Internet resources, and library materials. Several hundred websites are discussed and placed in context for effective and productive use in research. Discussion includes coverage of legislative history, administrative law, specialized and interdisciplinary resources, and research in international and comparative law. Appendices list state research guides and treatises and services by subject, and a companion website has a regularly updated list of URLs and illustrations of online and print resources. For more information and additional teaching materials, visit the companion site.
A Short and Happy Guide to Legal Writing by
You're ready to take the plunge into law school (or you already have) and there is one big thing looming over you: LEGAL WRITING. You've heard that legal writing is hard. You've heard that legal writing is scary. You have not written anything since your mandatory college English class. Well, simmer down, you have found the antidote to your fear-based illness. This book takes you through the history, meaning, and purpose of legal writing in the American law. You will learn the essential form and substance necessary to craft an inter-office legal memo, helpful ideas for persuasive brief-writing, and tips for excelling in legal writing.
Legal Writing and Analysis in a Nutshell by
This book provides a ten-step guide to clear, precise, and effective legal writing and analysis for both law students and experienced lawyers. It gives the keys to writing legal memoranda and briefs, organizing analysis, crafting clear and concise sentences, using legal language accurately, using grammar and punctuation properly, writing persuasively using classical rhetorical techniques. The book describes a method for analyzing and improving individual writing style includes a sample analysis. It also includes new material on using plain English and new legal documents to illustrate effective writing techniques.
Legal Research by
Examples & Explanations: Legal Research is designed to meet the needs of law students who have come to expect that they will instantly receive answers to their questions. Rather than cataloging sources or outlining processes, this text starts where today's law students are when they realize they have a research problem. By that time, their research problem is not locating sources, but knowing what to do with them. The Legal Research E & E guides students through examples and explanations of the kinds of sources they've found, using the context of interesting and entertaining real-world problems. The text helps students determine which sources are the most useful for the current project and which ¬ it leads students to understand how one source affects and relates to the others; and--equally important--it shows students how to write about the sources they have found. Because this book covers the kinds of research projects faced not only by beginning law students but also by advanced students and even new lawyers, its value to its readers is long-lasting. Even experienced researchers will learn more about working with the difficult, as well as the easy, research questions that today are addressed by an array of sources.
Principles of Legal Research by
Principles of Legal Research provides comprehensive yet concise coverage of research methods in both online and printed resources.
The Lawyer's Guide to Writing Well by
In this critically acclaimed book, Tom Goldstein and Jethro K. Lieberman demystify legal writing, outline the causes and consequences of poor writing, and prescribe easy-to-apply remedies to improve it. Reflecting changes in law practice over the past decade, this revised edition includes new sections around communicating digitally, getting to the point, and writing persuasively. It also provides an editing checklist, editing exercises with a suggested revision key, usage notes that address common errors, and reference works to further aid your writing. This straightforward guide is an invaluable tool for practicing lawyers and law students.
The Redbook by
Since first appearing in 2002, Bryan Garner's The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style has established itself as the go-to source for all questions of legal style (apart from citation form). The book isn't just one talented man's effort: Garner has two experienced coauthors plus a hands-on team of 54 editorial advisers, most of whom have long and valuable experience teaching LRW. The book is a one-of-a-kind resource--the legal writer's equivalent of The AP Stylebook or The Chicago Manual of Style. The brand-new fourth edition has lots of new material, including an especially helpful new chapter on handling quotations. The two exhaustive indexes (word and subject), plus the detailed table of contents, make it easy to find authoritative guidance within seconds, whatever the question might be. The author, Bryan Garner, is now the most frequently cited author in opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court. It's true: last term, four of his books were cited a total of 14 times (in the somewhat fewer than 90 cases decided). This term the count is on a similar pace. In American appellate decisions generally, Garner is at the top end of sources relied on. You can rely on him, too, in the most comprehensive, nitty-gritty resource available for legal writers: The Redbook. Don't leave home without it.