In summation know who can help you network to locate clients, who can shape the law, and what resources are available to help you understand the law. These tools often overlap and they should be combined for optimization when possible. Joining the ABA connects you with great mean lawyers; in addition it provides you with potential job opportunities. These job opportunities will allow you influence with a very powerful lobbying committee. This in turn will allow you to influence the laws which are placed on the books. In addition to the influence it will probably allow you free access to great on-line resources such as LexisNexis and Westlaw. These interplays can prove vital for a young lawyer. The connections, which I shall not belabor, are numerous the primary points are that they are available. When the new lawyer is established and ready to practice these insights will serve them well. If you have further contributions on this topic please chime in. Thanks for reading.

Information about the Indiana Supreme Court can be obtained at their website http://www.in.gov/judiciary/supreme/. The current make-up of the court can be found here. This can prove insightful as to the justice’s ideologies.

Justice Randall T. Shepard is the Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. He has been on the court since 1985 and Chief Justice since 1987.

Additionally a review of the courts power is warranted. This is good to know because despite how well legislation is crafted there will undoubtedly be gray areas. These areas will be filled in, that is to say further developed by the judiciary. Their job is to give life to legislation. Giving life is another way of saying interpreting the broader and sometimes ambiguous meaning of legislation and applying it to everyday life, via cases that are presented to them. Cases which are appealed reach their finial resolution at the appellate level. These cases then stand as precedent which lower courts in that jurisdiction most follow. This is in effect how court effect public policy. These policy determinations have great bearing on the attorneys and clients alike.

The Indiana State legislator website is http://www.in.gov/legislative/. It provides information ranging from current session information, Legislators information, Bills and Resolutions, Law and Administrative Rules, etc. This site proves a good starting point when researching which laws are currently effecting your cliental in which ones are being introduced that may. General knowledge of how a bill becomes a law is a good review point. A couple of ways you can go about influencing legislation is to contact your representatives. They can be located by visiting Who's Your Legislator and keying in your zip code. By contacting them directly you can introduce it through your specific legislator. Furthermore, you can introduce recommendations formally or informally via letters and/or petitions.

Lobbying whether engaged in by an attorney, a firm, or special interest groups will allow attorneys influence the laws which affect them. Laws are generated in many ways including: Federal statutes; State legislators, city ordinances; and common law, which is developed by appellate courts opinions. I shall narrow the focus of this review to the state level. I shall examine the concepts of statues and judicial opinions from the Indiana State Legislator and the Indiana Supreme Court. I shall then review how the two are reconciled.

Westlaw would be another great resource for legal research. It provides excellent tools in reference to legal research. Their Shepard’s tool provides more in-depth discussion of the treatment and citation of cases. Furthermore, it outlines those cases which have received negative treatment. The primary difference is that they rank how strong the case has remained over time. Additionally, they provide links to west keys. This again allows ready access to the cases themselves. One major difference is that the schools that I have attended provide access to LexisNexis, but not to Westlaw. This may be due to agreement, licensing cost, or a myriad of other factors. The result is that you become more familiar with LexisNexis and, therefore, tend to prefer the one over the other.