Transactional Research

In a typical legal research class students are given a fact pattern and then tasked with finding and applying the appropriate law to the facts. Such classes tend to assume that students will ultimately use their research skills to produce lengthy pieces of legal writing such as a brief or in preparation for an oral argument before a jury or an appellate court. Transactional attorneys, however, usually do not write legal briefs, and while they may use their oral advocacy skills to negotiate on behalf clients, they do not argue in court. Further, in real work life, one is often not given the facts up front, or at least not all of them. This isn't to say that basic legal research isn't important for transactional attorneys. Such skills are immensely important, but those in a transactional practice must expand beyond researching statutory and case law. This course will place research within the context of a transactional law practice. It will introduce students to researching companies (that is, finding the facts) as part of due diligence and for other purposes. It will reintroduce students to administrative agencies and regulatory law as many transactional practices are heavily regulated (securities and banking law for example). It will also help students utilize the skills they learned in their first-year LAWS class (or other classes) to prepare the kinds of documents transactional attorneys typically prepare - contracts, corporate organizational documents, etc. In addition, students will be introduced to new databases and/or parts of databases they most likely have not used before. The classes will include: 1. A lecture about the topic of the day with demonstrations of how to use the database(s) or other tools related to the topic. 2. A short in-class assignment requiring students to practice using new tools. 3. A longer homework assignment giving students another opportunity to practice the skills and tools introduced during the lecture.