Lawyering Fundamentals: Research

SyllabusFall 2015

“Lawyer competence, in most if not all areas of legal practice, demands a wide range of
fundamental skills including the ability to … perform legal research … .”
In re Brooks, 11 S.W.3d 25, 29 (Ky. 2000).

Professor

  • Stacey L. Gordon
  • Office: 167
  • Phone: 243-6808 (w), 239-9024 (h)
  • Email:

Course Description

In the Lawyering Fundamentals courses, students will explore fundamental lawyering skills and values of the legal profession in an active, collaborative, and participatory environment.

Fundamental Lawyering Skills / Fundamental Values of the Profession
Skill 1: Problem Solving
Skill 2: Legal Analysis and Reasoning
Skill 3: Legal Research
Skill 4: Factual Investigation
Skill 5: Communication
Skill 6: Counseling
Skill 7: Negotiation
Skill 8: Litigation & Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedures
Skill 9: Organization and Management of Legal Work
Skill 10: Recognizing and Solving Ethical Dilemmas / Value 1: Provision of Competent Representation
Value 2: Promotion of Justice, Fairness and Morality
Value 3: Improvement of the Profession
Value 4: Professional Self-Development
ABA Section of Legal Education & Admissions to the Bar, Statement of Fundamental Professional Skills and Values (1992) (adopted by the School of Law faculty, May 13, 1996) (often referred to as the MacCrate Report).

Learning Outcomes

This class will focus primarily on developing competence in Skill 3. However, research involves aspects of problem solving, analysis, and organization, so Skills 1, 2 and 9 will be implicated as well.At the end of this semester:

  • Students will be able to analyze a legal research problem and develop a research plan that includes identifying the most appropriate sources and formats for the problem.
  • Students will be able to select appropriate secondary sources and use them to begin active research of a legal problem.
  • Students will be able to conduct primary legal research to find and expand on relevant authorities.
  • Students will be able to assess the importance of updating the law and continued validity of all authorities used in researching a legal issue.
  • Students will be able to cite authorities correctly.

Required Text

ALWD & Colleen M. Barger, ALWD Guide to Legal Citation(5th ed. 2014).You will also use this book in your Lawyering Fundamentals: Analysis course this semester and you will need it throughout your law school career.Because the rules have changed significantly, you cannot use a previous edition.

Grading & Assignment Descriptions

LATE ASSIGNMENTS MAY BE PENALIZED UNLESS YOU RECEIVE PRIOR DISPENSATION FROM PROF. GORDON.

1.Weekly Research Exercises

As part of your class preparation, you will complete short online (on Moodle) exercises designed to reinforce skills introduced in the videos. It is required that you complete these exercises, and in-class exercises will build on them. Exercises will be discussed in class and model answers will be posted after class each week. Research exercises will be due on Mondays at 9:00am.These exercises will not be graded, but failure to complete them will be considered in your Professionalism grade. You may work with other students to complete the exercises, but all students must submit them individually.

2.Citation Exercises

Careful citation is an extremely important aspect of legal research and writing. Good citation allows your readers (law firm partners and judges) to easily locate the authority you cite, shows the weight of your authority and that your research is thorough, and ensures you have not plagiarized. You will learn how to correctly cite each of the tools you use, and you will be graded on correct citation in your capstone assignments. Each week you will complete a set of citation exercises designed to give you practice with the fundamentals of legal citation. These exercises will not be graded and you do not have to turn them in, but you will discuss them in your law firms and they will help you prepare for the graded citation exam. Failure to complete all the assigned citation exercises will be considered in your Professionalism grade. You may work with other students on the citation exercises.

3.Research Plan Assignment

(30% of grade). This assignment will give you the opportunity to demonstrate that you can devise an effective and efficient research strategy for researching a case law issue. In this assignment, you will demonstrate both understanding of research methods and proficiency with the case law sources and tools. This is an individual assignment that you must work on alone. You may not discuss the assignment with other students until after it has been turned in, except that you will discuss it during your law firm meeting on October 16. You may ask questions of your JP or Prof. Gordon. This assignment will be graded anonymously.

Due: October 26, 9:00am. Submit at Student Services with Anonymous #1 on your paper. No identifying information other than your anonymous number should appear anywhere on your assignment.

4.Citation Exam

(20% of grade). The citation exam will test your ability to use the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation, and to correctly cite cases, constitutions, statutes, and administrative regulations– the sources you will most often be citing to the court throughout your career. There will be a review before the exam and previous years’ citation exams will be available on the course Moodle page.

The citation exam will be graded according to a grading rubric that you will be given before the exam. Because grading the citation exam is entirely objective, it will not be graded anonymously.

Date:Friday, November 13, 11:30am-1:00pm. All students meet in Room 201.

5.Capstone Research Assignment

(40% of grade). The capstone assignment will give you the opportunity to use all the sources and skills you have learned in this course to answer a legal question.

This is an individual assignment that you must work on alone. You may not discuss the assignment with other students until after it has been turned in, except that you will discuss it during your law firm on November 6. You may ask questions of your JP or Prof. Gordon. This assignment will be graded anonymously.

Due: Monday, November 30, 9:00am. Submit at Student Services with Anonymous #2 on your paper. No identifying information other than your anonymous number should appear anywhere on your assignment.

6.Professionalism

(10% of grade). Attendance is required in all law school classes but merely attending class will not prepare you to practice law. You must also both prepare for class and actively participate in class.

Your Junior Partner (JP) will assign part of your professionalism grade based on your participation in group discussions and your completion of citation exercises.

Quality of Work / Grade
Excellent Law Firm Work / A
Good Law Firm Work / B+
Fair Law Firm Work / B-
Poor Law Firm Work / C
Unacceptable Law Firm Work / F

Under the law school attendance policy, if you miss more than 5 total classes (whether they are regular classes or law firms) for any reason, you MUST withdraw from this course. See the Law Student Handbook for more details regarding the law school attendance policy.

Participation in class discussions and exercises is essential to this course. Each student is expected to come to class prepared and to contribute to classroom discussions on a regular basis.

I expect that your class participation will reflect the type of professionalism expected of law practitioners. This includes limiting your use of laptops and other technologies in the classroom to class and law firm related activities. Repeated failure to adhere to this standard may result in the lowering of your professionalism grade.

Law school is a professional school. All your courses will prepare you for the practice of law in some manner and all are equally important. If you don’t already, you should begin now to adhere to professional standards in your written work. I expect that all your written work will be organized, neat, and carefully proofread. I will read your assignments carefully and mark writing errors such as grammar, spelling, and punctuation but I will not grade off for these types of errors unless your paper contains an unreasonable number of errors or is sloppy.

Grading Scales

The Research Plan and Capstone assignments will be graded using a rubric to assign letter grades based on the percentage scale below. Final grades will be calculated using the grading scale in the Student Handbook.

Lawyering Fundamentals: ResearchPage 1

Grade / Percentage Scale
A+ / > 100%
A / 93-100%
A- / 90-100%
B+ / 87-89%
B / 83-86%
B- / 80-82%
C+ / 77-79%
C / 73-76%
C- / 70-72%
D / 60-69%
F / < 60%
Grade / Grade Points
A+, A / 4.0
A- / 3.70
B+ / 3.30
B / 3.00
B- / 2.70
C+ / 2.30
C / 2.00
C- / 1.70
D / 1.00
F / 0

Lawyering Fundamentals: ResearchPage 1

Course Moodle Page

The course Moodle page is an extension of the classroom. The Moodle page will contain course information, and you will receive assignments via the Moodle page. The Moodle page may also contain supplemental reading and other handouts. Announcements will be made in class and via email through the Moodle page to students’ official UM email addresses.

Academic Honesty

  1. Individual and Group Work.

On one hand, part of good research is your ability to analyze the material you find and use your evolving thinking about the question to lead you to the appropriate sources. On the other hand, when you are first learning legal research techniques and sources, it is often helpful to be able to discuss the research problem with someone. In this course, you will complete both individual and group assignments so you can learn from both experiences.

It is a violation of the Law School Honor Code to collaborate on assignments without permission. Section 2-201(d) of the Honor Code states:

A student may not offer for credit work prepared in collaboration with another person unless the student secures the instructor’s written permission in advance of submission. Unless the instructor so states in a written instruction, a student does not prepare work in collaboration with another person if the student merely discusses with such other person matters relevant to the work in question.

In this course:

  • You may work with as many people as you like on weekly research exercises.
  • You may work with as many people as you like on citation exercises.
  • You must work on the Research Plan and Capstone assignments individually, exceptthat you will discuss each assignment once during your law firm time.Outside of those two law firm times, you may not discuss the Research Planor Capstone assignments with anyone except Prof. Gordon or your JP.

On all assignments, you may ask questions of your JP or Prof. Gordon. You may ask directional questions (e.g., “Where is the A.L.R.?” but not, “A.L.R.?”) of library staff. You may not ask Lexis, Westlaw or Bloomberg Law representatives to help you with your research, but you may ask them to help you with administrative tasks like finding your password or saving, printing and emailing your results.

2.Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg Law and FastcasePasswords.

You will receive Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg Law and Fastcase passwords on the first day of class. The use of these passwords is governed by license agreements; when you register your password you will verify that you have read and agree to the license agreements. Westlaw passwords are“academic only” passwords and can only be used for law school academic purposes. Lexis, Bloomberg Law, and Fastcase passwords can be used for research outside of law school.

3.Academic Honesty.

All students must practice academic honesty. Academic misconduct is subject to an academic penalty by the course instructor and/or a disciplinary sanction by the University. All students must be familiar with The University of Montana School of Law Honor Code, which is available in the Student Handbook, and The University of Montana Student Conduct Code, which is available at

Disability Services

The University of Montana assures equal access to instruction through collaboration between students with disabilities, instructors, and Disability Services for Students (DSS). If you think you may have a disability adversely affecting your academic performance, and you have not already registered with DSS, please contact Dean of Students, Elaine Gagliardi (Law 205, 243-5094), and DSS (Lommasson 154, 243-2243, will work with you, Dean Gagliardi and DSS to provide an appropriate accommodation.

Course Schedule

Monday (Class)

  • Section 1 (LF 1-4): 3:30-4:30
  • Section 2 (LF 9-12): 2:20-3:20
  • Section 3 (LF 5-8): 1:10-2:10

Friday (Law Firms): 11:30-1:00

Week 1 (Aug. 31, Sept. 4)Course Introduction

In Class: INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM—NO CLASS

In Law Firm:

  1. Course Introduction. All law firms meet at 11:30 in Room 201.
  2. Law Firm Constitutions. Law firms will meet after the Course Introduction.

Assignment Due:

  1. Watch How to Succeed in This Class video.
  2. Read Syllabus (posted on the course Moodle page).

Week 2 (Sept. 7, 11)Westlaw Training

In Class: LABOR DAY HOLIDAY—NO CLASS

In Law Firm:

  1. Complete Using the ALWD Manual exercise.
  2. Westlaw Training. All law firms meet at 12:00 in Room 201.

Assignment Due:

  1. Read Stacey Gordon, Why I Teach Legal Citation, Jameson Law Library Blog (Aug. 31, 2013),
  2. Read ALWD Introductory Material (pages 2-8).
  3. Register your Westlaw password before class.

Week 3 (Sept. 14, 18)Using the Law Library/Lexis Training

In Class:

  1. Complete Using the Library exercise.

Assignment Due:

  1. Watch Using the Library Catalog video.
  2. Read Jameson Law Library Use Policy.
  3. Complete Research Exercise #1.

In Law Firm:

  1. ReviewCitation Exercise #1.
  2. Lexis Training. All law firms meet at 12:00 in Room 201.

Assignment Due:

  1. Read ALWDRules 1-6.
  2. Complete Citation Exercise #1.
  3. Register your Lexis password before class.

Week 4 (Sept. 21, 25)Researching Secondary Sources

In Class:

  1. Complete Secondary Sources exercise.

Assignment Due:

  1. Watch Why Start Your Research with Secondary Sources video on Lexis Learn.
  2. Watch Legal Encyclopedias video on the course Moodle page.
  3. Complete Research Exercise #2.

In Law Firm:

  1. Review Citation Exercise #2.

Assignment Due:

  1. Read ALWD Rules 20.1, 21.1-21.3, 22.1, 22.3.
  2. Complete Citation Exercise #2.

Week 5 (Sept. 28, Oct. 2)Researching Case Law I: Introduction to the U.S. Court System & Case Reporters

In Class:

  1. Complete Reading & SelectingCases exercise.

Assignment Due:

  1. Watch Introduction to the U.S. Court System video on the course Moodle page.
  2. Look at Cases: Advanced Search Fields.
  3. Complete Research Exercise #3.

In Law Firm:

  1. Review Citation Exercise #3.

Assignment Due:

  1. Read ALWD Rules 12.1-12.7.
  2. Read Montana Local Rule (on the course Moodle page).
  3. Complete Citation Exercise #3.

Week 6 (Oct. 5, 9)Researching Case Law II: Searching for Cases

In Class:

  1. Complete Case Law Research exercise.

Assignment Due:

  1. Watch Constructing an Effective Search video on Lexis Learn.
  2. Complete the Topic & Key Numbers on Westlaw Next lesson.
  3. Complete Research Exercise #4.

In Law Firm:

  1. Theory & Practice Exercise. See Theory & Practice syllabus.

Week 7 (Oct. 12, 16)Researching Case Law III: Citators

In Class:

  1. Complete Citator exercise.

Assignment Due:

  1. Watch Making Sure You’re Citing Good Law video on Lexis Learn.
  2. Watch the Using KeyCite videos on WestlawNext. You only have to watch the Accessing KeyCite, KeyCite History for Cases, and KeyCite Citing References for Cases modules.
  3. Complete Research Exercise #5.

In Law Firm:

  1. Discuss Research Plan Assignment.
  2. Review Citation Exercise #4.

Assignment Due:

  1. Read ALWD Citation Rule 11.1-11.3, 12.19(a)-(d), 34.
  2. Complete Citation Exercise #4.
  3. Read Research Plan assignment.

Week 8 (Oct. 19, 23)Researching Statutes I: Using Print and Online Annotated Codes

In Class:

  1. Complete Montana Code Annotated exercise.

Assignment Due:

  1. Watch Statutory Publications video on the course Moodle page.
  2. Watch Finding the Right Statutes and Statutory Interpretation video on Lexis Learn.
  3. Complete Research Exercise #6.

In Law Firm:

  1. Theory & Practice exercise. See Theory & Practice syllabus.
  2. Review Citation Exercise #5.

Assignment Due:

  1. Read ALWD Rules 13.1-13.2, 14.1-14.2, 14.4.
  2. Complete Citation Exercise #5.

Week 9 (Oct. 26, 30)Researching Administrative Regulations/Bloomberg Law Training

In Class:

  1. Complete Administrative Regulations exercise.

Assignment Due:

  1. Complete the WestlawNext: Locating Regulations and WestlawNext: Regulations—Related Sources lessons on Westlaw Next.
  2. Read Montana Secretary of State, Frequently Asked Questions: What Are the Administrative Rules of Montana, SOS.mt.gov, (last visited Aug. 24, 2015).
  3. RESEARCH PLAN ASSIGNMENT DUE AT 9:00AM.

In Law Firm:

  1. Review Citation Exercise #6.
  2. Bloomberg Law training. All law firms meet in Room 201 at 12:00.

Assignment Due:

  1. Read ALWD Rules 18.1, 18.3, 18.13-18.14.
  2. Complete Citation Exercise #6.
  3. Watch Bloomberg Law introductory video (link on course Moodle page).
  4. Register for Bloomberg Law access before class.

Week 10 (Nov. 2, 6)Fastcase Training

In Class:

  1. Fastcase training and exercise.

Assignment Due:

  1. Login to Fastcase at least once.

In Law Firm:

  1. Start developing a research plan for the Capstone Assignment.
  2. Complete Bloomberg Law/Fastcase exercise.

Assignment Due:

  1. Read Capstone Assignment.

Week 11 (Nov. 9, 13)Citation Review & Exam

In Class:

  1. Citation review.

Assignment Due:

  1. Email review questions to Prof. Gordon by 5:00pm Friday, Nov. 6.

In Law Firm:

  1. CITATION EXAM. ALL STUDENTS MEET IN ROOM 201 AT 11:30AM.

Week 12 (Nov. 16, 20)Constitutional Law Research

In Class:

  1. Complete constitutional law exercise.

Assignment Due:

  1. Read Stacey Gordon, We the People of Montana, Jameson Law Library Blog (Feb. 25, 2015),

In Law Firm:

  1. Theory & Practice exercise. See Theory & Practice syllabus.

Week 13 (Nov. 23, 27)Researching Statutes II: Montana Legislative History