Choose a topic that interests you.
Consider interesting questions of law that you are discussing in class or at an internship.
Look for circuit splits.
Circuit splits are popular starting lines for note topics because they involve legal issues that have met differing decisions between circuits. Unsettled law represent subjects that need discussion and exploration and also makes for interesting reading.
Check current legal news.
Use legal news sites through Westlaw and Lexis or national newspapers, such as the New York Times or Washington Post.
Once you have a topic idea, explore news, blogs, cases, and articles to see the viewpoints of others.
Determine your unique contribution. How could you approach the issue that would offer new, valuable insight?
Conduct Preemption checking.
This step is more detailed than determining your unique contribution, and involves ensuring that your angle has not already been presented and discussed. The "Finding Articles" tab on this guide is useful for this purpose.
Circuit Split: A circuit split is an unresolved point of law, when two or more circuit courts disagree on the application of law on the same issue.
Terms and Connectors: Use the following search strings in Westlaw or Lexis to help you find circuit splits.
Here is a description of the steps pictured in the above video:
Start at the UMass Law Library website
Scroll to quick links and click Westlaw Precision.
Log into Westlaw Precision.
In the Dropdown menu available at the upper left of the screen, click “Westlaw Today”
You can sort by practice area by clicking on “practice areas” across the top of the screen or use the search bar at the upper right.
In this video, the librarian is using the search bar by typing in “regulatory fines” then clicking on the magnifying glass to run the search.
Once the search has been run, there will be a filters list to the left of the screen. You will also see that your search terms are highlighted wherever they appear in the results.
Under each article listed, there is also the name of the publication and its date published.
To return to the homepage, click on the Westlaw Today logo in the upper left corner of the page.
After returning to the homepage, the librarian making this video clicks on “practice areas” then “Health Law.”
To the right of the screen, there is an option to Manage subscription. Click this to subscribe to email alerts by checking off topics of interest in the pop up window, then “save.”
Another way to access Westlaw news is by returning to the Westlaw Precision homepage, clicking on the “Content Types” tab, and then clicking “News.”
From here you can use the search bar to search for articles.
When you find one you like, you can download it or save it using the icons at the top left of the document.
