068: Top Ten Legal Research and Writing Disasters to Avoid

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! Almost every 1L in the country will take some sort of legal research and writing class. Today, we're discussing the top ten LRW disasters we see again and again, so you can avoid them!

Many thanks to Thomson Reuters, the sponsor for this episode. You likely interact with their products every day when you're using useful tools such as WestLaw, TWEN, and Practical Law. Thomson Reuters brings you tools and insights to help you perform your best now and when you go pro as a practicing attorney. You can visit them at lawschool.westlaw.com. We appreciate their support!

In this episode we discuss:

• The top ten legal research and writing problems you're likely to face as a law student
• The importance of planning for the worst
• Why and how to back up your computer
• How to manage your LRW time effectively
• Why you should have a plan and a schedule for every LRW assignment
• How to be sure you're clear on what you're being asked to do for each LRW assignment
• Tools for outlining and organizing information
• The importance of citations and how to be sure you're doing them correctly
• Finding help when you need it

If you enjoy the podcast, we'd love a nice review and/or rating on iTunes. And feel free to reach out to us directly. You can always reach us via the contact form on the Law School Toolbox website (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/contact).

Thanks for listening! Good luck on your LRW assignments! And thanks again to Thomson Reuters for sponsoring this episode.

Alison & Lee

Resources:

• Legal Writing 101 Podcast (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/podcast-episode-11-legal-writing-101/)
• Writing Effectively in Your Summer Legal Job (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/podcast-episode-45-writing-effectively-summer-legal-job/)
• Approaching Your Legal Writing Assignment like a Jazz Solo (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/approaching-your-legal-writing-assignment-like-a-jazz-solo/)
• Four Legal Writing Tips from the Theater (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/four-legal-writing-tips-theatre/)
• The Link Between Legal Writing and Final Exams (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/link-legal-writing-final-exams/)
• Tips for Conquering Legal Writing (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/law-school-toolbox-experts-share-tips-for-conquering-legal-writing/)
• Dos and Don'ts to for Using Sample Documents in Legal Writing (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/dos-donts-using-sample-documents-legal-writing/)
• From Objective to Persuasive Writing: The Law (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/10818-2/)
• From Objective to Persuasive Writing: The Facts (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/objective-to-persuasive-writing-part-two/)
• Trello (www.trello.com)