Beyond Google: Teaching Law Students Electronic Research

1. Beyond Google:Teaching Law Students Electronic Research Scott A. Schumacher University of Washington School of Law

2. UW Courses: Two Users • Federal Tax Clinic • Represent clients in disputes with the IRS • Devote a seminar session to research • Tax Research and Writing • Research course taught to graduate tax students

3. Course goals: • Introduce students to the numerous resources available to tax lawyers • Teach students how to become effective and efficient researchers • Allow students to hit the ground running when they enter law practice

4. Learning Tax Law The words of such an act as the Income Tax merely dance before my eyes in a meaningless procession: cross-reference to cross-reference, exception upon exception - couched in abstract terms that offer no handle to seize hold of - leave in my mind only a confused sense of some vitally important, but successfully concealed, purport, which it is my duty to extract, but which is within my power, if at all, only after the most inordinate expenditure of time. I know that these monsters are the result of fabulous industry and ingenuity, plugging up this hole and casting out that net, against all possible evasion; yet at times I cannot help recalling a saying of William James about certain passages of Hegel: that they were, no doubt, written with a passion of rationality; but that one cannot help wondering whether to the reader they have any significance save that the words are strung together with syntactical correctness. ~ Learned Hand

5. “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the Income Tax.” ~ Albert Einstein

6. Internal Revenue Code Treasury Regulations IRS Revenue Rulings Revenue Procedures General Counsel Memoranda Actions on Decisions Private Letter Rulings Field Service Advice The Internal Revenue Manual Court cases Joint Committee Blue Book Treasury White Papers Tax Treaties Legislative history Cumulative Bulletin BNA Tax Management Portfolios CCH and RIA looseleaf services Single topic treatises Some of the resources for Tax Lawyers

7. Limits of Electronic Research Sec. 108: “Gross income does not include any amount which (but for this subsection) would be includible in gross income by reason of the discharge (in whole or in part) of indebtedness of the taxpayer if—” • “COD income” Tabrezi v. Commissioner • “DOI income” Carlson v. Commissioner • “Cancellation of debt income” Lowry v. Commissioner • “Cancellation of indebtedness income” Collins v. Comm. • “Discharge of indebtedness income” Toberman v. Comm.

8. Limits of Electronic Research

9. Considerations in choosing Online resources • Coverage of relevant materials • Important documents must be in database • Need discrete data • Links from secondary sources to primary sources • Ease of use • Reliability of editorial board • Cost of print vs. online resources • Cost of subscription vs. individual use

10. Online resources • RIA Checkpoint • BNA Tax Management Portfolios • Westlaw • BNA Tax Management Portfolios • RIA Federal Tax Reporter and Coodinator • Lexis • CCH Tax Research • Findlaw.com • Thomas.loc.gov • IRS.gov

11. Training students and new lawyers • Introduce them to print materials first • Show them the limits of electronic research • Train them to dig deeper than the first answer they find • Train them on the capacities of online resources • Have a law librarian conduct the online trainings