Harvard Law School Library: A trove of resources for clinics and student practice organizations

The Harvard Law School library offers a wealth of resources including information guides, tools, and toolkits relevant to students and faculty working in clinics and student practice organizations (SPOs). With the front-line lawyer in mind, the library covers more than 50 subject areas, each one detailing the best way to get started with legal research, including pertinent regulations, case law, and journal articles.

There are also more than 10 Library Liaisons, assigned to the clinics and SPOs, ready to help clinical faculty, staff, and students develop efficient research skills and techniques through training sessions and individual meetings.

More than that, clinics and SPOs have access to a number of online tools, including:

• LexisNexis, where a dedicated LexisNexis on-campus-representative can offer trainings on topics related to a specific clinic’s subject matter;
• WestlawNext for quick access to textual forms and clauses, fillable PDF forms, and drafting aids;
• Bloomberg Law to find a topic and keep current on issues; and
• Practicing Law Institute Discover Plus for access to more than 50,000 documents, including treatises, course handbooks, answers books, transcripts, and forms.

Recently, the library began offering free and total access to Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education’s (MCLE) OnlinePass, a searchable database containing all MCLE’s live and archived webcasts, books, forms, and practice-area professional development plans.

OCP encourages you explore these resources and connect with your library liaison, individually or as a group, to meet your specific clinic or SPO needs.

For more information please visit the library’s Services for HLS Clinics and SPOs website.