How to (Try to) Find a Needle in a Haystack
A Path for Responding to "Partner Law" Research Assignments
“I know there is a case that says it. Shouldn’t take long to find.”
Any junior lawyer or ex-summer associate has heard a version of this statement—and it rarely is remembered fondly. These are hard assignments. Sometimes the request comes from a place of actual knowledge: the supervisor saw the case at some point in their career, but can’t remember when but it does exists. Other times its only partly true: there is a case on point, but it actually says the opposite. Or (and more often in my experience) its pure wishful thinking that there must be a case that says it right.
Regardless, this request—which I sometimes refer to as “Partner Law”— is essentially asking you to find a needle in a haystack, without any certainty that the needle exists.
My suggestion when you experience this type of request is to take the following steps:
Don’t Fight the Hypo. Assume the case exists and search accordingly. If you don’t find it that is fine—but searching if it exists will help you think through a good research process and maybe even uncover the next best thing.
Start Right Away. Often these assignments are more time consuming than the assigning attorney realizes. These are really bad assignments to procrastinate.
Clarify the Why. Before you start looking ask a few more questions about why the supervisor is asking for this research. What is the goal? How will this citation be used? By understanding the purpose you’ll (a) help clarify your research question and (b) spot other related material that might be helpful in the event the specific citation does not exist.
Talk to Anyone Who Can Help. The other thing to do before you start is to make sure to touch base with anyone who might have a good way to limit or strengthen your search process (and ideally narrow it). Librarians are a great start as are other lawyers at the firm. Even reading a secondary source or doing some Google searches can help create a more effective search protocol.
Decide Which Haystack You Are Going to Look In (and Why). The biggest challenge with these kinds of requests is sometimes clarifying what success looks like. Is it any case in any jurisdiction? Any case in just one jurisdiction? In other words, make a research plan that clarifies where you are going to look and ruthlessly exclude other haystacks at least to start.
Reframe the Question In As Many Different Ways as Possible. Sometimes once you have your haystack, you can start searching for the perfect needle instead of a “close enough” needle. Use different search terms, phrasing, etc. Not to mix metaphors, but a near miss often is just as valuable as a direct hit.
Know When to Stop searching. When searching for a needle in a haystack how do you know when there are simply no needles? You don’t. But that does not mean you can or should search in perpetuity. Instead, decide in advance when you absolutely need to stop searching and stop earlier if you start seeing the same sources over and over again.
Report Back. If you find the requested needle, that is great. Report it right away. If you don’t, give a brief report of where and how you’ve looked before reporting you couldn’t find anything directly on point. If there is a way to expand the search you can also include a note to your supervisor offering to do that.
Just remember needle-in-haystack projects are excellent opportunities for junior lawyers and summer associates to shine. They can be incredibly impactful but are also often too time consuming for full-time staff. So instead of fighting the exercise, just take it one step at a time and appreciate the opportunity to research something hard where there is no penalty for not finding something as long as you’ve looked appropriately.
Keep standing out,
Jonah
