The law library's digital resources include legal analytics tools from Bloomberg Law, Westlaw, and Lexis. These resources are extremely useful for interview preparation because they aggregate data about law firms, judges, and attorneys and package it in easy-to-read graphs, lists, links, and charts. For example, you can quickly view cases that are currently being litigated by a law firm or attorney, review a judge's current caseload by type of case, view which clients law firms or attorneys represent most frequently, determine how often an individual judge grants or denies particular motions, and much more. The law librarians are available to USF Law students for one-on-one tutorials on all of these resources; you can make an appointment by emailing us at: [email protected]
Westlaw's Litigation Analytics tool allows you to browse litigation data for attorneys, judges, and law firms. For attorneys and law firms, you can review current caseloads, types of cases handled, case outcomes, motions filed, and dockets. For judges, you can review how a judge typically rules, categories of cases in the judge's caseload, how long it takes for a judge to rule on particular types of motions, and the authority they tend to cite. This online tutorial introduces the features of Westlaw's Litigation Analytics to law students.
Lexis offers Litigation Profile Suite, which provides a visual representation of verdict, settlement, and docket data on judges and attorneys. You can also find biographical information, news stories, and a list of cases in which they are currently involved. This guide thoroughly explains how to use Litigation Profile Suite.
Bloomberg Law allows you to review federal court data for judges, law firms, and attorneys. Because analytics are combined with Bloomberg Law's docket data, you can easily access the dockets and litigation documents for federal cases, reading complaints and motions filed by attorneys and law firms before your interview or meeting. Much like Westlaw and Lexis, you will see visualizations of the data that allow you to track trends over time. This short 5-minute video introduces new users to Litigation Analytics features.
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