Target Audience: All librarians involved in legal research instruction
Learning Outcomes:
1) Participants will be able to identify unique legal research needs of students who intend to start a solo law practice upon graduation.
2) Participants will be prepared to plan and execute effective lessons focused on the research needs of solo practitioners.
The number of law school graduates who start solo practices has grown substantially in recent years. For the law school class of 2008, NALP reported that 3.3 percent of these graduates were working as solo practitioners. For the class of 2010, that number soared to 5.7 percent of reporting graduates. With increasing numbers of law students entering solo practice, legal research instruction must address economically realistic options for conducting comprehensive legal research. This program will address the trends of students entering solo practice, and law librarian panelists will discuss how these changes influence legal research instruction at their institutions. In addition, panelists will present ideas and examples of lesson plans focused on introducing students to research without the use of expensive legal research databases.