Prepare to Practice: Advance Your Legal Research Skills

After you've learned the basics of legal research from your first year LRW course, level up your research skills for upper-level courses, clinics, RA research, or summer employment with the topics introduced here.

Legislative histories can help you understand the motivation behind language in a law or bill. Often federal legislative history information is already compiled and available for researchers to use.

You can create a legislative history yourself if it has not been compiled yet. Check out our Federal & State Legislative History Research Guide to learn how:

First, gather your legislative history materials. Then you can use the following to learn how to interpret the materials you found:

For state legislative histories, the process may be more complicated. Each state creates different materials during the lawmaking process and may store those materials differently. Start your research with a legislative history research guide for the state in question. These guides typically provide a step-by-step approach to finding legislative history information in your jurisdiction.

Federal regulation is important in a number of areas of law. There are great resources to help you get started when searching for federal regulatory material.

Regulation is particularly prevalent in certain areas of law. Consider using the following guides if they are relevant for you: 

A docket is a formal recording containing “the proceedings and filings in a court case.” It often provides information that never appeared in the case decision. In some cases, a case docket may be the only source of information. For example, dockets are essential when no decision was issued or a case is ongoing.

For more information see our research guide on:

To learn more about PACER visit:

Practicing lawyers often rely on model forms and common language, proven to withstand legal scrutiny. When creating instruments such as contracts, wills, and agreements try starting with a model document. Tailoring pre-existing language to your needs may be better than unique expression in these circumstances.

Many platforms now offer sample forms and agreements, some at low or no cost. It is wise, however, to approach these documents with caution. Stick with well-vetted sources whenever possible. Annotated model forms can help you understand why the drafter made relevant drafting decisions. 

Running Time: 3 minutes, 38 seconds.

Want to check out the content mentioned in the video above? See:

For more information, see our research guide on:

For more legal forms by state visit:

As you head out into your summer jobs or your first job after graduation, you may find yourself researching issues of state law.  Check out the following video to learn about researching in three of our most popular jurisdictions: New York, Massachusetts, and California.

Running Time: minutes, seconds.

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Finding Guides for Other States

If you're interested in researching the law of a state that we don't have a guide for, try going to Google and searching the following:

[Your State's Name] Legal Research Guide

Then select a guide from a University, Court, Legislature, or State Law Library.

Fifty state surveys help researchers compare issues of state law across multiple jurisdictions. Often these surveys will contain citations to the state law that covers the relevant issue.

For more information on comparing state law visit our Comparing State Laws and Constitutions Guide:

Many practice areas touch upon foreign law in some capacity.  Fortunately, there are resources that can help orient you.

Keeping current in your area of interest can be important to your work. It can also help you to develop strong relationships with legal practitioners. Choosing a few current awareness sources to check regularly can help you stay informed.

To learn more about law blawgs that may be of interest to you visit:

Members of the Reference & Research Services Team are happy to help you with your reference and research questions throughout law school and beyond.  Our contact information appears below.

But note:  When conducting research for an employer, check in first with the firm's or organization's librarians as applicable.  They know specialized resources in your practice area, they can often point you toward in-house materials to save you time, and they can advise you on any firm-specific guidelines for database use.  

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Email: research@law.harvard.edu

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