E-3 Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Mo . . . County, Court, Academic, Private—Should I Stay or Should I Go?

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Monday, July 27 - 10:00am - 10:30am
Location: 
WCC-Room 147 AB
Target Audience: 
Librarians newer to the profession and those contemplating a career change to a different legal environment
Learning Outcomes: 
1) Participants will learn what makes working as a law firm librarian, court librarian, county librarian or academic librarian unique from each other.
2) Participants will gain a better sense of which library setting — private, academic, county or court—fits their idea of the best law library environment in which to work.
3) Participants may even find that it’s possible, and personally rewarding, to consider more than one type of law library in their career plan.

Working in a law firm library is different from working in either an academic, court or county law library. To help those newer to the profession as well as those thinking of changing their law library environment, this panel will discuss the uniqueness of different law libraries and what it is like to work in one or the other. Law firm libraries are cost centers—many law firm librarians bill the client for their time. At the same time, in law firms there can be a sense of urgency regardless of cost. In an academic law library, you have the pressure to teach as well as publish. In a county law library setting, you are faced with the challenges of supporting people who often have nowhere else to go—the per se client for example. In a court library you may be called upon to assist a judge or judge’s clerk. Learning how to balance cost effectiveness vs. urgency, legal vs. nonlegal and print vs. electronic is “everyday fare” for a law librarian. Each law library setting has its own rewards and challenges. This panel will help you find your best fit.

Speaker(s): 
Deborah L. Rusin, Coordinator and Moderator, Latham & Watkins LLP
Amy J. Eaton, Perkins Coie LLP
Gretchen Van Dam, Library of the U.S. Courts for the Seventh Circuit