Welcome to the Corporate Law research guide. This guide is intended to help you start your research of corporate law issues by outlining some of the authoritative corporate law in the U.S., as well as other helpful resources. Corporate law is largely governed by state law. As many businesses have chosen to incorporate in Delaware, it is particularly relevant in corporate law. While many of these resources can be used to search nationwide corporate law, this guide has an emphasis on California law, federal law, Delaware law.
Lexis tags relevant source material to simplify research. On its Business & Corporate Law page, searches of cases, statutes, secondary materials, and other helpful resources, are refined to include only Business & Corporate Law results. The page also lists some of the top resources when navigating Corporate law.
Westlaw, like Lexis, tags relevant source material. On its Corporations page, searches of cases, statutes, secondary materials, and other resources, are refined to include only corporate law resources. The page also allows a user to find some of the top resources for navigating Corporate law by searching by category.
Bloomberg Law is a great place to start any corporate law research. Its Corporate Practice Center has extensive secondary resources, including news, state law resources, and practical guidance.
The basic corporate law research methodology is similar to other areas of legal research:
1. Establish the facts.
2. Identify the issues.
3. Locate authority.
4. Evaluate authority - make sure to evaluate for credibility, objectivity, accuracy, scope, and currency.
Repeat steps 1-4 as necessary to complete research and analysis of issues.
5. Develop conclusions and recommendations.
6. Communicate research results and recommendations.
This research guide was written in February 2022 by USD Law student Lilly Walker.
