I have discovered something wonderful. I feel a little like Columbus though because I have “discovered” something that other people have known about for decades. LEGAL RESEARCH GUIDES!!
For those who have yet to stumble upon these lovelies, many law libraries publish these guides that contain great places to start when researching specific areas of law. Often, smaller law school libraries will have really great regional guides (ie. Texas Marital Property Law) and some of the fancy law schools have great federal guides and overviews for many jurisdictions.
Basically, it eliminates that part of law school where I’m flopping around in Westlaw or Lexis like a fish on a dock, trying to find a relevant source. From that source I usually eventually find the source that guides the rest of my research. The research guide allows students (or young practitioners since I’m about to become one of those) to get to that really good source much faster.
Below I’m linking to some great places to look for legal research guides in Texas.
Baylor Law Library (Waco)
South Texas College of Law Fred Parks Library (Houston)
Southern Methodist University Law Library (Dallas)
St. Mary’s University Law Library (San Antonio)
Texas State Law Library (Austin)
Texas Tech University School of Law Library (Lubbock)
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law Dee J. Kelly Law Library (Ft. Worth)
University of Houston O’Quinn Law Library (Houston)
Thurgood Marshall School of Law Library (Houston)
University of Texas Tarlton Law Library (Austin)
** The puppy picture above is a little guy we babysat for a few days. He does not relate to legal research at all but he’s really, really cute.
