Business Legal Resources

1. Research Tips for
BUAD 283:
Legal Environment of
Business
Laura Berberian
Social Sciences Librarian
lberberi@umw.edu

2. Business and Legal Databases:
• Access to business, financial, and legal information
• Different databases will provide different information
Business Source Complete Legal Collection

3. Can I use the databases from
home?
jsmith
password
• You will have to
log-in to the
databases when
off-campus
• Log in with your
UMW email
username and
password (these
are the same
credentials you
use to log in to
Canvas)

4. Go to libraries.umw.edu/

5. LexisNexis Academic Guide
From the “Help Guide” page, select:

6. • Click on “Get Company Info”
• search by Name or Ticker Symbol
• Or select “Company Dossier”

7. : Company Dossier Search

8. • Click the name of your company to find detailed business
information
• Under “Company Type”, note the differences for parent vs.
subsidiary, and public vs. private companies
: Company Dossier Search

9. : Company Dossier Results
• Use the Reports menu to
locate additional
information on a company
• Under “Legal,” click on
“recent cases” for cases
involving your company

10. : SEC Filings
• Select “Search
by Content
Type”
• click on “SEC
Filings”
• enter keywords
in the search
field
• Click on
“advanced
options” to
narrow your
search to
specific
sources

11. : Federal & State Cases
• From the LexisNexis home page, select “Search by Content
Type”
• Select “Federal and State Cases”
• Select “advanced search”

12. : Legal Citation Results

13. • Enter your keywords
•Select the correct legal sources
• Click “Search”
: Federal Statutes and
Regulations

14. : Results List
• Full text links
• Sort by “Publication
Date” or “Relevance”
• Print, email, save
• Results breakdown
• Edit searches and start
new searches
• Search within your
results list

15. • Different subject portals – business, legal, news
• Full text
• Searching:
• Boolean operators (AND, NOT, OR)
• Phrase searching – use quotation marks
• Truncation – use exclamation point (!)
• Natural Language – form of a question
• Save, print, email – in pdf, html, or word
: Search Tips

16. Legal Dictionaries:
• Oxford Dictionary of Law – online
through the “Oxford Reference Online”
database
• Black’s Law Dictionary – in print
in the Stafford Campus Library
(KF156 .B53 2004 REF)

17. Oxford Dictionary of Law
• Start at the “Databases A to Z” page
• Click on the letter “O”
• Click “Oxford Reference Online Premium”

18. Oxford Reference Online
Click the Law
selection

19. Oxford Law Sources:
• Search all of the
law titles
OR
• Select a specific
title to search

20.  Interlibrary loan (ILL) – to request materials from other
library systems
 Create an ILL Account
 Make requests via online forms
 20 free requests per semester
 24-48 hour delivery from Simpson Library
What if UMW doesn’t have what I need?

21. Need help? Have Questions?
 Set up a Research Appointment
with Laura Berberian, Social
Sciences Librarian
 lberberi@umw.edu
 540-654-1742