Do new attorneys have the skills?

Do new attorneys have the skills? SWALL Hot Topic April 2008

V&E Librarians Susan Yancey, Director of Firm Libraries Cathleen Buzzetta, Electronic Services/Research Librarian Patricia Huntsman, Cataloger Scott Hatmaker – East Coast (offices in D.C. and covers the New York office too) Deborah Meleski - Austin Liz Petty - Dallas

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American University 1 Baylor 1 Brigham Young 1 City of New York 1 Columbia 2 Duke 2 Georgetown 1 Harvard 6 Howard 1 LSU 1 Michigan 3 Minnesota 1 Northwestern 1 South Texas 2 Stanford 5 Texas Southern 1 Tulane 2 University of Chicago 1 University of Houston 7 University of Pennsylvania 1 University of Texas 16 University of Virginia 3 Vanderbilt 1 Yale 2 V&E Houston Office 63 Summer Associates 2008

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V&E employment litigation attorney I agree that our new lawyers are not very prepared to do research. They tend to rely almost entirely on Westlaw and, even then, their search skills are limited. They limit themselves to the most obvious Westlaw libraries and do not do the most efficient job of constructing searches. I don't blame law school librarians for this deficiency. Unfortunately, most law students get one short course in legal research during their first year of the law school. After that, they usually get no training in research skills in their other courses. It is unfortunate that students never get any research projects in their substantive courses. In law school, you are rarely challenged to find materials. They are given to you by the professor. While no person could learn about all the tools that are out there, if law students received some specialized training in their courses, that would at least alert them to the importance of these tools. Fortunately, we do a pretty good job training our associates on legal research in labor law when they first show up at the section. I am assuming our tax section does the same with their lawyers. Unfortunately, most law school graduates don't get the benefit of big firm training.

V&E Associate When I started in 2004 I was under-prepared to use all the great print resources available. I felt adequately prepared in searching Westlaw & Lexis, and general Internet searches, but I was happy to discover that books were also very useful much of the time!

V&E energy 2nd year associate All through law school I thought that I would be doing civil litigation, and thought myself to be fairly adept at research and writing in that arena. However, as an Energy Regulatory attorney I have often found the need to research more obscure issues that simply weren't part of my law school curriculum. That being said, to the extent that any law school would be interested in developing a course peculiar to the area of Energy Regulatory law and how to conduct research, I think it would be helpful to have the course cover: 1) the differences between public laws (e.g. Natural Gas Act), codes (e.g. USCA provisions), and regulations (e.g. 18 CFR provisions) and how to research topics within each category 2) how to conduct research on state regulatory agency websites (e.g. TRRC) 3) how to conduct research on federal agency websites (e.g. FERC) 4) how to conduct research on Westlaw/Lexus for FERC matters (e.g. using WL's FEN-FERC data base or otherwise), including how to get subsequent case history to determine whether a case is still good law (I have come to learn that you cannot do this on Westlaw for FERC cases but you can do this using Lexus)

Texas citation form important From: Jennifer (7th year associate) Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 9:28 AMTo: Head of Litigation Section; Member of Management Committee; Director of Firm Libraries; Director of Attorney Employment and Development Subject: Texas cite form for new lawyers As part of the new lawyer training, I think we need to have a brief session for the litigation-based lawyers who are new to Texas on how to cite Texas cases. They get it wrong every year and this year is no exception. I'm not sure they're aware that we use a different cite form than the one in the Bluebook. Just a thought.

V&E 1st year tax associate Coming from Yale Law, I was not prepared for Texas writ history whatsoever, and I never really learned how to search legislative history. Also, my bluebooking skills generally were not too strong. I think all 1st years should have a bluebooking class. I haven't been surprised by the research projects I've been given though.

Washington & Lee requiring real client interaction and skills • The new third-year curriculum, which was approved unanimously by the law school's faculty, will replace traditional classroom instruction with practical simulations, real-client interactions and the development of law practice skills. • Project simulations will span the array of traditional subject matter, such as banking and corporate finance, securities law, environmental law and family law. • Instead of listening to lectures, third-year students will be presented with realistic settings requiring them to use judgment, solve problems, work in teams, negotiate solutions and counsel clients. • The new curriculum is to be implemented during the next three years. National Law Journal March 21, 2008

Questions? Comments? Opinions? Answers? Recommendations? Wishful thinking…plans for the future…advice….?

Do new attorneys have the skills?