Research Guides: Researching a Law School Seminar Paper or Law Review Note: Topic Selection

Topic Selection

There are many different ways you might select a topic. Whenever you are doing a paper for a class, we strongly recommend speaking with your professor about promising areas of research. We also cannot emphasize enough the importance of ultimately narrowing your focus: remember that you are writing a research paper, not a multi-volume treatise.

Many people find legal news to be a good starting place for topic selection. Below are some resources you might find useful.

ABA Blawg Directory
Search by topics to locate blawgs devoted to your area of interest.
Bloomberg Law News (Law users only)
Provides top daily news and links to stories from U.S. Law Week, Privacy & Data Security Law News, Daily Tax Report, Health Law & Business, Environment & Energy Report, etc.

Law360 (Law users only) This link opens in a new window
Law360 is a legal news source that covers major litigation in U.S. federal courts, the world's 2,000 top companies, and every major development in class actions and multidistrict litigation. It also provides daily topical e-mail newsletters as well as key documents underlying reported litigation.
Law.com (Law users only) This link opens in a new window
Online access to publications from American Lawyer Media (ALM). This
includes: The American Lawyer, The National Law Journal, New York Law
Journal, Supreme Court Brief, Corporate Counsel, Legaltech News. Legal
Week, Inside Counsel, The Recorder, and others.

Contact Mark Williams (mark.j.williams@vanderbilt.edu) if you are a Vanderbilt Law student, faculty, or staff
member and would like a registration link to create your own username
and password to receive topical email alerts.
Access Note: Users who have a LexisNexis login may also use those credentials to access law.com.

The United States Law Week (Law users only)
The US Law Week provides nationwide coverage of major cases and key legislative, regulatory, and pre-decisional developments in all areas of the law.
US Law Week Circuit Splits (Law users only)
Monthly listing of circuit splits among U.S. federal courts of appeals.