Random partner asked a litigation-related question to a partner I frequently work with (i’m a transactional associate). My partner cc’d me and said for me to briefly look. Asked the library. They got me a great case. Sent it back. Now the random partner is asking for more cases in another circuit.

I haven’t done caselaw research since 1L and this isn’t even my practice… wtf do I do (I am fully utilized in my normal work and have a few deals closing soon…)

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Sadly I think you just have to do it. Can you pull in a summer and supervise them or ask the library to help further? Hopefully this is a one off thing and will end once you send these updated cases.

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This. Ask your partner in person or over the phone if you can work with a summer or first year to get the info because you are trying to finalize deal. I can’t see them saying no.

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You cannot rely on a case the library pulls. You either need to ask a friend in litigation or tell the partner you are not qualified. I'm betting you can find a litigation friend to help you out.

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As a transactional lawyer, I absolutely hate being given a legal research project. It’s like asking me to translate a Spanish novel relying on my high school Spanish skills. I would surrender my bar license if I had to make a career of legal research and writing.

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Talk to the west law or lexis help desk and they’ll comprise a search for you and you can then just look at the cases that pulls

likesmart

UPDATE: I survived. Either I am really good at research, or my bullet point summary and citations to PDF page # numbers gave it away that I don’t do caselaw research. Probably the latter

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KeyNumbers, cited by, and treatises collecting cases may allow you to bridge into the circuit you are looking for. Once you get into the right circuit on the issue the cases being cited and cited by cases should all start to form a circle. If you can't jump into the right circuit this way, you may just have to search it in the search bar.

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Is the random partner a litigator or a fellow transactional lawyer?

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Shepardize/use KeyCite, and filter the results by other federal circuits. If your initial results seem irrelevant, try searching in your results with a specific relevant phrase from the on-point case you have. That should narrow things down pretty quickly.

If you have time and want brownie points, you can do a straight search for that quote or phrase in the general search bar (and filter by circuit there). That will help you catch other cases that don't cite the case the library found.

Also, WestLaw has a service where you can call them and they'll help you construct searches for what you're looking for. Perfect for folks like you who haven't seen/used Boolean searches in years.

Keep a list of searches you ran (i.e. the terms and connectors) and if a partner asks you what you did, you can just share that with them and they can gut check it.

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Thank you all for the tips! Someone asked whether the random partner is in litigation: the answer is yes.

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