Happy new year! Read on for the latest law library news impacting your teaching and research. Don't forget to check our Digital Services Dispatch for legal research database training and updates.
New book celebrates 75 years of legal education at U of T
In celebration of 75 years of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law (now the Henry NR Jackman Faculty of Law), we’re excited to highlight Looking Forward By Looking Back: 75 Years of Modern Legal Education at the University of Toronto. In fifteen chapters, this book showcases a wealth of legal scholarship first presented at a conference in March 2025. It commemorates the faculty’s legacy and its pivotal role in shaping the future of Canadian law.
Edited by the Faculty’s outgoing dean and incoming dean, Professor Jutta Brunnée and Professor Christopher Essert, the book brings together contributions from current law professors about the impact of our former and emeritus law professors on Canada’s legal profession and education.
Faculty member publication lists: available upon request
Starting from a request from Professor Essert in 2023, our Law Library team embarked on “Project Diamond” to support our faculty’s preparations for the 75th anniversary conference.
Consulting historical yearbooks and archived websites, we identified over 100 appointed full-time faculty members from the school’s inception to present day. Then our team compiled a list of each member’s published works, revealing the sheer breadth and depth of U of T’s legal scholarship. These publication lists are available to Jackman Law researchers and staff upon request by emailing InfoEXPRESS.
Welcome, Jo-Anna!
We are pleased to announce that Jo-Anna Hines has joined the Bora Laskin Law Library as our new User Services Generalist!
Jo-Anna graduated from the University of West Indies, Mona (Kingston, Jamaica) with a BSc in Political Science and from Seneca Polytechnic with Paralegal and Library and Information Technician diplomas. Previously, Jo-Anna worked at Miller Thomson LLP as a file and billing administration clerk, Centennial College as a library technician, and at Osgoode Hall Law School library as law library clerk.
Jo-Anna is excited to be joining the Bora Laskin Law Library team and will be providing both public and technical services at our library. On occasion, Jo-Anna enjoys listening to radio dramas.
Thrive Guide: Books for mental health and well-being at law school and beyond
With classes back in full swing, we are highlighting The Thrive Guide: Library Resources for Law Student Mental Health and Wellness. This is a curated collection available for students of books and resources designed to support their mental health and overall well‑being during law school. It brings together practical materials on time management, stress, resilience, study strategies, and more. The full guide is available on our library website, and a selection of featured titles will be on display in the library from now until January 26th.
We welcome faculty to browse the guide and point students to it as a helpful tool during busy points in the term. There are four sections in the collection: Thrive as a Law Student, Thrive as a Lawyer, Thrive in the Workplace, and Thrive Outside of Law. Some notable books include: How to Succeed (and Stay Human) in Law School: Pathways to Happiness and High Performance in the Study and Practice of Law by Lynda Collins, and The Mindful Law Student: A Mindfulness in Law Practice Guide by Scott L. Rogers.
Spotlight: New Faculty Books
If you have published a book, chapter, or article recently, please let us know so we can feature it in our next issue of InfoEXPRESS Extra!
Making Amends for Historic Wrongs: Reparative Justice and the Problem of the Past by Mayo Moran
Professor Mayo Moran’s latest work published by Oxford University Press explores how institutions, governments, and communities redress historic injustices, such as colonialism, slavery, genocide, abuse, and looting. Moran’s book covers the history of reparations as well as lessons learned.
Find Making Amends for Historic Wrongs as an eBook on the Oxford University Press platform.
Justice for Some: A Comparative Study of Miscarriages of Justice and Wrongful Convictions by Kent Roach
Recently published by Cambridge University Press as an open-access title, Professor Kent Roach's latest book addresses miscarriages of justice, wrongful convictions and innocence. In addition to comparing justice systems of England, the US, China, and India, Roach uses legal process and historical approaches in this work.
Find Justice for Some as an eBook on the Cambridge University Press platform.
Digital Services Dispatch
Happy new year! Read on for a recap of the new General AI feature in Lexis+ and upcoming database training webinars at Jackman Law.
Recap: Faculty training sessions on Lexis+ General AI feature
As of December 17, all law school users can access to General AI, a new feature added to the Protégé module in Lexis+ Canada. General AI provides in-platform access to different generative AI models, including GPT4o, OpenAI o3, GPT-5, Claude Sonnet 4.
To prepare Jackman Law instructors and researchers for Winter term, we arranged two training sessions on January 8 and 13, led by our LexisNexis trainer. Key takeaways for instructors:
- Unlike Protégé (legal AI assistant), General AI is not grounded in the LexisNexis content; it is trained and draws upon content from the open web.
- Links to external websites supporting General AI responses are currently disabled for security reasons.
- General AI includes “citation assistant” functionality, which supplies a link for cases referenced in the output, if those cases are available in the Lexis+ Legal Research module
- Protégé’s “Summarize a case” feature no longer displays the human-authored case summaries as a default response. To view a human-authored case summary, navigate to the case itself in the Legal Research module.
- The Vault feature contains OCR functionality to process image-based PDF documents uploaded
- The Submit Feedback link embedded in the AI interface is currently not working for General AI conversations, but errors can be reported from the main menu at the top of the screen.
For more information, see LexisNexis’ 1-page introduction to the new General AI feature and the 1-page comparison sheet explaining the General AI models available.
To request the recording links for January 8 and 13 training, faculty members and instructors can email the Digital Services Librarian. Questions and feedback about the AI features in Lexis+ Canada are also welcome!
Live database training webinars for U of T law students, starting January 21
Our library has arranged lunchtime training webinars for Jackman Law students between January 21 to February 11. We encourage instructors to remind their students to attend these sessions.
Registration links have been emailed directly to students. Law faculty and staff are also welcome to attend and can register using the links in the FOL events calendar (log-in to view the law school only events).
Sessions will be led by the database trainers and will be recorded.
Lexis+ Canada webinars (30 minutes each)
- Wed, Jan 21, 12:30-1PM – General AI and Protégé in Lexis+ Canada
- Mon, Jan 26, 12:30PM – Noting Up Cases and Legislation in Lexis+ Canada
- Tues, Jan 27, 12:30PM – Commentary & Secondary Sources in Lexis+ Canada
- Tues, Feb 3, 12:30PM – Boolean Searching in Lexis+ Canada
- Tues Feb 10, 12:30PM – Practical Guidance in Lexis+ Canada
Westlaw Edge Canada webinars (45 minutes each)
- Thurs, Jan 22, 12:30-1:15PM – AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Edge Canada
- Thurs, Jan 29, 12:30PM – Noting up Navigator: Validating Case Law and Legislation on Westlaw Edge Canada
- Mon, Feb 2, 12:30PM – Commentary Essentials: Smarter Starting Points on Westlaw Edge Canada
- Wed, Feb 11, 12:30PM – Boolean Bootcamp on Westlaw Edge Canada
Wrap up
If you have questions or comments about our library’s e-Resources and databases, please email our Digital Services Librarian at alexandra.kwan@utoronto.ca.