The 2009 Summer Research Challenge is on! Wednesday nights are filled with popcorn, but Monday nights are “challenge” nights. Research skills are a fundamental credential for a lawyer. Let your librarians work with you to improve your research skills and help you learn more about a variety of tools you will need in practice. Join us for one or for all. Researchers who complete the entire series will receive a specially designed certificate of completion!

Each challenge session will begin with a short practical guide to the research area presented by the librarians. You will then concentrate on a concrete research problem calling on you to efficiently and effectively identify the law bearing on your client’s situation. We will wrap up with a bit of refreshment to discuss results and the strategies used to complete the assignment.

                          Dates:   Monday evenings from June 22 to July 20, 2009 
                          Time:   6:00 to 8:30 p.m. (or so) 
                          Location: Mendik Library Electronic Research Rooms 40 Worth Street – 7th Floor
                          • (We hope to move to our new address at 185 Broadway for the last two July
                                                                     sessions)

Advance Registration, though not required, is encouraged. You can register in person [Room 709 at 40 Worth Street], by phone [212.431.2332] or email: reference@nyls.edu. If you register for a session and cannot attend, please contact the Library to cancel.

JUNE 22:   REGULATING THE CARBON HOOFPRINT: RESEARCHING CONGRESSIONAL DOCUMENTS
The issue of regulating carbon emissions produced by the cattle industry is quite controversial. Your client is a small engineering firm that develops technology resources to capture and reduce greenhouse gases. They are considering developing a methane-trapping system that could be used to capture and then re-purpose livestock-generated methane gas. Before presenting the proposal to potential investors, they have asked you to brief them on a number of statutory issues involving the Clean Air Act; the proposed “Cow Tax;” and others. How will you prepare?
 

JUNE 29:   WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE LAW: IDENTIFYING TOOLS AND STRATEGIES FOR RESEARCHING PROBLEMS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
For his regularly scheduled summer visitation, your client’s ex-husband recently took their daughter on a vacation to his native Brazil. Instead of returning, as planned and agreed, the ex-husband refuses to return your client’s daughter to New York. Your client is distraught and wants you to help retrieve her daughter. Although you represented your client in her divorce proceeding several years ago, you have never encountered international law issues in your practice. Where do you start? How can you prepare to advise your client?
 

JULY 6:  NAVIGATING THE REGULATORY MAZE: RESEARCH IN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
Very few areas of the law fall outside the purview of an administrative agency. In fact, in many cases the legislature establishes a policy and directs an agency to implement it. You are now working on a response to a major regulatory action affecting a valuable client. Your managing partner just told you that the client will not pay Lexis or Westlaw charges without prior approval. The good news is that access to administrative law on free government web sites has improved dramatically in recent years. But, fee-based sources, such as Lexis and Westlaw, are often more efficient. Can you make informed and effective choices between free sources and fee-based sources? Come to this session to find out.
 

JULY 13:  RESEARCH ON THE ROAD TO TRIAL: DISCOVERY REQUESTS, EXPERT WITNESSES, JURY INSTRUCTIONS AND MORE
The trial date for your client’s case is fast approaching and much of the pre-trial prep remains to be done. Not only do you still need to find an expert witness but you need to draft discovery requests relating to your adversary’s expert. You also need to prepare jury instructions to submit pursuant to the judge’s pre-trial order. And, you need to serve a trial subpoena to secure the attendance of an important witness. How in the world are you going to find all these things and where do you even begin to look for them?
 

JULY 20:  PAYING THE PIPER: AN INTRODUCTION TO FEDERAL TAX RESEARCH
In a famous line from “Gone With the Wind,” Margaret Mitchell wrote: "Death, taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them." It may no longer be 1936, but we are still paying taxes! This session will introduce you to the tools with which federal tax and other business law researchers need to become familiar. You will survey the premium subscription CCH Looseleaf Services, the dedicated Internet Tax Research Network and other subject-specific, premium web sites, as well as the topical databases on Lexis and Westlaw, to answer our clients’ questions.