Laura Bergus

LLRX.com recently posted “Basic Legal Research on the Internet.” How handy to have an up-to-date list of sites for primary and secondary sources, all free or, at most, requiring a library card at a library with access to some of the noted databases. Bookmarking this article has saved me a lot of room in my poorly-organized bookmarks folders. Thanks to @Cornell_LII for the tip!

I also had the chance to get a personlized tour of Spindle Law today. The site organizes the law into an easily-browseable tree of topics that drill down to specific legal rules, displaying supporting authority for the rules. David Gold, one of the site’s creators, turned me on to the site after I’d tweeted about the need for a crowdsourced, legal-rule-based research system. Voila! The site is very cool, and I especially like how it displays links to authorities on free databases (Google Scholar and Public Library of Law). But they need contributors to make the site better. Currently anyone can contribute topics, rules, authorities, and can comment on others’ contributions. If this site takes off, it will be a boon to law students and a good jumping-off point for legal research of all kinds.

I am now working for the St. Paul law firm of Bradley & Guzzetta, LLC, as Social Media Policy and Technology Consultant. My job is to help cities, businesses, and organizations effectively use social media to carry out their missions, while addressing the legal pitfalls and encouraging best practices for social media use. With my background working for city government, and my Social Media Best Practices project, I’m in a great place to fill this role.

I’m also contributing to a couple of Blogger blogs for the firm, which will be moving over to fancy new Wordpress digs in the near future. I you want want any tidbits of general telecommunications news, check out Telecom Attorneys. Cities and government employees might appreciate our posts on Municipal Telecommunications.