Summer Access To Lexis, Loislaw, and Westlaw

Summer is approaching, so don't forget to register your Lexis and Westlaw passwords for summer access.

LexisNexis Summer Access

Students may register for LexisNexis Summer Access by requesting access to LexisNexis using their Law School Educational ID from June 1 to August 1, 2010 for academic purposes. Academic purposes include, but are not limited to:

• Class preparation and assignments
• Summer school or course work
• Research associated with moot court, law review, or law journal
• Research associated with pursuing a grant or scholarship
• Service as a paid or unpaid research assistant to a professor
• An internship, externship or clinic position for school credit or graduation requirement
• Research skill improvement, such as improving research efficiency and sharpening your area of law research skills as you prepare for practice
• Study for the Bar Exam
• NEW: Research skill improvement for education purposes. You can take any Lexis Interactive Tutorials to prepare for your summer or fall employment

Please note:

'Academic purposes' do not include research conducted for a law firm, corporation, or other entity (other than a professor or law school) that is paying the student to conduct research, or that is passing along the cost of research to a third party. These are deemed 'commercial purposes.'

Loislaw

Loislaw provides one low, all inclusive flat rate; no hidden charges for hyperlinking, downloading or printing; free training; and 24/7 technical support. Loislaw does not pose any summer access restrictions on students.

If you are not graduating this summer, click here to get the authorization code, so you can register for an account with Loislaw, if you have not already done so. The code is listed on TWEN, under Law Library on Twen - Passwords.

If you are graduating and will no longer be a student, Loislaw is also available for free through the New York State Bar Association website if you are a member.

Westlaw Summer Access

Extend your Westlaw password for the summer. Current students may use the Westlaw password for the following purposes:

• Summer law school classes
• Law review or journal work
• Project for a professor
• Moot Court
• Unpaid, nonprofit public interest internship/externship pro bono work required for graduation

Please note:

Graduating students may extend their Westlaw password for the summer for the purpose of preparing for the July bar exam. Passwords may NOT be used for research for law firms, government agencies, corporations or other purposes unrelated to law school coursework. Students graduating this academic year are not eligible. Even if student does not qualify to extend his/her Westlaw password, the password may still be used 2 hours a month in June and July.

Free and Low Cost Resources

The Pace Law Library also has a guide to free and low cost resources: Free and Low Cost Resources for Legal Research, compiled by Cynthia Pittson.

Lexis for Microsoft at Legaltech 2010

Lexis presented its new product in a more low key fashion. No flashing screens or classical musicians, just a solid presentation by Lexis reps, with Microsoft engineers available to answer questions.
Lexis for Microsoft Office will be introduced to law firms this spring and to the academic marketplace in the fall. It allows users to access Lexis while reviewing an Outlook email message or Word document, opens relevant information from Lexis on the right and embeds links and Shepard’s signals into the Outlook email or Word document. It includes a toolbar that lets you Shepardize while still in Word, with the Shepard's results showing up on the right. It seems like it will be a real timesaver, in that it allows you to edit documents and research with switching between tabs or windows.

This news release has more information.

Lexis App For iPhone

Via Lexis announcement, Lexis has released its first application called "Get Cases and Shepardize." This free application allows users to retrieve cases from Lexis and Shepardize them. Users must currently have a Lexis account.

The application allows users to:

• Find and review case instantly by reading the Case Brief - an overview of the issues, rules, and reasoning (written by LexisNexis experts) just by entering its citation
• Get an at-a-glance indication of how closely they need to evaluate the case with Shepard's Signal Indicators
• Get an overview of a case's legal treatment up front by viewing the Shepard's Summary, right at the top of your Shepard's reports

Also check out Legal Geekery for a review, WisBlawg, Robert Ambrogi's Law Sites, or AppStore.

Summer Access to Lexis, Loislaw, and Westlaw

This post is to follow up on our previous two posts (by Cynthia) about Lexis and Westlaw summer access. This time, let's give it a summary and complete the list by adding Loislaw.

Lexis
Access to Lexis is limited beginning June 1 unless you register for summer access. Summer access is limited to academic purposes, which include:

• class preparation and assignments
• research associated with moot court or law review/law journal
• research associated with pursuing a grant or scholarship
• service as a research assistant to a professor (either paid or unpaid)
• an unpaid internship, externship or clinic position for school credit
• clerkship for credit
• bar review

Loislaw
Loislaw provides one low, all inclusive flat rate; no hidden charges for hyperlinking, downloading or printing; and free training and 24/7 technical support. Loislaw does not pose any summer access restrictions on students or non-students.

If you are not graduating this summer, as a student click here to get the authorization code, so you can register for an account with Loislaw, if you have not already done so. The password is listed on TWEN, under Law Library on Twen - Passwords.

If you are graduating and will no longer be a student, Loislaw is also available for free through the New York State Bar Association website if you are a member.


Westlaw
For those who are not graduating this summer, if you are participating in what qualifies as an educational program, you may extend your Westlaw password for the summer. Educational programs qualifies as:

• You are taking summer law school classes
• You are on law review
• You are working on a project for a professor
• You are participating in moot court
• You are doing an unpaid non-profit public interest internship/externship or pro bono work required for graduation.

Important - the following is NOT considered an educational purpose and are therefore prohibited:

• Working for law firms, government organizations, entities serving the District of Columbia, corporations, paid or for-profit internships, externships, public interest, non-graduation required pro bono
• Personal use, practice and preparation for the bar exam.

Contact us with any further questions!

Lexis Summer Access

Access to Lexis is limited beginning June 1 unless you register for summer access. Summer access is limited to academic purposes, which include

• class preparation and assignments
• research associated with moot court or law review/law journal
• research associated with pursuing a grant or scholarship
• service as a research assistant to a professor (either paid or unpaid)
• an unpaid internship, externship or clinic position for school credit
• clerkship for credit
• bar review

Academic purposes do not include research conducted for a law firm, corporation or other entity (other than a professor or law school) that is paying the student to conduct said research, or that is passing along the costs of said research to a third party. These are deemed commercial purposes.

Lexis ASPIRE Program

From a Lexis press release:

The LexisNexis ASPIRE (Associates Serving Public Interests Research) program allows qualified graduates to access a specified menu of LexisNexis services during the deferral period. To be eligible for LexisNexis access via this program, you must have accepted an Associate position at a law firm, but 1) are experiencing a deferred fall 2009 start date, and 2) be taking on public interest work during your deferral period.

Register at the link above. Once your eligibility is confirmed and you begin your public interest position, Lexis will permit you to use your student ID to access a specific menu of the resources available on Lexis.

Loislaw vs. Westlaw vs. Lexis

Above the Law posted this month, law firms as well as other businesses are coping with the difficult economic environment and are looking into cutting their costs without having to fire associates. One way to cut back on cost is to look at monthly bills for legal research databases. Some firms use Lexis, some use Westlaw, and some use both. The subscription packages wary from firm to firm. The one thing that doesn't wary are the multiple hidden costs within both of these databases. Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell decided to cut back on their legal research cost by embracing Loislaw for non-billable research.

Thanks to the faltering economy, we are now required to use Loislaw instead of Lexis or Westlaw for certain things. Unlike its more expensive counterparts, Loislaw has one "low, all-inclusive flat rate, with no hidden charges for printing, copying, downloading, or hyperlinking to primary law or analytic materials outside the scope of a current subscription."

All non-billable legal research involving case law, statutes or regulations at both the state and federal level should first be performed using Loislaw. Loislaw should also be used for billable research where appropriate, resulting in a much lower cost to the client. If additional research is required on Lexis or Westlaw that research must be billed to a client/matter. [Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell Memo]

See the firm's full memo here.

This makes me wonder, will the use of Loislaw become a trend in more law firms? And if so, will law school education, particularly legal research courses often taught by law librarians, need to adjust and possibly add Loislaw to the curriculum? What are your thoughts? Any comments?

Chamber Rankings Included in Martindale Listings

As posted on Robert Ambrogi's LawSites, the Martindale.com lawyer directory published by Lexis will now include chamber rankings. Starting in February, 2009, the addition is part of a broader effort to enhance Martindale.com through the introduction of new tools and new sources of data, rankings and commentary, the announcement said. The Chambers Guides list the top lawyers in 175 countries, providing independent rankings and editorial commentary.

A Chambers icon will appear next to profiles of those lawyers and law firms on Martindale.com that have been ranked by Chambers. Clicking on the icon will open a window linked to the Chambers Web site showing rankings and editorial commentary. These rankings will be in addition to Martindale's traditional Peer Review Ratings and its more recently launched Client Review feature. Earlier this year, Martindale announced an agreement with LinkedIn to link lawyers' Martindale listings with their LinkedIn profiles.

For Public Patrons of Pace Law Library

Lexis Public Access will replace the current Westlaw Public Access as of Saturday, November 2, 2008, and will be available on the public computer workstations in the Pace Law Library. The six public computer workstations are located on the main level of the library opposite the reference desk. Westlaw Public Access will no longer be available in the library after tomorrow November 1, 2008.

Access to Westlaw and Lexis for students, staff, and faculty is uninterrupted by this change.