Date: July 15, 2026, from 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Host: PDS
Credits: 1
Cost: Free
Location: Zoom
Registration: [Register here]
Summary: This course builds upon and expands legal research skills using Westlaw to delve into topical content sets of law. The focus will be finding case law, statutes, regulations, and administrative documents, as well as secondary sources, specific to a topical area of practice. Exploring the variety of ways topical research can be performed using Westlaw, the breadth and depth of these materials will be highlighted, along with a review of the best techniques to conduct searches using those materials effectively and efficiently. Included will be an explanation of the power of Westlaw’s legal search engine, WestSearch, to return the most relevant results, and the importance of KeyCite in verifying the status of documents on Westlaw. Westlaw has organized topical materials in a variety of ways for easy access, including Practitioner Insights Pages and Topical Pages. Working in the Practitioner Pages, created specifically for certain Topical areas of law on Westlaw, attendees will review several ways to enter searches and return results. Beginning with the use of Plain English searching, from either the global search box on the page, which draws upon all the content sets, or by clicking into any of the topical content sets, the attendees can enter terms in a plain language, natural format, and view results related to their topic. Additionally, using Terms & Connectors search functionality, either working from the global search box, or clicking into the Advanced search templates, will enable the attendees to tailor their searches by specific language and to specific parts of documents, yielding a well-defined search result. Topical pages, which allow global searching as well as more targeted searches by content set, will also be shown. Both types of pages can be saved as a Favorite or set as a homepage for easy access. Reinforcing the ways Westlaw’s productivity and organizational tools assist the researcher when using topical materials will be explored. Highlighting multiple ways to Filter a search result, whether by Jurisdiction, Date, Search within feature, etc., enables the researcher to pinpoint the documents most relevant to their research. Creating and using Folders to retain links and snippets from documents they find useful will be examined, and the ways in which exporting and sharing Folder information helps researchers collaborate with in-house colleagues as well as outside counsel. In addition, working with the History page to evaluate and track previous search queries and results for 12 months, along with various export options, will be shown.
Faculty Biography: Trevor Friend, a seasoned Westlaw instructor with over two decades of experience, dedicated to educational excellence and empowering you to confidently use our products. My goal today is to address your questions, provide valuable insights, and help you advance your research skills, all while showing you how Thomson Reuters is in the forefront of current industry trends and evolving customer needs.
Admission Restrictions: Unless otherwise approved by PDS, to attend this training, you must be eligible to accept PDS case assignments or be a current student at Maine Law.