What About the Majority? Considering the Legal Research Practices of Solo and Small Firm Attorneys

摘要

Solo and small firm practitioners account for the majority of attorneys practicing in the United States. However, they are regularly underrepresented in studies of attorneys' research practices, which tend to focus on attorneys in larger practice settings. This article reports the results of a local survey in which more than 80 percent of respondents fell into this forgotten demographic. Comparison of the local study with a recent national survey demonstrates that greater consideration of smaller firms could lead to a different understanding of fee-based online resource usage among the demographic, which may have widespread implications for public and academic law libraries, access to justice, and implementation of research competency standards. The research practices of solo and small firm attorneys, as well as the conditions leading to such practices, warrant further study.