Practical Law

Practical Law

Practical Law is a database containing practice notes, legal updates, articles, precedents, checklists, specialist tools and more. The main focus of the Practical Law service is on UK and EU law, but it also covers cross-border legal topics and provides guides to the law of foreign jurisdictions.

Access

Practical Law is available onsite to all academic members of IALS Library. 

Remote access to is restricted to IALS staff, IALS fellows and IALS students (via Shibboleth).  

To access Practical Law remotely, you will need to follow the remote access link on the Library Search record and then enter your IALS ID and password (this is the same one you use for StudyOnline / the IALS computer network).

Content

Practical Law is primarily designed for practitioners. Available content includes:

• PLC Magazine (June 1990 onwards): a magazine for business lawyers 
• Practice notes and checklists: provide detailed overviews on a wide range of topics
• Legal updates, case trackers, legislation trackers: analysis of legal developments and current awareness
• Global Guides (on the Resources tab): overviews of about 70 topics in a wide range of foreign jurisdictions, accompanied by a comparison tool
• Standard documents/clauses (precedents) and drafting notes
• A glossary: definitions of key terms
• What’s Market (under ‘Resources’): a database of information about corporate finance transactions.
• The Law School Resource Centre: a collection of material for law students (particularly those doing professional training), including introductory practice notes, blogs and videos, with an emphasis on legal careers and professional skills

Searching

Select a practice area and/or type of material to search, or search the whole database.

Click on the ‘i’ button in the search box for information about search connectors.

Search results can be filtered by resource type, practice area, jurisdiction, or business sector.

Browsing

Select a practice area and/or type of material to browse from the homepage, or use the Browse Menu at the top.

You can browse by practice area, business sector, or type of resource (e.g. practice notes). 

Reading and downloading
Content on Practical Law is available to read online in HTML format. There is an ‘expanded view’ option to view content online without display menus at the top and side of the screen. 

Content can be downloaded in accessible PDF and Word formats. To do this, click the ‘Download’ icon on the vertical menu on the right of the screen. 

There are also options to email, print, and save documents.

Help 

User guides are available within Practical Law, via a link at the bottom of the page (under Product Support).

The search box has an ‘i’ button that displays search tips.