The Pardee Legal Research Center
The Pardee Legal Research Center stands as an emblem of the legal research and writing program at Loyal University New Orleans College of Law. The center, which opened its doors in 2005, is named for and endowed by Judge Philip C. Halpern of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York "in honor of his father, Samuel B. Halpern, legendary teacher and pioneer law librarian." The center is a high-tech, high comfort establishment designed to promote legal research and writing skills in the legal community. The center is comprised of a three-level state-of-the-art academic research center, a forty-eight seat electronic classroom, a four hundred seat theater/lecture hall and six legal technology/training labs.
The center’s mission is to "promote excellence in legal research" and to "serve the legal research needs of the students and faculty of Loyola University School of Law . " The center strives to achieve its objective by providing reference and research assistance to the law school community, via archives that act as a mine of legal scholarship dating back many decades, and by hosting programs and events intended to encourage legal research in and beyond the law school community and to enhance the center as a hub for legal and academic communication.
In addition to benefitting students and faculty, the center offers a one-stop key research resource for the general public; a wealth of information on topics of local, state, federal and international concern that assists thousands of pro se litigants every year. The center constantly upgrades its database and maintains a close-knit relationship with professional centers for on-call research and reference assistance.
Numerous professional organizations, law firms, businesses and various government entities across the nation rely on the center for their extensive research needs.
Resources and Facilities
The Pardee Legal Research Center (PLRC) is a library facility that also serves as the Marine Corps’ primary law library and research center. The library is located to the immediate south of the school area of the MCJRL. The PLRC is staffed by a staff of 13, a mix of both civilian and military employees, to serve the legal research requirements of students, faculty, and staff. The PLRC is open from 0900 to 1700, Monday through Wednesday, and from 0900 to 1600, Thursday and Friday.
The PLRC provides a primary space for study and collaboration. Law students will have access to study carrels and group study spaces. The student study area is located throughout the lower, second, and third floors of the library. This area also houses five computer workstations for students. The library has wireless access across all floors.
There is a big law center feel to the PLRC. It is stocked with a plentiful supply of current and archived study aids, including the Courtroom Survival Series, Aspen Student Treatises, and Examples & Explanations. The PLRC has a selection of Evidence, Contracts, and Civ Pro Hornbooks. There is a current subscription to the Law Library Resource Exchange, and to various treatises, such as Prosser on Torts and Morgan on Interpleader (remember, these are older treatises than you will find at a civilian law school!). The PLRC has a small collection of MPRE materials and administrative law treaties.
A large part of the library’s collection is devoted to the United States Code Annotated, U.S. Supreme Court Reports, the Federal Reporter, and the Federal Reporter Annotated. Also available are WH-100, WH-101, and WH-102 (FMLA) and the Separation Travel Handbook in the federal regulations shelf.
The library’s shelving is of an open design so it is easy to retrieve many of the required materials.
The PLRC also subscribes to Lexis and Westlaw. These are available from computer workstations in the library. Finally, there is a library of DVDs which can be checked out or viewed in the library.
There is no audiovisual room at the PLRC; however, all students and faculty are assigned an individual/4-hour period study room, equipped with a desk and internet access.
In support of the MCJRL’s distance education programs, many of the courses are provided online. Some of these are offered synchronous and some are asynchronous. Students should visit the MCJRL’s website for information about distance education resources. At this time, the PLRC does not have any capabilities to support distance education classes in their study rooms, or anywhere else in the library. The MCJRL’s corporate knowledge program helps to provide additional training to students on online resources. The program includes sessions on legal research, writing, as well as California and the military justice.
The MCJRL uses an electronic library management system to manage the law library. Most of the subscription services are provided via electronic means.
Online and Electronic Information
The Pardee Legal Research Center (PLRC) is a veritable treasure trove of legal knowledge, and one need only look at the wealth of digital resources it offers to see what I mean. There are few legal and political science databases that the PLRC does not have access to in some form. From Foreign Policy in Focus to Westlaw and the Yale Law Journal, the PLRC ensures that both its student patrons and legal professionals have access to a wide-ranging cross section of databases, journals, and organizations.
Not only are many domestic and foreign legal documents available online, but legal e-publications are also available in droves. The PLRC subscribes to a number of e-publications that are available directly to students who log in to their portal using their student ID and password. There are just over 30 pages of listed e-resource databases and publications that users can subscribe to through the Library.
The PLRC makes accessing its "User Guides" for its electronic subscriptions very easy. It has digitized its subscriptions to allow easy access to all user guides for each publication. The simple and straightforward nature of the guides makes finding what you need simple, as the PLRC organizes all of the guides by topic (e.g. statistics, competition, human rights, industry) and alphabetizes each topic folder.
These user-friendly features and online access points are just a small sampling of what the PLRC has to offer. This is a library on the leading edge of both legal research and technology for legal professionals. How is it that we have access to so many different legal research databases, while the general public does not?
Research Support and Services
Located on the second floor of the McGeorge campus library, the Pardee Legal Research Center is outfitted to provide comprehensive support for a multitude of library research needs. When you find yourself stuck on a legal research stop, consult with the Graduate Law Librarians. Whether it is assistance finding cases in a Westlaw database, obtaining a legislative history, or explaining how to interpret the results of a search, these librarians are familiar with the library resources available to you and how to best utilize them. Beyond finding an answer to your specific question, they can counsel you on a research strategy for your project. Often times the information they are able to provide is invaluable and will save someone countless hours of research. Their expertise and knowledge of best research practices are there for your benefit and it’s this individualized attention that will help you succeed in your legal studies.
The center provides not only research assistance but workshops and training. Every semester the Graduate Law Librarians teach several classes as part of the Lawyering Process program. These classes supplement what students are learning in their 1L courses and aim to build students’ research and writing skills. The topics of these classes include strategies for case law research, statutory research, regulatory research, administrative law/legislative history, citation management, and how to find ethics opinions. Several of these topics were once covered separately by their own class but have been rolled into the "Legal Research: Sources of Law" class to allow for greater time to be dedicated to each topic . These classes are especially important for students as they provide guidance on where to find primary (statutes, regulations, cases, etc.) and secondary (treatises, legal encyclopedias, journal articles, etc.) legal resources. The classes are complemented by cheat sheets which contain a checklist of sources for each type of legal resource. Please see the guides on the right for a list of the cheat sheets *.
This semester the Graduate Law Librarians will also be conducting several non-1L workshops. Two of these will focus on advanced statutory research and legislative history. Statutory research is an often neglected skill that is nevertheless incredibly useful. This year there are ALA Summer Reading programs covering statutory interpretation. These programs would benefit from knowing where to find statutes and secondary legal resources (e.g. journal articles) on a particular area of law. In addition to being a great source of statutory interpretation, these resources can be used to look for articles co-authored by someone who is applicable to a particular law. Legislative history is useful for more then drafting a law itself. Administrative agencies implement laws through regulatory rulemaking. A legislative history allows you to see how the bill evolved over time and "what Congress intended the statute to mean," including how it would be coded. This understanding is valuable when interpreting regulations.
Finally, the center lends out laptops that are perfect for taking notes in the library and attending online lectures.
Events and Partnerships
Throughout the year, the Pardee Legal Research Center hosts a number of events and engages in collaborations that further its mission as a legal information provider. These events provide not only a venue for the sharing of cutting-edge legal research, but they also strengthen the bonds between the law library and the greater legal and academic community. For example, in 2019, the Pardee Center co-hosted the Second Global Conference on Transparency Research and Initiatives in Canada, along with the Canadian Centre for Ethics and Corporate Policy and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. The conference was designed to explore the role of law libraries and their commitment to innovation and social justice, while examining how this is enhanced by strategic collaborations with the larger legal community and related professional organizations. Such collaborations are vital for broadening and deepening the reach of the Pardee Center and for promoting access to legal information on campus, locally and nationally. In summary, events and collaborations at the Pardee Legal Research Center not only enhance the role of the law library within the legal community but also work to strengthen its commitments to academic endeavors and social justice.
Visiting and Using the Center
The Pardee Legal Research Center is located at 5998 Alcalá Park, San Diego, California, 92110 on the campus of the University of San Diego. The Center is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday (except on legal holidays) to members of the bar and to paralegals and legal assistants working under their supervision. The Center is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. It is wise to call first before visiting the Center to confirm that it will be open. Members of the bar of the State of California and of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California may visit the Center and conduct research and consume resources on an unlimited, free-of-charge basis as it is funded by membership dues from these associations. Paralegals and legal assistants working under the supervision of a California or federal court member of the Center may visit the Center on an unlimited , free-of-charge basis. The bar member is responsible for the activities of his or her staff. Paralegals and legal assistants working under the supervision of a member of the San Diego County Bar Association, the San Diego chapter of the Federal Bar Association or the San Diego chapter of the American Institute of Architects may visit the Center limited to 12 times, free-of-charge. Other paralegals and legal assistants who are presently working for members of the bar must be accompanied by their supervising attorney for a maximum of one visit during any 30-day period and may not utilize the Center’s computers or otherwise access the Center’s on-line resources. Students enrolled in the USD School of Law may visit the Center on an unlimited, free-of-charge basis.
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