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Vol. 19 | No. 1 | Fall 2010
Cite as: Kim Flanery Coats, Legal Research, as Applied: Introducing Legal Research Sources Using Interrelated Examples
from a Developing Area of Law, 19 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Res. & Writing 1 (2010).

Legal Research, as Applied:
Introducing Legal Research Sources Using Interrelated
Examples from a Developing Area of Law
1

By Kim Flanery Coats
KimFlanery Coats is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville.

Many legal research and writing (LRW) programs have developed orientation programs to
introduce techniques for reading and briefing cases, and introducing various research sources,
to entering first-year law students. Entering students at the University of Arkansas attend
a required orientationprogram the week before the fall semester formally begins. During
orientation week, LRW faculty spend six to eight hours of classroom time with students,
introducing them to methods for reading and briefing cases, reading statutes, introducing
various legal research sources, and discussing legal analysis and legal synthesis.
I have developed a method that allows me to
introduce those basicconcepts and basic research
sources, as well as demonstrate the interrelationship
between cases and statutes, during these initial
orientation sessions by using interrelated examples
from a developing area of law. The method begins
with assigned readings in a research text and
small group tours of the library. I supplement
that information with examples of interrelated
authority from an areaof the law that, when
viewed together, provides students with an
overview of how an issue identified in one legal
source develops over time to become “the law.”

1 This article developed from a presentation entitled “An
Introduction to Legal Research: A Microcosm of Legal Sources”
given by the author at the 2009 Central Region Legal Writing
Conference at Marquette University Law School,“Climate Change:
Alternative Sources of Energy in Legal Writing,” on October 9–10,
2009.

Printed by West
as a service to the
Legal Community.

Sources of Interrelated Legal Authority

I chose to supplement the readings in the research
text with cases and statutes involving the issue of
dramshop liability. It is an area of Arkansas law
that has changed dramatically in the past severalyears, and it is a topic that entering students easily
understand. Initially, I ask students to read two
cases2 decided two years apart by the Arkansas
Supreme Court, and build on that issue for the
rest of the week. In class the next day, the two
cases frame the discussion about identifying the
parts of the case, such as the synopsis and topic
and key numbers, as well as the largerdiscussion
about case reading and case briefing. The issues

2 As an aside, I did not select the cases for their clarity, writing
style, or analytical precision. I selected them based only on
jurisdiction and topic.

continued on page 3

1

In This Issue

1

Legal Research, as Applied: Introducing Legal Research
Sources Using Interrelated Examples from a Developing Area
of LawPerspectives: Teaching Legal Research and
Writing is published in the fall, winter,
and spring of each year by West.

Kim Flanery Coats

11

Rethinking Case Briefing: Teaching Case Briefing as a
Sustainable Skill
Mary Dunnewold

20

A Fresh Look at Assessing Students’ Work Product:
What Is Assessment, Why We Assess, and How to Do So
Effectively and Efficiently

Editor
Mary A. HotchkissUniversity of Washington School of Law
and the Information School
Seattle, Washington
Editorial Board
Barbara A. Bintliff

Kathryn S. Mercer

University of Texas
School of Law Library
Austin, Texas

Case Western Reserve
University School of Law
Cleveland, Ohio

Elizabeth Edinger

Helene S. Shapo

29

A Stranger in a Strange Land: A Doctrinal Professor’s
Journey into the...