Legal research in corporate practice requires fact-finding and researching all laws, soft laws such as guidelines, and court cases. Therefore, legal research must be conducted by the following steps to prepare the answers that management and business divisions require.
In addition, adhering to the following basic attitudes will enable you on to how to do legal research effectively. In this article, virtual assistant for lawyers will introduce “legal research,” including the basics and procedures for research required in the workplace, as well as useful know-how and tools.
What is legal research?
Legal research in corporate practice or in the practice of law is different from the research required when writing answers to legal qualification exam questions. For example, in a civil law exam, a case is set up such as “Person A injures Person B. What is the problem in this case?”, and you have to think about the applicable laws by applying them to the question, such as “This is a tort. Article 709 of the Civil Code applies.”
In the exam, you can assume that all the facts in the questions are true, and no further investigation is required. You don’t have to think about things like, “Did Person A injure Person B? Is Person B just claiming that he was injured? Is there a medical certificate?”
Furthermore, you don’t need to worry about laws other than the exam subject. If it’s a civil law exam, you don’t need to think about laws and systems other than the subject in question, such as, “Maybe the Criminal Code will be an issue for assault,” or, “If it happened in a company, the application of industrial accident compensation may be an issue.”
On the other hand, in practice, it is not even clear whether there are facts on which a question is based, and the subject of legal research is not limited to exam subjects. Soft law, such as laws, guidelines, and court cases, is researched.
Legal research premise: Interview
Another thing to remember is that simply answering the question in a perfunctory manner may not lead to the answer the questioner needs.
For example, when running a campaign for one of your company’s services, you may be asked to “check whether this campaign violates the Premiums and Representations Act,” and you may conduct research; however, upon closer inspection, you may find that the campaign also includes
American consumers, and that the problem cannot be solved by only looking into Premiums and Representations Act; or you may be asked to “create terms of use for a web service,” but in reality these are terms of use for a smartphone app (in this case, you will need to comply with the developer terms of each app store).
In all of the above examples, the legal personnel receiving the answer must understand that the cause is not a lack of explanation on the part of the questioner, but rather a lack of listening to the answerer. It is essential to thoroughly investigate why the questioner asked the question and why they need an answer now, even if the questioner thinks it is troublesome.
How to conduct legal research
One of the reasons for insufficient interviews is not knowing what to interview in the first place. To understand the facts that need to be asked, it is essential to prepare a “legal framework” in advance. A legal framework here can be considered a framework for thinking and consideration backed by legal knowledge.
First, we conduct factual research to understand the business division’s requests. We hold interviews to clarify.
- “What exactly does ‘developing AI’ mean?”,
- “What items of data are customer data, and which services does it refer to?
- Does it qualify as personal data?
- Is it data that is already on hand, or is it data to be obtained in the future?” We organize the details to the extent that they can be legally applied, such as, “We would like to use ‘existing customer data that falls under personal data and is already on hand’ as training data for a machine learning model to be developed to propose new services to customers.”
Legal frame introduction
Next, apply your specific questions to the legal framework to identify research subjects. In this case, it is helpful to look at the legal framework from two perspectives: “Does it violate the law?” and “Does it violate the contract?” Laws would include the Personal Information Protection Act, Copyright Act, and Unfair Competition Prevention Act, while contracts would include terms of use and non-disclosure agreements concluded with customers.
Thinking in this way using a legal framework can lead to specific questions such as, “In my company’s privacy policy, the only purpose for using customer information is stated as ‘to ship products and to respond to inquiries,’ but if personal information is to be used as learning data, is it necessary to notify and publicly announce this purpose in advance?” Only by asking such questions can a specific research subject be identified, and legal research can be carried out by looking at laws, guidelines, literature, etc.
Applying legal research findings
Once a particular understanding has been obtained through legal research, it is applied to the consultation content of the business division (consultant).
In this case, the only purpose of use that was disclosed when the customer data was acquired was “for product shipping and for responding to inquiries,” so with this description alone, there is a risk that “using the data as training data for a machine learning model developed to propose new services to customers” could be deemed an improper use1. This is the phase where research is applied to the case under consideration.
Basic attitude required for legal research
In addition to the points explained so far, here are three critical basic attitudes required for legal research:
Basic attitude 1: Recognize the maximum risk that a company faces due to inadequate research
Legal professionals who respond to the questions must first be aware that if their legal research is insufficient or their answers are incorrect, their company risks suffering damage such as penalties, revocation of licenses and permits, and damage to their reputation.
Basic attitude 2: Decide the amount of time you will spend on your research
If you don’t limit the time, you will tend to research endlessly, so we recommend deciding how much time you will spend on your research. Especially for newcomers who are not yet familiar with research, divide the time into short 15- to 30-minute intervals and repeatedly create a simple output agenda each time in the form of “research results so far.”
From the perspective of a manager who has entrusted a research project to someone, you may feel uneasy if you don’t receive an interim report, or you may wonder, “What are you currently investigating?”, “How far have you progressed?”, etc. Especially for research that takes more than a full day, it is a good idea to give frequent reports in the form of, “We have investigated up to this point. We will investigate XX from now on.”
Basic attitude 3: Output from the reader’s perspective
As mentioned above, try to state the conclusion up front when outputting. Even if you say “No,” it will be appreciated if you try to include a counterproposal whenever possible. Even if you say “Yes,” it is a good idea to clearly state the preconditions that your answer applies to, such as “It is possible under these facts and preconditions,” to prevent your answer from taking on a life of its own in other cases with different factual circumstances.
Tips to update your knowledge for legal research
To conduct legal research efficiently, it is necessary to update your legal knowledge regularly. In doing so, it is essential to create a system and habit that allows information to naturally “come” to you, rather than blindly “collecting” information on legal reforms and new publications. Below, we will introduce some of the know-how.
Subscribe to a legal magazine and always read the table of contents of each issue
Look through the table of contents of the legal magazines you subscribe to. If you find an article that interests you, read it immediately on the spot, or put a “read later” note on it and set a regular “sticky note time,” such as once a week, to read it all at once.
The key is to incorporate it into the rhythm of your daily life and make it a habit. Suppose it’s challenging to continue on your own. In that case, it’s a good idea to work with multiple members and assign each person to be responsible for a different legal field or magazine.
Utilizing email newsletters
The ” Commercial Law Newsletter,” which is distributed free of charge twice a week, provides thorough and detailed information on new publications, legal reforms, etc..
Using X
X is often used to disseminate information, but it is also a handy tool for gathering information. Some lawyers and experts actively post the latest information and discussions that have not yet been published in any publications on X. Following the accounts of legal publishers and legal portal sites is also a good idea.
Using Facebook Pages
Legal seminars, events, and academic conference information are often announced on Facebook pages. It is a good idea to set information about critical educational conferences and legal groups to be displayed at the top so you don’t miss it.
Google Alerts
“Google Alerts” is a service that notifies you of related topics by email by setting keywords for the information you want to collect, such as “Personal Information Protection Act” and “Guidelines.” If you register your company’s name, you can also use it to detect flame wars early.
Encountering books in a real bookstore
Although many different e-book services are available today, I believe it is also essential to encounter books at real bookstores. Because the recommendation function of e-book services works, you will, for better or worse, be constantly surrounded by books in the fields that interest you, so regular visits to real bookstores will be essential to discovering unexpected good books.
Although you can learn how to search for legal precedents and the basics of legal writing at law faculties and law schools, when it comes to practical techniques and know-how for legal research in the workplace, training at the organization you are assigned to, guidance from senior colleagues, and above all, on-site experience are essential.
On the other hand, if you are the only legal staff member, creating a system for obtaining valuable information and techniques from outside is essential.
I hope this article will be of help to those who are planning to learn legal research in the future.