Lawyer Research Skills: Two stories beSpacific linked to June 11th might make you think a bit and take stock of your own legal research skills. One, a survey of law library benchmarks, includes this: ‘Internet search skills of attorneys: Most librarians in the sample characterized the internet search skills of the attorneys in their organizations as “Average” but only a shade more than 17% considered them “Proficient” or “Highly Proficient.”‘ Academic, law firm, and public law librarians were part of the study.
The other story, by Dahlia Lithwick in the American Lawyer, reminds us all that you ignore the law bloggers (aka blawgers) at great peril. If this, “Douglas Berman-whose blog, Sentencing Law and Policy, has now been cited in 21 judicial opinions-is tracking the fallout from the Supreme Court’s sentencing guidelines cases,” doesn’t open your eyes, the rest of her article will.