Google Scholar, iPhone apps, Affordable Legal Research? Oh my!

In my search for information and resources to help me on my journey to becoming a Solo right out of law school, I stumbled upon an incredibly helpful website: MyShingle.com. The wealth of resources, as well as encouraging blog posts by its founder Carolyn Elefant, have made this second day of my journey beyond exciting.

Now, I was already excited when I learned about Google Scholar a couple months ago, and the ability to do legal research for free on the site, as it seemed to really open the possibility of being a Solo and weening myself off my Westlaw addiction, but I did not realize there were other reasonably priced subscription services like FastCase and LoisLaw (just to name a couple I've learned of thus far)!

It all started with a recent post on MyShingle.com about FastCase's FREE iPhone app. Yes, I am a Mac girl and an iPhone user, so I was intrigued by this app that promised free access to instant legal research. I downloaded it, tapped the little icon on my old 1st generation iPhone's screen, typed in a few search terms, narrowed by jurisdiction ("discharging student loans" in the Central District of California Bankruptcy Court -- ah wouldn't that be nice!), and sure enough, lickity split, some cases right on point came up. Did I mention that it was 2 a.m. and I was lying in bed with a sleeping baby to my right? No, my 4 month old daughter was not the one keeping me awake this time, but rather the allure of doing legal research on my iPhone!

I highly recommend the app by the way. There is no FastCase subscription necessary, just a free registration. I am in heaven. The doors to affordable legal research are materializing in front of me when I had no clue they even existed at all.

So today I was on a mission to find out the cost of FastCase and other affordable research services, and although for FastCase I'd have to call for a quote, LoisLaw did in fact have its rates on its website.

I was shocked! It was at least 10 times less than I anticipated any legal research subscription service to cost. Very much like I'd been made to think in law school that it was either a lucrative BigLaw job or working for a small firm for meager wages, I'd been made to believe that it was Westlaw or Lexis, and nothing else ... oh, and that it was ridiculously expensive. Well, in fairness, I should not lay the blame completely on law school, as in law school they only hinted at the expense of these services, but we have unlimited access to WestCrack like there's no tomorrow, until they brutally cut us off at graduation, leaving us to beg our law student friends for just one more hit of their oh so deliciously free WestCrack. Really, it was my experience at my BigLaw job this summer that made me truly see that WestCrack was more than it was cracked up to be.

As BigLaw summer associates, we had to sit through hours of training on how to do research in a "cost-effective" manner -- i.e. use whatever freebies their WestCrack subscription provided -- then hop onto the crack machine for a few minutes tops and quickly sign-off. God forbid you run up minutes, like some pay-per-minute porn. It was this summer that I learned the joy of book research, of using a law library, and practice guides, and the actual book versions of those Secondary Sources they'd taught us to start off with in Westlaw in law school. But how was I supposed to fund a fully functional law library, or a WestCrack subscription, without selling my left kidney? The thought of praticing law without either felt daunting.

Fortunately, now I see that there are options out there! Now my graduation day, which I have always seen as the day my excruciating withdrawal from WestCrack would begin seems just a little less frightening.

The Birth of my Solo Practice

I've officially decided today, finally and definitely, to start my own solo practice when I graduate law school and pass the bar.

Special Needs Law (primarily Special Ed with some probate areas related to Special Needs) will be my focus, with a dash of Immigration.

My areas of practice will grow as I become more proficient in my areas of interest, such as Bankruptcy and Employment Discrimination.

I plan on serving the Los Angeles community generally, and specifically the Spanish speaking community.

While waiting for bar results, I hope to provide services as a Special Education Advocate, helping clients secure a free, appropriate, public education for their special needs child. 

I am very excited. Wish me luck!