Lexis+ Legal Research and Case Law Analysis Training Course
| Course code | SD-L-013 |
|---|---|
| Duration | 5 days |
| Level | Foundation to Intermediate |
| Category | Legal |
| Delivery | Classroom or live online |
| Language | English |
| Certificate | Certificate of completion |
Course overview
Legal teams, in-house counsel, paralegals and compliance professionals are expected to find controlling authority quickly, distinguish binding precedent from persuasive commentary, and show how the law has developed since a leading case was decided. Weak search construction, incomplete validation or poorly documented research trails can lead to advice based on overruled authority, missed procedural decisions and avoidable review time. This course addresses the practical work of researching, validating and presenting case law through Lexis+.
Participants learn to translate a legal issue into searchable concepts; build precise Lexis+ searches using terms and connectors, natural-language searching, filters and segment searching; and work efficiently across cases, statutes, regulations and secondary sources. They use Shepard's Citations Service to assess treatment, identify citing decisions, trace judicial history and investigate negative treatment. The course also covers headnotes, Topic Summaries, citing references, alerts, folders, search histories, document delivery and citation checking using The Bluebook.
Instruction is built around realistic research assignments in litigation, commercial contracting, employment and regulatory scenarios. Participants complete timed searches, compare research paths, validate authorities and prepare concise findings for a supervising lawyer or business stakeholder. They leave with a documented legal research workflow: a search log, validated authority table, Shepard's treatment record, case-law analysis matrix and short research memorandum that can be adapted for workplace matters.
The programme suits professionals moving from basic legal database use to reliable, defensible research practice, as well as experienced researchers seeking a more structured Lexis+ workflow. Managers gain staff who can explain not only what authority they found, but why it is current, relevant and appropriately weighted.
Course objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Construct issue-based Lexis+ search strategies using terms and connectors, natural-language queries and field restrictions
- Apply jurisdiction, court, date, practice area and document-type filters to isolate relevant primary authority
- Interpret case headnotes, Topic Summaries and citing references to identify legally relevant propositions
- Validate case law through Shepard's Citations Service, including judicial history and negative treatment analysis
- Distinguish binding, persuasive, unpublished and superseded authority within a defined jurisdictional hierarchy
- Trace a line of authority from a leading decision to later applications, distinctions and statutory developments
- Produce a research log and authority table that records sources searched, search strings, treatment and relevance
- Draft a concise case-law research memorandum with verified citations and a defensible recommendation
Benefits of attending
For you
- Build a repeatable Lexis+ research method rather than relying on broad keyword searches
- Gain confidence explaining whether a case remains good law and why its treatment matters
- Create clearer research memoranda that show supervising lawyers how conclusions were reached
- Reduce time spent manually reviewing irrelevant results through effective filters and search syntax
- Develop evidence of practical legal research capability for paralegal, legal operations and junior lawyer roles
For your organisation
- Reduce the risk of advice or submissions relying on negatively treated, outdated or non-controlling authority
- Improve consistency in how legal staff search, validate and document case-law research
- Shorten review cycles by giving senior lawyers transparent search logs and authority tables
- Increase return on Lexis+ subscription spend through effective use of search, Shepard's and alert features
- Create reusable research records that support matter handovers, auditability and institutional knowledge
Target competencies
Who should attend
- In-house Counsel — who need current, defensible authority for business advice and risk decisions
- Paralegals and Legal Executives — who conduct matter research and prepare source materials for lawyers
- Litigation Associates — who must locate, validate and analyse precedent under procedural deadlines
- Compliance Officers — who monitor legal developments affecting policies, controls and regulated activities
- Contract Managers — who need to understand case-law implications for disputes, clauses and commercial positions
- Legal Knowledge Management Professionals — who standardise research practices and maintain reusable legal resources
Requirements and prerequisites
This is a foundation-to-intermediate programme. Participants should be comfortable reading judicial decisions and should understand the basic distinction between cases, statutes and regulations. Familiarity with common legal concepts such as jurisdiction, court hierarchy, precedent and citation is helpful, but prior use of Lexis+ is not required. Participants should bring access to a laptop and, where possible, an active Lexis+ account supplied by their organisation; supervised demonstrations and practice materials are provided. No programming, advanced Boolean-search expertise, litigation experience or prior Shepard's training is required. Complete beginners should expect a structured introduction before progressing to timed research exercises.
Training methodology
The instructor demonstrates each Lexis+ workflow on live-style legal problems, then participants reproduce it in guided workstation exercises. Sessions move from query design and filtering to headnote analysis, Shepard's validation and written reporting. Small groups compare alternative search paths for the same issue and justify their choice of authority by court level, jurisdiction and treatment. Daily exercises use case files and research briefs rather than abstract database drills. On the final day, each participant completes an end-to-end research assignment and identifies a workplace matter on which to apply the workflow.
Course outline
Day 1: Research foundations and Lexis+ navigation
- Legal research workflow from issue statement to verified conclusion
- Lexis+ homepage, content categories and jurisdiction selection
- Primary versus secondary authority in practical research
- Court hierarchy, precedential weight and publication status
- Natural-language searching and result relevance assessment
- Terms-and-connectors syntax using AND, OR, NOT and proximity operators
- Search history, folders and saved research organisation
Workshop: Participants convert a short employment-law fact pattern into an issue map, run two Lexis+ search approaches and produce a documented initial result set.
Day 2: Precision searching across legal sources
- Concept expansion using synonyms, legal terms of art and alternative spellings
- Segment searching within case names, judges, courts and citation fields
- Filtering by jurisdiction, court, date, practice area and document type
- Searching statutes, regulations and annotated legislative materials
- Using secondary sources to frame unfamiliar legal issues
- Headnotes and Topic Summaries as research entry points
- Result-list triage and relevance ranking for time-sensitive matters
Workshop: Working from a commercial contract dispute brief, participants build a layered search string and produce a shortlist of primary and secondary sources with relevance notes.
Day 3: Case reading and authority analysis
- Case document structure, procedural posture and disposition
- Extracting ratio, dicta, issues and material facts from judgments
- Using headnotes without substituting them for reading the opinion
- Identifying fact patterns that strengthen or weaken analogy
- Distinguishing binding authority from persuasive authority
- Tracing cited cases, statutes and regulations within an opinion
- Building an authority matrix for competing legal propositions
Workshop: Participants analyse a leading case and three related decisions, then complete an authority matrix identifying proposition, court, weight, facts and practical relevance.
Day 4: Shepard's validation and legal development tracking
- Shepard's Citations Service indicators and treatment categories
- Judicial history versus later citing-reference treatment
- Investigating negative treatment and limited-overruling signals
- Filtering Shepard's citing decisions by jurisdiction, court and treatment
- Locating cases that follow, distinguish, question or criticise an authority
- Tracking statutory and regulatory developments affecting case law
- Creating alerts for new citing references and legal developments
Workshop: Participants Shepardize a leading authority, investigate its most significant later treatments and produce a current-validity note with supporting citations.
Day 5: Defensible research reporting and workplace application
- Research-plan design for urgent and complex legal questions
- Citation checking and source references using The Bluebook
- Writing issue, rule, application and conclusion sections for a research memorandum
- Explaining authority strength, limitations and unresolved legal risk
- Using Lexis+ folders, document delivery and links for matter handover
- Quality assurance checklist for search completeness and authority currency
- Personal application planning for live matters and team research standards
Workshop: Participants complete an end-to-end Lexis+ research assignment and submit a short memorandum, search log, authority table and 30-day workplace application plan.
Tools & standards covered
Lexis+, Shepard's Citations Service, Lexis CourtLink, The Bluebook
A typical training day
| 08:30 – 10:30 | First session |
| 10:30 – 10:45 | Refreshment break |
| 10:45 – 12:30 | Second session |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch and networking |
| 13:30 – 15:00 | Third session |
| 15:00 – 15:15 | Refreshment break |
| 15:15 – 16:30 | Workshop and daily review |
Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.
What the fee includes
- Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
- Full course workbook and materials
- Exercise files, templates and case studies
- Certificate of completion
- Refreshments and lunch (classroom deliveries)
- Post-course application plan
- Facilitator follow-up on request
- Group rates from five participants
How you can take this course
Classroom
Scheduled sessions in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kigali, Dar es Salaam, Dubai and Cape Town.
Live online
The same facilitator and materials, delivered live for distributed teams and individuals.
In-house
Delivered privately for your team, at your offices or a venue of your choice, tailored to your context. Request a proposal.
Certification
Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.
Frequently asked questions
Upcoming sessions
New dates are being scheduled. Ask us about the next session or an in-house delivery for your team.
Ask about datesGroup of 5+?
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