David Dickens Services, Students, The Basics

Law Library

The Law library can be one of the most valuable assets to you during your time in law school. Its value goes beyond your law education, as it can be a great tool for such activities like Law Review and Moot Court as well as preparing for your careers as a whole. The catalog system contains records describing all the books, microforms, and journals in the law library and other selected libraries. Links are also provided which can take you directly to the web sites of other libraries both local and across the country.

Law Library Catalog

The Law Library Catalog can be accessed via computers located throughout the Law Library.

Additional Law Resources:

Law Guides

Law Guides is a collection of research guides prepared by librarians at the Harnish Law Library. These guides are specifically designed to assist library users with the research of certain subjects or for specific courses. For further assistance, you may contact the guide author or the librarian on duty. To access Law Guides go to: http://lawguides.pepperdine.edu.

The Most Popular Guide Topics:

  • Microsoft Word: Answers to Law Students’ Most Frequently Asked Questions
  • Foreign, Comparative, and International Law (FICL) Research
  • Clinical Law Research Guide
  • International Arbitration
  • Prepare for Legal Practice
  • Using the Law Library Catalog
  • National Security Law, Terrorism, and the Law of War

Additional Resources: Access the Home Page of Law Guides with important details of all of the law library services.

Lexis-Nexis

Lexis is an online legal research system used primarily by attorneys but also government agencies and other business professionals. The traditional version of Lexis, often called Lexis.com has been available online since 1999. In 2012, Lexis Advance (a new, enhanced) version of Lexis was released. You are given free access to Lexis. However, you will have to specifically request access to Lexis Advance by contacting the Lexis-Nexis rep, Charla Strong at: [email protected]

Lexis-Nexis Advance Log In: https://signin.lexisnexis.com/lnaccess/app/signin?aci=la

Register Your Password at Lexis-Nexis Instructions: In order to use Lexis-Nexis or Lexis-Nexis Advance, you will need to first register your activation code. You should have received your activation code at Orientation or via email (your Pepperdine account). If you feel that you have not received an activation code, email [email protected] with the subject line: LEXIS NEXIS ACTIVATION CODE.

Additional Lexis-Nexis Resources: On the Lexis-Nexis law school homepage you can find tutorials and webinars that cover a variety of Lexis related topics. The tutorials are only 5 minutes long and the webinar recordings are from live events hosted online for students. They cover a variety of topics and range from 45 minutes to an hour.

**Please note: You will learn more about Lexis in your Legal Research & Writing course**

If you didn’t receive your LEXIS Registration ID, please email Gilbert Marquez with your Pepperdine Email at [email protected]

Westlaw

Similar to Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw is one of the leading Internet-based legal research providers.  Westlaw has two versions including their basic Westlaw version and a new, advanced Westlaw Next interface.

To use Westlaw using your Pepperdine log-in information, see the Westlaw Registration Tutorial

Additional Westlaw Resources:

**Please note: You will learn more about Westlaw in your Legal Research & Writing course**

David Dickens About Us, Faculty, Services, Students, The Basics

Pepperdine Google Suite

Welcome to the incredibly usefully and incessantly expanding world of Google! Here, you will learn about some of the relevant Google Apps that may help you throughout not only your education career, but also your future life.

You can access Google Apps through your @pepperdine.edu account. For more information on accessing your personal account, please visit the Community page by clicking here. Google Apps includes the following components: Gmail, Sheets, Calendar, Sites, Google Drive (formerly Google Docs), Hangouts, Groups, Contacts, and many more. To learn more about these components and how they will be useful to you at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, please watch the video at the bottom of the page.

Google Drive

Google Drive is a very useful tool that can be accessed anytime, from anywhere, via the internet or the Google Drive App. Some of the feature of Google Drive allow you to:

  1. Share files with people, such as meeting minutes, class notes, and task lists
  2. Collaborate on conference presentations with colleagues
  3. Edit student papers with in-text comments
  4. Backup files (you can never have too many copies!)
  5. Work from home without the need of Remote Desktop or your Work Computer
  6. And more…..

You can even use Google Drive to create and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations online. Although Google Drive has its own applications, you can download the Google files to your desktop and they will open in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Collaborate on projects without the hassle of emailing files and version tracking. Multiple Users can edit the Google files at the same time, without conflict. Revisions are saved automatically and Google Drive has a revision tracking feature so you can see what changes were made, when.

Google Drive can also be used as an online repository for all of your important school-related documents. These documents can then be accessed from any computer with Internet access at any time.

GOOGLE DRIVE NOTE:  The Google Drive service allows up to 50gb of storage (combined storage encompasses all Google Suite modules including your Pepperdine email account).

Our friends at University IT have put up some helpful guide information. Check it out today.

Here’s another great article on Google drive with helpful video. Anson Alexander has done great work to make the product accessible to new users–very thorough.

Google Docs

Google Docs is the informal predecessor of Google Drive, if you will. Google Docs allows you to create documents from scratch or from pre-set templates as well as sort your already created documents.

Through Templates, folks at Pepperdine using Google Apps can now share private templates for presentations, documents (like stationary or departmental memos) and spreadsheets. We now have our own private template gallery. Anything you make in Google Docs (or import into Docs from Word, etc) can be offered as a template, shared and rated by the Pepperdine community.

If you’ve never used Templates before in Google Docs, here’s a link to their help page: Google Help: Google Docs Templates

Google Docs has also upped their collaboration tools through quick and easy comments that can be placed on selected portions of a document. If you’ve been staying out of the Cloud, there are some real incentives to get in now.

Google Sheets

Google Sheets is a free online spreadsheet tool that is similar to Microsoft Excel. This tool has fewer formatting features that its software-based counterpart, but can be accessed from any computer with Internet access. You can also share spreadsheets with others and save the spreadsheet as multiple file formats including (but not limited to) XLS, PDF, and HTML.

Google Slides

Google Slides is a free, online presentation tool that you can use to create, edit, present, and share slideshows. It is very similar to Microsoft PowerPoint, with fewer formatting features. Much like most other Google Apps, Google Slides allows you to collaborate on slideshow presentation with unlimited users.

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is Google’s scheduling calendar service that can assist you with time-management through easy organization and helpful reminders. This is nothing short of the most open and configurable calendar offering available today. And while there is a wealth of things you might never do, it never feels like that power gets in the way. If you just want to login and check your appointments and type in new ones you can do that. If you want to go a step farther and have it email you a daily appointment list, that’s available. If you want your cell phone to alert you, that’s just another click away.

Google Chat

Google Chat is an intelligent and secure communication and collaboration tool, built for teams. From ad-hoc messaging to topic-based workstream collaboration, Chat makes it easy to get work done where the conversation is happening.  For more information on Google Chat, click here.

Google Sites

Google Sites is a free and easy way to create and share webpages as well as a nice place to brainstorm and manage projects. Its an easy basic wiki with almost no ramp-up time needed due to no real training being required. Just decide a name for your knowledge base and go. To learn more about Google Sites, click here.

David Dickens Faculty, Resources, Services

Installing Printers (Windows and Apple)

A quick step by step instruction guide for installing on a Windows computer:

 

1. Open a new explorer window (not Internet Explorer).
a. Type (Windows Button)+(R)


2. Enter the following in the address bar.  \\walnut
3. Locate and open the folder PCCLIENT.

4. Open the WIN folder and double-click on the CLIENT-LOCAL-INSTALL installer.


5. Accept the UAC if prompted.
6. Enter your network credentials.  DOMAIN\USERNAME
EX: student\juser


7. Run through the installer and leave all of the default settings.
8. Leave the checkbox checked to LAUNCH CLIENT… and click FINISH.


9. Enter your credentials into the pop-up client as noted in step 6.

EX: student\juser

 

Install FindMe Queue:

1. Open CONTROL PANEL and launch DEVICES and PRINTERS.
2. Click ADD A PRINTER.
3. Click THE PRINTER I WANT ISN’T LISTED.
4. Select the radio button to add PRINTER BY NAME and enter the following. Click NEXT.
\\walnut\FindMeBW

5. It may take a few minutes to locate the printer.
6. When prompted, enter your credentials.  DOMAIN\USERNAME
EX: student\juser

 

 

A quick step by step instruction guide for installing on an Apple computer:

 

  1. Download the Mac Driver.
  2. Install the driver by opening the image file from the download. (e.g. MX_C37_1603a_Mac104-1011.dmg)
    • Click on “MacOSX”.
    • Choose the driver for your operating system (e.g. Version 10.11). Go to the Apple Menu > About This Mac to see the operating system version.
    • Click on MX-C37 to install the driver
    • The Installation Window will appear. Click Continue and follow the on-screen instructions. Use the password that you use to log into your machine when asked for the password.
  3. Go to System Preferences > Printers and Scanners.
  4. Click “+” to add a new printer.
  5. Control-click the toolbar; then select Customize Toolbar.
  6. Drag the Advanced icon onto the bar; then click Advanced.
  7. In the “Type” drop down menu, select “Windows printer via spoolss”.
  8. Enter the Device URL, smb://walnut/FindMeBW or smb://walnut/FindMeColor, depending on the current printer you are installing.
  9. In “Name”, enter FindMeBW or FindMeColor depending on the current printer you are installing.
  10. In the “Use” drop down menu, click “Select Software.”
  11. Select Sharp MX 7040N PPD and click OK.
  12. Click Add.
  13. Click “+” and repeat 7-12 for both FindMeBW or FindMeColor depending on which one you have already installed.
  14. Now, when you print to FindMeBW or FindMeColor, a window asking for your credentials should pop-up. If you are staff or faculty, enter your Network ID and password. If you are a student, add “student\” before your Network ID and enter your password as usual.
  15. Go to any Sharp copier and swipe your Pepperdine ID card. Select the job(s) to release and retrieve your document from the print tray.
David Dickens Services, Students

Printing Selected Pages using Preview – MAC OSX

Using our new print system here at Pepperdine can be a bit of a challenge at times. Particularly if you just want to print a few pages of a word document.

Since the web interface for printing requires PDF files to print, you may find yourself looking for an easy way (any way?) to print selected pages without buying an expensive copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Luckily for MAC users, there is a simple way to accomplish this, by utilizing the thumbnail view from within the Preview Application.

With a document open in preview, select the Thumbnail view in the side bar. Command-click  the page thumbnails you would like to select for printing. Conversely, you can Command-click to deselect a page as well.

Once all desired pages have been selected, you will click File > Print from the menu bar, and chose the Selected Pages In Sidebar option. Using the PDF drop down menu, you will now create a new PDF of your selected pages for printing.

You will be prompted to name the file,  I suggest giving the file a unique name, and saving the file to your desktop so it’s easy to find and upload to the file server at print.pepperdine.edu.

For more information on printing to the Sharp Copiers please go HERE. If you would like to see this process in action please find a brief video walkthrough on preparing select pages for printing utilizing MACOS’s Preview Application.

David Dickens Services, Students

Printing Selected Pages using PDF – Windows

Using our new print system here at Pepperdine can be a bit of a challenge at times.

Particularly if you just want to print a few pages of a word document.

Since the web interface for printing requires PDF files to print, you may find yourself looking for an easy way (any way?) to print selected pages without buying an expensive copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro.

One approach is to install a  PDF “printer” that will allow you to select a series of pages (example: 7,11,21,57)  or a range of pages (example: 56-65) and send them to the PDF “printer” which really just creates a PDF file of the pages you have selected.

MAC users should be able to do this with their existing software, however, Windows users will find it much easier with an additional program.

FOR WINDOWS users:

We have done some limited testing on a product called PDF-XChange Lite which is a free product for those using it for non-commercial purposes.  There may be other good solutions but we have found this one to work fairly easily.

If you decide to try it, you must first download and install the software which takes a few minutes.

After it’s installed, it is listed as a printer in your list of printers on your Windows computer.

When you want to print, select PDF-XChange Lite as your printer, enter the pages you want to print:

If you want a range of pages enter the first page then a hyphen then the last page (so it might be 56-65).

If you want a non-consecutive selection of pages, separate them with commas.  So let’s say we want to print pages 7,11,21,57 — just enter them like that and you’ll get a file with only those pages.

You will be prompted to name the file — I suggested saving the file to your desktop so it’s easy to find to upload to the file server at print.pepperdine.edu.

For more info on printing to the Sharp Copiers go HERE.

David Dickens About Us, Faculty, Services, Students

Install the LiveSafe App today!

 

 

 

Go ahead and take a moment to go to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and download the LiveSafe app onto your mobile device.

The “LiveSafe” app is designed to improve communication between our University community members and Public Safety, and allows for faster emergency response in distress situations.  The app is free and available to all members of our community: students, faculty, staff, parents, visitors, and friends.

Through LiveSafe, you can submit information and chat with Public Safety in both emergency and non-emergency situations, and you can look out for your friends and loved ones by watching them get to their destination safely with SafeWalk. If you need a medical or security escort on the Malibu campus or a ride back to the Malibu campus, you can call Public Safety using the SafeRide feature.  When you submit a tip, you can attach a photo, video clip, or audio clip, and you can submit all of this information anonymously if you choose.  And, when you use LiveSafe to call 911 or contact Public Safety in an emergency, the app can track your location, which helps first responders know exactly where help is needed.

We’ve also loaded critical information resources into the app, so you now have emergency response information and contact information for key University services at your fingertips anytime, anywhere—even internationally.[i]

Here’s how you can get the app:

  1. Open Google Play or the Apple App Store on your phone. Search for “LiveSafe” and download the option with the blue shield.
  2. Tap “Sign up.” Fill in your profile information and create a password.  (You are welcome to use your personal, non-Pepperdine e-mail address. We suggest that you do not use the same username and password as you use for the Pepperdine Central Authentication Server.)
  3. “Pepperdine University” may pop-up if you are close to the campus. If so, tap “Yes.” Otherwise tap “Change” to select “Pepperdine University” as your institution.

[i]  Most of the app’s features will work internationally, so long as you have a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection.  You will still be able to submit tips and information to Public Safety, and you will be able to utilize the SafeWalk feature.  However, the “Call 911” option is programmed for US emergency dispatch only and will not automatically route to local first responders. In an emergency situation overseas, it will be important to dial the correct 911-equivalent number for your location. You can find this information at http://travel.state.gov.

[Above text pulled from http://emergency.pepperdine.edu/livesafe/ on 8/15/2017]

David Dickens Faculty, Resources, Students

LexisNexis App for iPad

For those of you who are in law practice or hope to be in the near future, it is becoming clear that you will want to exercise every advantage you can to make your contributions as a lawyer as competitive and innovative as you can.

As in many professions, the use of technology to leverage your skills to greater efficiency is a boon to law practice.

Lexis and Westlaw and now Bloomberg Law are anxious to stay relevant in a world that is in an app frenzy.  Not to say that many apps are not valuable, in fact there are myriad apps that address specific needs very well.

Lexis Nexis’ release of TextMap for iPad leverages this mobile platform for those reviewing transcripts in TextMap  6.2 .  If you are not familiar with TextMap, it is a transcript summary tool most commonly used for summarizing deposition transcripts.

This product is a far cry from what we used for deposition summaries back in the early 1990’s when I was a young law student looking for extra work … “Depo summaries my boy!  That’s what you should do!”  At least we had WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS back then — much better than a manual typewriter — I’m not THAT old.  But in the end it was high pay, highly manual, and high eye strain!  A terrific combination!  I couldn’t hack it.

Facts of life: There will be depositions in law practice.  Where there are depositions, there will be transcripts.  Where there are transcripts there will be transcript summaries.

Yes, you can hire someone to take the transcripts for you but in the end, every party needs their own depo summaries.  Who’s gong to summarize your depo transcripts?  You?  Get a tool.  TextMap is a popular solution and now with the iPad app, you can do it on the run (while you are sitting in the hall outside the courtroom waiting for the next thing to happen).

This is not an endorsement for TextMap.  Think of it as more of an endorsement of getting tools that work for you.  In the end, I found that I wasn’t cut out for depo summaries at all so I’m hardly the person to recommend any product in this area BUT if it makes it easier, I’m a fan.  It’s certainly worth a look.

To keep yourself up to date on law technology news, click here to be directed to Legal Tech News, powered by Law.com.

David Dickens About Us, Faculty, Services, Students

Change Your Password

Login Form Image

You’ve probably seen or heard of the myriad of recent news headlines where popular organizations like Twitter or Evernote have been hacked. These organizations assure us that our data is not compromised, and advise us to change our passwords or they promptly change our passwords for us to reduce the amount of damage a hacker can do. There is often more to the story, and even passwords we think are quite clever may be cracked with relative ease. The blog Ars Technica featured a couple of stories recently about passwords, which I recommend you read. There are a few examples of presumably safe passwords that were cracked with relative ease. The first article described how a blog editor managed to crack passwords with some basic tools, and can be found here. The second is a follow-up article, where the consulting hackers took a shot at the same list. You can view that one here. They are both fairly detailed but I encourage you to read all the way to the end.

There is a convenient graphic that illustrates the complexity of certain passwords, which I also encourage you to read. It can be found here.

Safe passwords are hard(er) to crack. You cannot rely on a website to properly encrypt your password, as we have seen in the news so often lately. Password managers can be a useful tool to generate random passwords for you, if you are concerned you cannot come up with a good password. The downside is that these passwords will be nearly impossible to remember, which then requires a master password that you can remember. There are a number of password applications out there, KeePass and LastPass among the more popular options. Which one you choose is up to you. Be sure to look for apps for your chosen smartphone as well, so you can be safe from whatever device you are using.

Our own Julie Tausend also recently wrote a post on information security. In it, you’ll find links to university services and policies that can be useful to you in securing your information. You can also go straight to the source for passwords and other types of security at community.pepperdine.edu/it/security.

Be safe out there, and be sure to CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS!

David Dickens Services, Students

Law Students: Exam Archive Searching

You may notice that when you click on the “EXAM ARCHIVE” link on the Law Library web page you are traveling to a Google Drive location.

The exams are stored in a Google Drive folder that requires a Pepperdine Google account.

TIP: If you find that you do not have access, log into your Pepperdine Google Mail using your browser, then go to http://lawlibrary.pepperdine.edu and select the Exam Archive link.

You will note that you can search all the exams for any word but the best way is to search for professor name and course name using the advanced search box.

Click on the down arrow to the right of the search box
Click on the down arrow to the right of the search box

 

To search in “Advanced” mode click on the arrow at the right end of the search box.  And the advanced dialog search box will drop down.

Then enter in the “Item Name” field the last name of the professor (cochran) or a word from the course name (torts).

Enter professor's last name in the "Item name" field
Enter professor’s last name in the “Item name” field

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s wishing you all the best as you prepare for your finals!