If you’re lucky enough to have access to Practical Law, it can make your work much easier. Practical Law focuses on several different practice areas and gathers together information, forms, clauses, and much more on each area. To access Practical Law (all of our students have access while in school), simply follow these steps:
1. Log on to WestlawNext and select “Practical Law” from the right-hand menu.
2. Once you’re in the Practical Law platform, you’ll see all the practice areas covered.
3. You can also search via resource type or jurisdiction.
4. Once you’ve selected your practice area, you’ll notice that the menu is further divided into more specific topics within the general practice area.
5. Select the area of interest, for example, wills. The results will bring back practice notes, standard documents, and standard clauses. You can further refine these results by jurisdiction or search term, or you can start scrolling.
6. The standard documents give you a form that you can easily fill out and adapt to suit your client’s needs. You can even download these standard documents in Word format, which makes them immediately adaptable. Take note of the included “notes” that appear above each section of the document. These notes from WestlawNext give you further explanation about the individual sections of the document.
7. You can also look for standard clauses if you need to add something specific to a document you’ve already created. Again, these standard clauses are easily downloadable and adaptable to your needs.
8. The Practice Notes and other secondary materials can prove invaluable to the practicing attorney or law student as they give insight and explanation into the minute details of each area of law.
I hope you take advantage of Practical Law if you have access. It’s an amazing tool!
Veterans Memorial Law Library 