Research Guides: 1L Resource Guide: Databases

Popular Law Databases

Westlaw vs. Lexis

These are the big two databases you will use throughout your academic and professional career: Westlaw and Lexis. You'll most likely favor one over the other, but it's important to get to know the basics of using both - you never know what law firm will have access to which.

Westlaw
Comprehensive legal research platform contains federal and state primary law, secondary resources including law reviews, journals, treatises, commentary, news and more. Available to Pitt Law students, faculty and staff via individual password.
Lexis
Comprehensive legal research platform contains federal and state primary law, secondary resources including law reviews, journals, treatises, commentary, news and more. NOTE: Pitt Law users only; must have been assigned a Pitt Law Lexis account. Pitt Law users, for assistance contact barcoref@pitt.edu.

Additional Databases

Aspen Learning Library
Aspen is a great resource for finding study aids n e-book format. The collection also covers the fundamentals of some legal topics in a video and audio. Formerly called Wolters Kluwer study guides.
Bloomberg Law (BNA)
A comprehensive legal research database from Bloomberg, including dockets, cases, statutes, financial and corporate information and news.
Casetext
Casetext Research offers full coverage of all 50-state and federal cases, statutes, regulations, and rules. Also included is access to CARA A.I., the document analyzer tool that finds on-point cases based on your matter.
HeinOnline
Large database of PDF-formatted U.S. and international legal materials. Includes current materials for some collections (e.g., law journals), but is especially known for historical materials (e.g., Legal Classics, U.S.
National Conference of State Legislatures
Provides legislatures in the states, territories and commonwealths of the U.S. Its mission is to advance the effectiveness, independence and integrity of legislatures and to foster interstate cooperation and facilitate the exchange of information among legislatures.
ProQuest Congressional
Provides federal legislative history information including access to a wide range of Congressional documents, published and unpublished hearings, CRS reports and committee reports. Includes access to the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980.
SSRN
Repository for scholarly working papers and publications by academic faculty.
Tax Notes
Tax Notes is a collection of publications by Tax Analysts, a non-profit tax publisher. Tax Notes’ news publications provide comprehensive coverage of tax news and commentary as well as access to primary sources of tax law.

Online News Sources

There are a variety of ways to access the news or news articles. Whether you want to keep up with the happenings of the legal world or looking to cite an article for Law Review, here are some of the databases we recommend.

Law360
Law360 is a current-awareness tool providing the most recent legal news in over 30 practice areas. Law360 content is also available via your Pitt Law Lexis account.
Lexis + News
Access to news media with a global content collection, including news archive and public records.
LexisNexis Mealey's® Latest News
National Newspapers (Current)
Current full text access to popular publications: Chicago Tribune, LA Times, New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.
Newspaper Source
Indexing and some full-text access to a wide range of national and international newspapers and journals. Newspaper Source provides cover-to-cover full text for more than 40 (U.S.) & international newspapers. The database also contains selective full text for 389 regional (U.S.) newspapers. In addition, full text television & radio news transcripts are also provided.
New York Law Journal
A legal periodical covering the legal profession in New York, United States. The newspaper, published Monday through Friday, provides daily coverage of civil and criminal cases from state and federal courts, as well as news about court administration, large and small law firms, elected officials, government offices, law schools, nonprofit agencies, in-house legal departments and bar associations.
Nexis Uni
Comprehensive news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis available to the entire Pitt campus community. Offers quick discovery across all content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents. Includes access to federal and state statutes, cases, regulations, law reviews and journal articles; also U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790.
PIttsburgh Post Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is the Pittsburgh local newspaper. Pitt Law users can access the online PG via IP range or proxy server - that is, you must either be in the Barco Law Building to access Or you will be connected to the P-G after autenticating through Pitt Portal login. You may be required to set up your own account by clicking "Create Account" when you get a popup msg. After that, you will be recognized by IP address.
PressReader
PressReader provides access to more than 6,000 current newspapers and magazines from over 100 countries and about 60 languages. Content is discoverable by searching publication name, subject, country or language preference. Fully-formatted publications and stories appear just as they do in print. The database archives content for up to 90 days.
Readex All Search
Search across 17 Readex databases containing historical imprints, newspapers, and government documents. Includes America's Historical Imprints and Newspapers, American State Papers, Foreign Broadcast Info. Service reports, World Newspaper Archive.
Tax Notes
Tax Notes is a collection of publications by Tax Analysts, a non-profit tax publisher. Tax Notes’ news publications provide comprehensive coverage of tax news and commentary as well as access to primary sources of tax
U.S. Law Week
This informative weekly Bloomberg BNA newsletter reports the most significant cases and key legislative, regulatory, and pre-decisional developments, across the country, across all areas of the law. NOTE: Pitt Law users only. Users must log into their Bloomberg Law accounts for access. For Pitt Law user assistance please contact barcoref@pitt.edu .
Vital Law
The Wolters Kluwer VitalLaw legal research platform provides access to federal and state primary law, regulations, reporters, treatises, commentary, news and analysis. Practice areas include business and finance, cybersecurity and privacy, health and human resources, intellectual property, labor and employment, litigation, practice of law, securities, federal, state and international tax law and more. NOTE: Users are required to create a username/password login the first time they use the database, and must log in for subsequent use.
Westlaw News
With a user-friendly interface and customizable features, Westlaw News ensures that you receive the news that matters most to you. Dive into a wealth of legal information and enhance your professional knowledge with the trusted insights offered by Westlaw News. Stay informed, stay prepared, and stay at the forefront of the legal conversation.

For more information on news sources available through Pitt, check out the guide below!

Newspaper guide
A guide to finding major, historical, and foreign language newspapers available through the University Library System.

1L Resource Guide: Databases

Accessing Databases

Popular Law Databases

Westlaw vs. Lexis

Additional Databases

Online News Sources