This Week in the Law Library …

This week we’re reviewing summer access to legal databases, looking at bar exam resources, providing new building information, continuing our celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and previewing Ohio Supreme Court oral arguments.

Summer Access to Lexis, Westlaw, & Bloomberg Law

Lexis

If you’re already registered for Lexis, you don’t need to do anything else to get Summer Access. Access is unlimited for any purpose.

Westlaw

You can use Westlaw over the summer for non-commercial research. You can turn to these resources to gain understanding and build confidence in your research skills, but you cannot use them in situations where you are billing a client. Examples of permissible uses for your academic password include the following:

  • Summer coursework
  • Research assistant assignments
  • Law Review or Journal research
  • Moot Court research
  • Non-Profit work
  • Clinical work
  • Externship sponsored by the school

Please contact the Westlaw Representative for more information.

B-Law (Bloomberg Law)

If your workplace has a Bloomberg Law account, you are expected to use that, but there are no restrictions on your student Bloomberg accounts over the summer.

Bar Exam Study Resources

Congratulations! You have made it through law school but now the bar exam looms. Don’t worry, the Law Library’s got your back. When you’ve caught your breath and you’re ready to start your bar studying, we have resources that can help. Check out our Bar Exam Research Guide.

The July bar examination will be administered July 26-27, 2022 at the Roberts Centre, 123 Gano Road, Wilmington, Ohio. There will be a room block available for the attached Holiday Inn.

5 Bar Exam Resources to Start You Off

Bar Exam Basics: Discussions in Law School Success (Podcast)

Available via CALI, this podcast provides critical information that you should consider before you begin to study for the bar exam. There is a lot to think about even before you start your bar review, whether that’s meeting deadlines or preparing for hurdles. This podcast offers tips and considerations to help you navigate the process more smoothly. If using CALI, you will need to create an account (if you have not already done so) using a Cincinnati Law authorization code. You can obtain this code from a reference librarian.

The Bar Exam in a Nutshell

Available via the West Academic study aid subscription, this edition walks you through the entire bar preparation process from getting a head start during your last year of law school to taking the exam. It features comprehensive coverage of the Uniform Bar Exam, including an explanation of each component and how to prepare for it, to the larger question of what “portability” really means for the bar candidate. This edition also provides guidelines for selecting a bar review course, bar planner checklists, advice on how to manage the material you cover in bar review courses, and advice on how to learn the law so you can remember it and use it to answer exam questions. It identifies the basic skills the exam tests and the precise manner in which these skills are tested, showing you how to target your study efforts to maximize results. An Appendix provides practice materials for the MPT and essays, including the MEEs, with “answer de-constructions” to explain why bar examiners chose those answers as “better than average.”

Bar Exam Success: A Comprehensive Guide

Available via the West Academic study aid subscription, this book (there is also an audio version) is written from the perspective of a bar mentor, your “trainer at the academic gym,” with concrete advice on how to handle the many challenges facing today’s law students. There are dozens of self-assessments, tools to help you face very real challenges on every level, and to organize and prepare to pass the bar exam. The book includes trustworthy advice and powerful personal examples from the author’s decades of helping students pass bar exams nationwide. The book is uplifting and positive, while harnessing cutting-edge, scientific learning theories.

The Essential Rules for Bar Exam Success

Available via the West Academic study aid subscription, this book presents a method for teaching students to pass the bar that is easy to learn and implement. Topics covered include learning to study actively rather than passively; choosing study partners who will help, not hinder, your studying; learning to think, read, and write critically; dissecting multistate exam questions; coping with pressure; making the most of the weeks before the bar exam; and preparing for the day of the exam.

Passing the Bar: A Quick Reference Guide For Today’s Law Student

Available via CALI, this e-book (there is also an audio version) is designed to provide guidance to law students as they prepare to embark upon bar study. It covers topics such as how to make a study plan, strategies for successful bar study, tips for attacking each portion of the exam, taking care of your mental health, and preparing your loved ones for bar study. The book also provides weekly tips for use during the bar study period, and for exam day itself. The quick reference format allows students to easily access advice for whatever is most pressing to them at a particular moment. It provides a guide to bar exam preparation for all law students, but with a particular focus on those who aspire to be public interest or social justice attorneys, first-generation law students, those law students who do not come from families of lawyers, or who come from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the legal profession. While much of the advice is universal, this book focuses on those students who are about to enter bar study and will not see your communities – or your future clients – represented on the bar exam. You may have found that your law school colleagues have received advice about how to study and navigate law school, when no one was there to advise you. This book aims not just to level the playing field, but to give you an edge when it comes to studying for the bar exam. If using CALI, you will need to create an account (if you have not already done so) using a Cincinnati Law authorization code. You can obtain this code from a reference librarian.

New Building Information

Access

Student access to the current building will end on Friday July 22nd. General access to the new building will commence on Monday August 8th. Students will have 24/7 access to the new building starting at that time.

Location & Parking

The new building is located at the southern side of campus off of Martin Luther King Blvd. The closest parking garages to the new building are the Campus Green garage (which is attached to the new building by a covered walkway) and the Woodside garage which is located across the street from the new building.

May Is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

This month we’re celebrating Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month! After decades of celebrating Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week, Congress finally passed Public Law 102-450 which annually designated May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. Read President Biden’s 2022 Proclamation on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, And Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

UC College of Law & Campus Celebrations for Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month

UC Alumni Association Celebrates Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month

UC Libraries

Melissa Cox Norris, Library resources in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, LiBlog (May 11, 2022)

Library Displays at UCBA, Asian-Pacific Heritage Month

5 Resources to Learn More About Asian American and Pacific Islanders

Asian Pacific American Law Journal (APALJ)

Established in 1991, the Asian Pacific American Law Journal (APALJ) is dedicated entirely to Asian Pacific American issues. APALJ is one of only two law journals in the nation that focuses exclusively on the legal issues affecting APA communities. Run by students at the UCLA School of Law, the Journal seeks to facilitate discourse on issues affecting South Asian, Southeast Asian, East Asian, and Pacific Islander communities in the United States. APALJ plays an important role by providing a forum for legal scholars, practitioners and students to communicate about emerging concerns specific to Asian Pacific Americans and by disseminating these writings to APA populations. The journal welcomes articles from academics and professionals in the field, as well as comments and case notes from law students.

Asian American Law Journal

The Asian American Law Journal (AALJ) is one of only two law journals in the United States focusing on Asian American communities in its publication agenda. Known as the Asian Law Journal until 2007, AALJ was first published in October 1993 in a joint publication with the California Law Review. AALJ’s first independent issue was published in May 1994. AALJ serves dual purposes for the Asian Pacific American and legal communities. First, the journal sets a scholarly foundation for exploring the unique legal concerns of Asian Pacific Americans. Second, AALJ seeks to put that scholarship in action and open the dialogue between those who study law and those who are affected by it. In pursuit of these goals, AALJ strives to provide a forum for the many voices and opinions of the Asian Pacific American community through events such as its annual Spring Symposium and Neil Gotanda Lecture in Asian American Jurisprudence.

Library of Congress Asian American and Pacific Islander Materials: A Resource Guide

This guide serves as a point of entry for researchers seeking materials in multiple formats on Asian American/Pacific Islander studies and related resources at the Library of Congress. The types of resources covered in this guide range from special collections containing photographs, diary entries, and recorded interviews to monographs, reference works, and serials.

National Archives, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

The National Archives holds a wealth of material documenting the Asian and Pacific Islander experience, and it highlights these resources online, in programs, and through traditional and social media.

The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center

The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center serves as a dynamic national resource for discovering why the Asian Pacific American experience matters every day, everywhere, and all of the time.

May Oral Arguments at the Ohio Supreme Court

You can view the live stream of oral arguments on the Court’s website or see them after the arguments take place in the Ohio Channel archives.

Ohio Supreme Court Chamber

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

McClain v. State – whether a jury trial is available in a wrongful imprisonment lawsuit. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

Estate of Jennings Fleenor v. County of Ottawa – whether counties can only be sued through claims against county boards of commissioners. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

Morey v. Campbell – whether a court must find that circumstances with the child or custodian have changed before it can modify a custody arrangement if the biological parent seeks to regain custody of a child from a nonparent. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

State v. Stansell – whether a sentence that exceeds the maximum for a charged offense can be corrected by a trial court when the sentence wasn’t challenged on direct appeal and the time for an appeal has passed. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

In re D.R – whether the procedures for certain juvenile court hearings described in Ohio Rev. Code § 2152.84 complies with state and federal due process rights. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

Valentine v. Cedar Fair LP – (1) whether offering a season pass imposes a contractual obligation on the pass issuer to open its business during government-ordered closures, making the issuer liable for damages and (2) whether the term “season” ambiguous. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

State v. Messenger – whether the 2018 revision of the law addressing deadly force in self-defense requires using a different standard of review for appellate courts reviewing a conviction where self-defense was claimed but rejected by a jury. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

State ex rel. Candy Bowling v. DeWine – whether Ohio Rev. Code § 4141.43(I) compels Ohio’s governor to participate in all federal unemployment compensation programs created by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act? Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview