When It's Been Done So Poorly for So Long, Isn't It About Time to Rethink How Law Schools Teach Legal Research?

It's common knowledge to quote Sarah Valentine, Legal Research Coordinator and Associate Law Library Professor and CUNY School of Law, that most law schools provide "legal research instruction that is not only ineffective in teaching basic research skills but is potentially hazardous to students attempting to learn legal analysis." In Legal Research as a Fundamental Skill: A Lifeboat for Students and Law Schools [SSRN] Valentine argues that current legal research education needs to be reconceptualized "to become a synergistic first year course that supports the learning of doctrine and legal analysis, as well as necessary research skills in accordance with recent suggestions by the ABA, the authors of the Carnegie Report, and other legal commentators."

To say that law firm librarians hope the legal academy will spit out law school grads with some modicum of legal research skills some day would be quite an understatement. Recommended reading for academic law librarians and legal research and writing profs. [JH]