Current Events and Current Awareness

As an attorney, an important skill or practice is staying abreast of legal and non-legal trends, news, and current events. It is critical to be aware of changes in the law, new ways in which laws are being interpreted, and new cases on the horizon. It is also important to learn about how your clients may be perceived in the media, how your own firm is discussed in the news, and major changes to your area of law nationwide. Staying updated on current events is a good skill to hone while you are in law school so it becomes a regular part of your arsenal of tools in practice.

The library has some technologies, databases and time-saving suggestions to help with this. For example, check out Law 360. Law 360 (available on campus only) is an easy to use site which delivers legal news updates on its site within 24 hours of the event happening. It covers a wide variety of topic areas and even covers the practice of law itself. Want to find out reliable information about other firms or read more about #metoo in the legal industry? Law 360 is a great platform for doing so.

Another favorite publication is the ABA Journal. While this available several places online, one of the best places to find it is in the ABA Law Library Collection Periodicals in HeinOnline. This collection contains not only the ABA Journal but a variety of ABA publications like the Entertainment and Sports Lawyer and Oyez! Oyez! Bulletin of the Section of Judicial Administration.

Still another way to stay up to date on legal news is by reading legal blogs. While these can be searched online, generally, if you are looking to search for blogs on particular subjects, check out Fastcase which allows you to search the LexBlog library of curated analytical materials. The blogs available in Fastcase are from the (15,000!) legal bloggers in the LexBlog network.

The aforementioned are just three ways to broaden your current awareness in law. There are almost endless ways to keep current that we didn’t cover above, like setting up alerts in Westlaw, Lexis, Bloomberg Law, and many other digital resources. If you have questions or would like us to talk to you more in depth about these services, stop by the law library’s reference desk or email us at lawlibraryhelp@rwu.edu.