UCLA School of Law Legal Research and Writing Guide   Tags: introduction_to_law_practice, lawyering_skills, legal_research, legal_writing  

Be sure to read the Database Access Guide carefully before beginning your research.

1. Introduction
2. The Research Interview
3. Secondary Sources 
   1. Practice Manuals 
   2. Form Books 
   3. Legal Encyclopedias
   4. American Law Reports
   5. Searchable Directories of Online Sources 
4. Digests 
   1. Using Print Digests 
   2. Using Online Digests 
5. Annotated Codes 
6. Federal Legislative History 
7. California Legislative History 
8. Administrative Law 
   1. Federal Administrative Law 
   2. California Administrative Law 
9. Validating Your Research 
   1. Shepard's Citations in LexisNexis 
   2. KeyCite in Westlaw 
10. Online Legal Research
    1. Primary and Secondary Resource Databases
    2. Free Litigation and Transactional Forms
    3. Federal Government Databases
    4. California Government Databases
    5. Municipal Code Databases
    6. Reference Resources
11. Appendix 
    1. Research Checklist 
    2. Writing Checklist 
    3. Quick Reference for Common Legal Citations
    4. Helpful UCLA Websites 
    5. Boolean Operators, Proximity Connectors, Truncators, and Other Search Tools 
    6. Federal Court System 
    7. California Court System 

The UCLA School of Law Legal Research and Writing Manual is the product of a collaboration among faculty of the Law School’s Lawyering Skills Clinical Program and librarians of the Reference Department of the Hugh and Hazel Darling Law Library. The Manual is intended to provide research and writing guidance for UCLAW students beginning their legal careers, be it as a summer associate, a newly minted attorney, or as a law clerk. Each section of the Manual provides data for locating legal research sources in print and online, as well as tips for using these sources effectively.

Additional guidance may be found in the Law Library’s research guides prepared by Amy Atchison, Cheryl Kelly Fischer, Kevin Gerson, Donna Gulnac, June Kim, Jennifer Lentz, Stephanie Plotin, Vicki Steiner, and John Wilson. All of the Law Library’s guides are available at http://libguides.law.ucla.edu/.

Thomas W. Holm
Director, Lawyering Skills Clinical Program

Vicki Steiner
Reference Librarian, Hugh & Hazel Darling Law Library