Researching Texas Law

This is an entirely self-serving post, to be sure, but there have been a number of articles and blog posts recently stressing the need for students to improve their skills so that they can stand out among others in the job market.

Consider these:

Want a Job Offer This Summer? Start Working Now, Law Students are Told (ABA Journal)

Five Key Suggestions to Help Summer Associates Get Offers from Their Firms in a Difficult Economy (Findlaw)

Both pieces (especially the latter) stress that research and writing skills are so vital that law students should spend the spring term improving their skills so that they can hit the ground running when they serve as summer associates.

According to the author of the Findlaw piece:

It’s obviously important, too, not to make any glaring research mistakes when you turn in work. If you miss one major case in one memo, that’s a serious problem. But avoiding errors is easier said than done. What are the best methods to make sure you don’t do so – beyond asking associates and peers to look over your work, as I recommended above?

During this Spring semester, I would advise taking advantage of the expertise of the computer research company representatives who visit your campus, to ensure that you are completely fluent when it comes to legal research. Then, when you become a summer associate, remember to use multiple different searches and sources for your research.

The same author on legal writing:

Just by reading a memo’s first paragraph, a partner or associate will instantly sense whether it is well-written or not. . . [M]ake sure to remember that a law firm memo – unlike, say, a law review article – needs to reach definite conclusions as to what the best interpretation of the law is and how the firm or client should proceed forward. Equivocation will leave the partner – and the client – better-informed, but still without any clear guidance. Every memo needs to have a bottom-line conclusion or recommendation.

Also, if you feel that writing is a weakness for you, make sure to follow three simple rules: (1) Put facts in chronological order. (2) Use section headings to make organization clear. (3) Use shorter sentences whenever you can, because they are clearer and faster to read.

A legal memo is supposed to provide clarity, so a confusing memo misses the point. The area of law might be confusing, but the memo still has to be clear. If the particular area of law is truly a mess, then isolate a few clear alternative viewpoints in the morass. Don’t be afraid to make predictions about how future courts might rule as long as you back them up, appropriately qualify them, and also describe the alternatives.

* * *

More news from the legal research front, which is rare– here is a story about a company that was fined an additional $80,000 because the company’s lawyer failed to adequately research whether one of the company’s pregnant workers was covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act.

* * *

And more about the importance of proofreading, with this one focusing on resumes and applications. The vice president and deputy general counsel of the Association of Corporate Counsel says that she will weed out applications with typos. “If an applicant can’t get it right now, then I assume his or her work will be equally unreliable,” she says.