Legal Research Services for Attorneys and Firms
Research memos, multi-jurisdiction statutory survey, case-law analysis, and Shepardized cite-checking on Westlaw and Lexis benches.
Our legal research services deliver research memos in the six-section anatomy your supervising attorney already reads at triage: issue, brief answer, statutes, case law, application, conclusion. Every authority is cite-checked through KeyCite or Shepard's before the memo leaves the portal, and every memo runs a senior researcher plus a peer review pass before it returns to your firm for the Rule 5.3 review.
KeyCite · Shepard's · Treatise
Every authority verified before the memo returns
Research Workstreams We Run on the Bench
Our case law research services, shepardizing service, and outsourced legal research bench cover the eight workstreams below. Engage a single memo as a project or stand up a research retainer for ongoing cite-checking and bench-memo capacity.
Single-Issue Research Memos
One issue, one controlling jurisdiction, one memo. Issue presented, brief answer, statutes, case law, application, and conclusion. Cite-checked through KeyCite or Shepard's before the memo leaves the portal.
Multi-Jurisdiction Statutory Survey
Comparative survey memos that map a single rule (employment restrictive covenants, consumer-protection statutes, professional licensing, registration requirements) across the jurisdictions the client operates in.
Pre-Litigation Research Stack
Cause-of-action research, elements analysis, defenses survey, statute-of-limitations survey, forum selection, and choice-of-law research bundled into the research stack a litigator opens a complaint or answer with.
Regulatory and Administrative Research
Federal Register releases, agency guidance, CFR provisions, state regulatory codes, and recent enforcement actions. Updates can be set on a standing cadence for compliance-driven engagements.
Circuit and State Split Memos
When the controlling rule splits across federal circuits or among states, our researcher maps the split, flags the leading cases on each side, and identifies the position the controlling jurisdiction would most likely adopt on first impression.
Case Law Analysis on Specific Authority
Deep-dive analysis on a single leading case or line of authority: holding, reasoning, subsequent treatment, distinguishing fact patterns, and how the supervising attorney can frame or distinguish the authority on a pending matter.
Cite-Checking and Authority Verification
Standalone citation-pass service for briefs, motions, and memos drafted in-house. We run every authority through KeyCite or Shepard's, flag negative treatment, and return a clean cite-check log with the recommended fixes.
Bench Memos for Hearings and Oral Argument
Pre-hearing bench memos that compile every authority the supervising attorney will reference at oral argument, with the leading paragraph from each opinion pulled and indexed for quick reference at the lectern.
The Six-Section Anatomy Every Research Memo Returns In
Every legal research memo we deliver lands in your associate's inbox in the same six-section structure so the supervising attorney can triage from the brief answer and dive into the analysis from there. The anatomy below is the spine our researchers write to on every engagement.
- 1
Issue Presented
The legal question framed to the controlling jurisdiction in one sentence that names the parties, the operative facts, and the rule the matter turns on.
- 2
Brief Answer
A two-sentence conclusion the supervising attorney can read first for triage: yes or no on the issue, with the controlling authority cited inline.
- 3
Statutes and Regulations
The controlling statute, any regulatory framework that implements or overlays it, and any recent amendments or releases that change the analysis since the leading cases were decided.
- 4
Case Law and Authority
Binding precedent in the controlling jurisdiction first, persuasive authority from sister jurisdictions second, and any circuit or state split flagged with the leading cases on each side of the split.
- 5
Application to Facts
The rule applied to the facts as intake described them: which element each fact satisfies, which fact gaps the supervising attorney should pin down with the client, and any reasonably foreseeable counter-argument the rule supports.
- 6
Conclusion + Citation Pass
A clean restatement of the brief answer with every authority cite-checked through KeyCite or Shepard's, plus a citation log flagging any authority with negative subsequent treatment.
Database Access Sits Inside the Legal Tank Bench
Our researchers operate on standing Westlaw and Lexis subscriptions, with Bloomberg Law and HeinOnline available for matters that require treatise depth or historical statutory research. Database access sits inside our bench, which means your matter never opens an external database account, never carries an outside subscription cost back to the client, and never produces a research trail that lives on a third-party platform outside the engagement letter.
The citation pass on every memo runs through KeyCite or Shepard's, whichever is the controlling-jurisdiction standard. Negative-treatment flags (criticized, distinguished, superseded, overruled) are surfaced in the memo itself and called out in the citation log so the supervising attorney sees the risk at first read. The researcher reads every flagged authority in full before the memo returns: a flag without a recommendation is not a finished cite-check.
Practice-area benches that draw on the database stack cover commercial litigation, employment, regulatory and administrative law, intellectual property, real estate, corporate transactional, and family law. Send the issue and the controlling jurisdiction and we route the engagement to the researcher whose practice-area lane fits.
How a Research Engagement Runs From Intake to Memo Delivery
Every research engagement runs through the same six-step flow whether the deliverable is a one-question memo or a multi-state survey.
- 1
Issue intake
Send the issue, the controlling jurisdiction, the turnaround, and any facts the rule turns on through our quote form. We return scope and timeline in one business day.
- 2
Researcher match
We assign a senior researcher whose practice-area lane fits the issue (commercial, employment, regulatory, litigation, IP), plus a peer reviewer for the citation pass.
- 3
Secure handoff
Source materials and your privileged communications move through the SOC-2 Type II matter portal. Database access (Westlaw, Lexis, Bloomberg) sits inside our bench.
- 4
Research and draft
Senior researcher runs primary research first, then secondary and procedural. Memo drafted to the six-section anatomy and held to your house-style citation format.
- 5
Citation pass + peer review
Every authority is cite-checked through KeyCite or Shepard's. A peer reviewer runs a second-set-of-eyes pass on the analysis before the memo leaves the portal.
- 6
Returned for attorney review
Memo returned to your firm. The supervising attorney owns the Rule 5.3 review, the client communication, and any pleading the memo informs.
What Attorneys Say After the Memo Lands on Their Desk
Five-star feedback from litigation partners, solo practitioners, in-house senior counsel, and boutique-firm attorneys who engaged our research bench on a single memo, a multi-jurisdiction survey, or a standing cite-checking retainer.
“Eight-attorney commercial litigation shop, and a contested-arbitration matter dropped a multi-state choice-of-law question on us with a tight pre-hearing turnaround. Their researcher ran a four-state restrictive-covenant survey with the leading appellate cases on each side, flagged a Tennessee Supreme Court decision from last year that changed our analysis, and returned the memo in three business days fully Shepardized. Our partner walked into the hearing with the bench memo on the lectern and won the choice-of-law ruling.”
“Solo administrative-law practice, and a federal-agency enforcement matter sent me chasing CFR provisions across three subparts plus two enforcement actions buried in agency releases. Their regulatory researcher pulled the controlling subparts, the relevant Federal Register preamble, the two enforcement actions, and the recent guidance letter into one memo with the analysis already on it. Cleared two billable days off my calendar and the client got the strategy call the next morning.”
“We are an in-house team at a regional insurance carrier and our litigation docket runs heavy in three coverage-law jurisdictions. Standing research retainer with Legal Tank covers the cite-checking on briefs we draft in-house, plus single-issue memos when a coverage question turns on a state we do not carry full bench depth on. The citation log they return on every brief catches negative treatment we would otherwise miss, and the memo work has held up at trial-court oral argument three times this year.”
“Mid-size IP boutique, and a trademark-cancellation matter at the TTAB needed a pre-litigation research stack on the cancellation grounds, the priority issue, and a doctrine-of-foreign-equivalents survey. Their researcher built the whole stack in two memos, flagged a TTAB precedential decision from last spring that controlled the priority analysis, and ran every authority through KeyCite. The associate who would have built the stack in-house went back to depositions on a different matter.”
Our Researcher Writes the Memo; The Supervising Attorney Acts on It
Research memos are work product for the supervising attorney's review under ABA Model Rule 5.3. Our researcher prepares the analysis, runs the citation pass, and returns the memo through the encrypted matter portal. The supervising attorney owns the legal advice that flows from the memo, the client communication, and any pleading or transaction document the memo informs. We do not advise clients, do not sign pleadings, and do not communicate with the underlying client.
Supervising attorney owns the analysis on output
The research memo is a tool the supervising attorney uses to advise the client. The advice itself, the strategy decisions, and the signature on any resulting pleading or contract stay with the engaging attorney under the engagement letter and Rule 5.3.
Senior researcher + peer citation pass
Every memo runs a senior researcher on the analysis plus a peer reviewer on the citation pass before the deliverable leaves our portal. The supervising attorney still owns the Rule 5.3 review on delivery.
Legal Tank
- Runs the conflicts check before the researcher sees any privileged material.
- Conducts primary, secondary, and procedural research on our database bench.
- Drafts the memo to the six-section anatomy and runs the cite-check pass.
- Returns the memo and citation log through the encrypted matter portal.
Supervising Attorney
- Reviews the analysis and the citation log on delivery.
- Advises the client and makes the strategy call the memo informs.
- Signs every pleading, motion, or contract the memo feeds into.
- Holds the attorney-client relationship with the underlying client.
Research engagements often pair with drafting workstreams. See our legal brief writing services for trial-level briefs and our appellate brief writing services for circuit-court work. For broader workstream routing, see outsource legal services.
Questions Attorneys Ask About Outsourced Legal Research
What does a legal researcher do?
What are the 4 types of legal research?
How much does it cost to hire a legal researcher?
Is legal research a skill?
What is the difference between Westlaw and Shepardizing?
Get a Research Quote Today
Send the issue, the controlling jurisdiction, and the turnaround through our quote form. We return scope and the assigned senior researcher in one business day.
Quotes return same business day on intakes received before 5 PM ET