Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50905
research; books such as Stephen Wadd- ams' The Law of Contracts and Kevin McGuinness' Canadian Business Corpo- rations Law. "You cannot know anything about contracts in Canada unless you've read Waddams cover to cover. When a question comes up in practice, you don't go to Google or Quicklaw, you pick up Waddams and check the index. They're ignored too oſten," he says. Kim Clarke, the director of the Univer- sity of Calgary's law library, agrees second- ary sources can provide a great starting point for a research project. "Why waste all your time analyzing the law when you can read five pages in a textbook that will provide a basic understanding of what the legal issues are," she says. Clarke advises all students to take an advanced legal research course where it is offered by their university. Her school is one of very few in North America where both the introductory and advanced classes are mandatory. Most schools have a compulsory research class in the first year of law school, but that's not enough according to McCormack. "They need to go in-depth in upper years because they don't have the context in first year. They haven't spent a year reading cases and digesting the substantive content of law," says McCormack. "Every year I get e-mails from graduated students saying they don't know how they would get by without a research class. It's not a sexy course, but it's a skill and once you have it, you're grateful to have learned it." Much ink has been spilled in the heat- ed debate over when students should be taught research skills, says Mirando. He would like to see more instruction as part of upper-year courses, but says profes- sors are reluctant to give up their already- scarce class time for a session with a li- brarian. That puts the onus on students to attend refresher courses and extracurric- ular sessions put on regularly by his staff. "Students should think of research as an integral part of whatever law they go into. It's not a separate thing. These are basic Get Connected As a student at Fogler, Rubinoff LLP you'll experience a wide variety of complex and challenging assignments in a hands-on environment. We offer a well-rounded, real-world experience that puts you at the table and in the courts. For more information on our Student Programs, please visit our website at www.foglers.com Student Program Chair, Myriah Graves, 416.941.8846, mgraves@foglers.com 95 Wellington Street West, Suite 1200 Toronto-Dominion Centre, Toronto, ON M5J 2Z9 T: 416.864.9700 F: 416.941.8852 24 F A L L 2010 C ANADIAN Lawy er 4STUDENTS ntitled-2 1 3/2/10 9:35:21 AM REKEYS TO LEGAL SEARCH SUCCESS Get to know your librarians These people are the oracles of legal informa- tion and they want to help you. David Michels says he even answers calls from graduates stumped by a research problem. "We won't chide you. We'll teach you as many times as it takes until you can learn these skills. We're a service profession," he says. Take an advanced legal research course That mandatory first-year course gives you the basics, but if you want that information to stick, you have to keep it up, says Louis Mirando. At the very least, take advantage of the refresher and training sessions offered by the library. "In first year, you have neither the context nor the opportunity to put into prac- tice what you're learning." Get out of the Google- search mindset Each database works differently, so ask the librarian to show you how it works and the tricks for getting the best results. "You don't want to end up with 500 hits where the leading case is on screen five of the results, because you're going to give up before you get there," says Michels. Look beyond Quicklaw and Westlaw Kim Clarke says students are too reliant on the two largest legal research databases, when there are many other useful resources for specific areas of law. "They are the prima- ry databases, but don't get into a rut. There are plenty of other databases." Use secondary sources Why waste all of your time redoing work somebody has already done for you. "Greater minds than yours have tackled most prob- lems and there are books by them," Mirando tells his students. Know when to stop If you're spinning your wheels on a particular issue, call for help. "When you're spending an hour on something, you're not getting anywhere and you're just getting frustrated," says Clarke.