Resources for Legal News

Legal matters seem to generate an avalanche of headlines every day, in both mainstream and specialized publications. How can a reader possibly keep up with the latest news? A few well-chosen RSS feeds and/or browser bookmarks may help, such as from the recommended legal news resources below.

• The ABA Journal website provides recent news stories from the American Bar Association, as well as articles and issues of its monthly print and digital magazine. (Back issues and articles can also be found in a number of third-party databases.)
• State and local bar association journals are another good source to keep up with legal developments in a particular jurisdiction. Many titles are available online, though often only to association members; the Duke community can access many titles through HeinOnline's Bar Journal Library.
• Law.com and Law360.com are two popular legal news sources. The full text of articles on their websites can be accessed directly from within the Law School's IP range; current members of the Duke Law community can also access content from both sources on Lexis under the Legal News content type (ALM Media for Law.com and Law360, respectively).
• Bloomberg Law News includes analysis and commentary on a variety of topics, including the popular U.S. Law Week. To access available topics and titles, follow the path News & Analysis > Bloomberg Law News.
• Legal blogs are another source for the latest law-related news. The Goodson Law Library's Legal Blogs page rounds up some links to search engines and directories, including Justia BlawgSearch. Westlaw includes the full text of selected law blogs under News > Blogs.

The Duke Law community has access to several general news group subscriptions as well, including NYTimes.com, FT.com, and the Wall Street Journal. For sign-up instructions, visit Legal Databases & Links and review the information underneath each title. Electronic access to other legal and non-legal news publications will be linked in the E-Journals Search for a particular title. For help with accessing any of the resources listed here, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Tips for Law School Success

This week, we welcome our new JD and LLM students to the Law School! As mentioned in the library orientation sessions, the Goodson Law Library provides access to a number of print and electronic resources that are designed to help you succeed. Some key highlights for our newest students:

• CALI Lessons: The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction partners with law schools to provide access to high-quality online tutorials (called CALI Lessons) and other tools to support legal education and access to justice (including open-access textbooks and classroom tools for law school instructors). Access to CALI lessons and other portions of the site require individual registration; students may access the Duke Law registration code by logging in to the link at the Academic Technologies software page or asking at the service desk.
  
• West Academic Library Study Aids includes electronic versions of many popular study aid series, including Concepts and Insights, Hornbooks, Nutshells, and Short & Happy Guides.
• Wolters Kluwer Study Aids includes the series Examples & Explanations, Glannon Guides, Emanuel Law Outlines, and more.

Both online study aid libraries also include general guides to law school success and exam preparation, including:

• Burkhart, Ann M. Law School Success in a Nutshell: A Guide to Studying Law and Taking Law School Exams, 3d. ed.
• Franzese, Paula, A Short & Happy Guide to Being a Law Student
• Calleros, Charles R. Law School Exams: Preparing and Writing to Win.
• Darrow-Kleinhaus, Suzanne. Mastering the Law School Exam: A Practical Blueprint for Preparing and Taking Law School Exams .
• Dernbach, John C., Writing Essay Exams to Succeed in Law School (Not Just to Survive), 4th ed

You can find print copies of these items in the library collection, as well as links to the online versions, by searching the online catalog. For help with using the resources listed here or with finding items in the library collection, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Ethical Lawyering

Last week, a federal magistrate judge in Colorado sanctioned two attorneys for their filing in an election dispute lawsuit, citing "a woeful lack of investigation into the law" and "patently frivolous arguments." The judge's order directed the attorneys to pay opposing counsels' fees for filing motions in the suit. Other attorneys who filed challenges to the 2020 election results have experienced similar professional consequences: Rudolph Giuliani currently faces a D.C. bar ethics investigation, following the June suspension of his law license in New York, and earlier this summer former Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Lin Wood weathered a high-profile hearing over potential sanctions in Michigan.

These cases have been a very public reminder of the importance of attorneys keeping up to date with their ethical duties and obligations. Every day, lawyers across the country face sanctions or other disciplinary action for failures to uphold the rules of their respective state bars – while most incidents may not be as sensational as the examples above, smaller-scale ethical infractions can still have major consequences for attorneys, including suspensions and permanent disbarment from practice.

The Goodson Law Library recently updated its research guide to Legal Ethics, which can help navigate the unique research universe of primary and secondary resources related to professional responsibility in the law, including model and enacted codes, ethics opinions, and helpful treatises. Some highlighted resources include:

• The Law of Lawyering, full-text online in Fastcase & Cheetah Litigation Library: this treatise covers professional responsibility topics in extensive detail.
• ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct (online in Bloomberg Law: Legal Ethics & Professional Responsibility Practice Center) includes recent legal ethics news stories, the full text of ABA ethics opinions as well as a digest of state ethics opinions, and links to additional ethics resources by state. The site also provides the full text of the ABA's Model Rules of Professional Conduct as well as a link to the ABA's comparison chart between the ABA Model Rules and the adopted rules of each jurisdiction.
• Individual jurisdiction codes and ethics opinions can often be found freely on the web, and also in the commercial legal research services available in the Law School.
• On Westlaw, ethics opinions can be found by using the path Administrative Decisions & Guidance > Ethics & Disciplinary Opinions. ABA rules are available at Secondary Sources > By Topic > Ethics & Professional Responsibility. State bar rules are included in the Statutes & Court Rules databases for the jurisdiction, generally at the end of the court rules for that state.
• On Lexis, follow the path Practice Area > Legal Ethics to view available sources.
• On Bloomberg, visit the Legal Ethics & Professional Responsibility Practice center to view available sources.

For help with accessing resources described in the guide, or for additional sources related to legal ethics, be sure to Ask a Librarian.