Research Guides: Federal Legal Research: Practice Materials

Introduction

Practice materials are designed for a legal professional working within a particular subject area. They will often contain forms and checklists to assist an attorney in legal practice. Some practice materials will also include relevant primary materials (statutes, regulations, and cases) that pertain to a specific subject area. They may also contain current awareness materials such as newsletters. Frequently, practice materials are published in three-ring binders to make them easier to update.

For federal practice materials, major publishers include:

Rutter Group (available on Westlaw)
Matthew Bender (available on Lexis)
CCH (some titles available on both Lexis and Westlaw)
BNA (available on Bloomberg)

There are LOTS of other practice materials! Some major categories are:

Formbooks (general formbooks, code forms, subject-specific)
Model documents (for contract drafting, etc., etc.)
Checklists
Etc., etc.

Rutter Group (Westlaw)
The Rutter Group practice library is available on Westlaw. It focuses primarily on California state law but has a few notable titles designed for federal practice, including Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial.
Matthew Bender (Lexis)
The Matthew Bender library, available on Lexis, includes all aspects of federal practice including transactional and litigation forms, commentary and analysis, and current awareness services.
CEB OnLaw
CEB OnLaw is the platform for the Continuing Education for the Bar. It is owned by the University of California. It specializes in California law. However, there are some titles which may be relevant for interstate practice including sources on estate planning, family law, and probate.

Legal Treatises

Harvard Law Library - Treatises by Subject
To locate a treatise by its topical area, consult this list created by the librarians at Harvard Law. It contains most of the major treatises organized by subject. The Mabie Law Library has virtually all of these materials, either in print or electronically.
NYU Law - Treatises by Topic
This is another fairly comprehensive list of legal treatises organized by topical area.

Federal Procedure

Federal Practice and Procedure (Wright/Miller) by Charles Alan Wright & Andrew D. Leipold
Comprehensive and authoritative coverage of all aspects of federal civil, criminal and appellate procedure, including rules of civil, criminal, and appellate procedure, rules of evidence, the federal judicial system, jurisdiction of all federal courts, venue, removal of cases, res judicata, relation of state and federal courts, multidistrict litigation, and more. Provides extensive analysis of each rule as interpreted and applied by the federal courts and affected by related statutes and rules. Includes official forms adopted with the rules. Contains numerous tables and couples key words, ideas, and legal concepts to index and cited decisions, statutes, and other relevant materials.
Moore's Federal Practice
The first edition of this venerable work was written by the late Professor James William Moore, one of the original drafters of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, in 1938. From its initial publication, Moore's instantly became, and remains today, the standard reference work on federal court procedure and has been cited thousands of times in federal court decisions. This latest edition represents a complete overhaul of the classic work, authored by over 50 distinguished federal judges, law professors, and practitioners, including many who, like Professor Moore, have been directly involved in the federal rulemaking process. Moore's 34 volumes include the full text of the federal rules along with extensive commentary and analysis of the rules and cases interpreting the rules.
Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial (Rutter)
An authoritative procedural guide on pretrial practice in California and Ninth Circuit federal courts, Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial contains comprehensive coverage of federal court jurisdiction, together with detailed focus on removal and remand, pleadings, motion practice and discovery, and all other pretrial stages of a lawsuit. It includes key citations to federal statutes, rules, and cases, plus invaluable court-tested forms and practice pointers that reflect years of litigation experience.