Research and research tools are not free. In law school you have access to almost the full breadth of legal and academic research databases and resources. However, in the real world each of these resources has a cost. It is also very likely that you will have access to fewer resources in a firm. You may have only one of the two primary databases, Westlaw or Lexis, or you may have access to only certain aspects of each. Further, additional resources that you may have become accustomed to using may not be available at all or only in a limited capacity, including Bloomberg Law, Proquest databases, and Heinonline, among many others.
In addition to more limited access to resources, using resources incurs a cost. You should familiarize yourself with your firm's pricing contract with the major research vendors. Please see the links below for general information about the pricing of the popular paid legal research databases.
This cost may or may not be passed along to clients, but regardless, efficient research is important. Thus, you should familiarize yourself with techniques for efficient research as well as free legal research tools. See our Free and Frugal Research Guide for cost-effective research ideas. For more on the topic, see the guides linked below.
Georgetown Free and Low Cost Legal Research Guide