Free Westlaw CLE from the Legal Tech Institute

The Legal Tech Institute at the Harris County Law Library is hosting a free Westlaw CLE this week. To register, visit the Course Calendar on the Legal Tech Institute website.

Join us on Thursday, February 16, 12:00pm to 1:00pm for a Vendor Visit from our Westlaw representative who will discuss Legislative and Statutory Resources available for free on the Law Library’s Westlaw computers. Texas attorneys can earn 1.0 hour CLE credit.

You can also watch past CLEs anytime on the Legal Tech Institute On-demand Learning webpage. CLE credit is available in Texas for viewing the video up to a year after the live event.

Legislative Histories of Cybersecurity Laws Enacted by the 113th and 114th Congresses

January is Data Privacy and Information Security Law Month at the Harris County Law Library. All month long, we are promoting the data privacy resources in our collection to raise awareness of the need for data security in the practice of law. We are also featuring relevant electronic sources, including the Cybersecurity Law Institute at Georgetown University, and the Cybersecurity Law Report, both of which are freely available on the Internet.

The Law Library's subscription databases provide access to even more good resources, including legislative histories of key cybersecurity laws. HeinOnline has just added several new cybersecurity law resources to its U.S. Federal Legislative History Library. The new collection, Legislative Histories of Cybersecurity Laws Enacted by the 113th and 114th Congresses (William H. Manz, ed.) (2016)  is a compilation of eight laws enacted in 2014 and 2015 including: 

• Cybersecurity Workforce Assessment Act
• Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014
• National Cybersecurity Protection Act of 2014
• Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014

Four additional Acts grouped into the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 are also part of the compilation. The legislative histories include the text and chronology of the Acts, bill versions, related bills, committee reports, congressional debates and hearings, GAO reports, and presidential materials. 

To access these legislative histories and a world of other content, visit the Law Library or access HeinOnline on your mobile device.

Labor and Employment Law Research Guide

January is Employment Law Resource Month at Harris County Law Library. Selected labor and employment law resources are on display in the library, and others are highlighted here on Ex Libris Juris. Another excellent tool for locating our most frequently consulted employment law resources can be found on our website under the Legal Research tab on our homepage. The Labor and Employment Law Research Guide features Practice Essentials, including treatises, form manuals, and pattern jury charges, along with annotated statutes and codes, CLE coursebooks, and legal periodicals. Additional titles on workplace discrimination, labor relations, occupational safety, and workers' compensation are recommended. Access this Guide online, download or print a PDF copy, or pick up a hard copy at the Reference Desk. 

New Features on Lexis Advance Coming in January 2017

Today, the Legal Tech Institute at Harris County Law Library hosted a training session called Introduction to Lexis Advance. This Vendor Visit provided a nice overview of basic search functions within Lexis Advance and featured many tips and tricks for more effectively locating cases and statutes. The session also offered a preview of upgrades that will be added to the Law Library's Lexis subscription in January. Upgrades include:

• National Primary Plus - National cases, statutes, administrative and agency materials plus all law reviews and journals
• National Briefs, Pleadings, and Motions - includes documents from the most dynamic and high-stakes practice areas of litigation
• National Verdicts and Settlements - including IDEX and American Lawyer Media (ALM) VerdictSearch
• News - robust collection of all LexisNexis news sources 
• Matthew Bender Federal Practice Forms - provides a complete range of litigation forms needed for practice in any federal court from federal district courts through and including the Supreme Court of the United States 
• Lexis for Microsoft Office

The Legal Tech Institute will offer training sessions in the new year to introduce these and other features of Lexis Advance. Check the LTI Course Catalog for details about Vendor Visits and the rest of our legal tech CLE programs. 

Blending Your Legal Research, a Legal Tech InStitute CLE

Join us at noon on Thursday, December 8, 2016 for a one-hour CLE entitled Blending Your Legal Research. This program, the latest course offering of the Legal Tech Institute at Harris County Law Library, will emphasize the value of using free online research tools to develop more effective research strategies, especially when combined with Westlaw and Lexis, two of the legal databases offered free of charge to Law Library visitors. This "blending" of legal research tools and strategies will be the focus of the hour, and we're happy to welcome two special guests from the Texas State Law Library to help us demonstrate this approach.  

Librarians from the TxSLL will talk about their Digital Collection, which includes a whole library of eBooks from Lexis. They will demonstrate how to access these resources remotely with a TxSLL library card, which you can register for onsite on the day of the program.

Those who attend in person or who view the live stream of this presentation on the Harris County Law Library's YouTube channel will be eligible for one hour of CLE credit.

To enroll in this course, please visit the LTI website. We hope to see you there!