AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK BUT EVERYBODY HAS TO DO IT - TEACHING LEGAL RESEARCH IN LAW-SCHOOLS

Although instruction in legal research is offered by all American law schools, there is a widely shared view that law graduates have inadequ ate research skills. In trying to explain this anomaly, the author sug gests that the thinking required in research creates problems for both training and evaluating the training process. While research instruct ion does not leave most graduates ready to do efficient research immed iately, it is likely that this training increases the speed with which they adapt to research work once they begin to practice law.