UW Law School students, faculty and staff now have access to Bloomberg Law.  This vendor is already well known for its analysis of corporate news and financial markets, however Bloomberg has recently expanded its legal content.  Like Westlaw and LexisNexis, it includes cases, statutes, regulations, and a citator service.  However Bloomberg Law offers some things that other databases do not.

Federal and State Court Dockets and Filings

Bloomberg Law offers dockets and filings for most federal and some state courts.  Although Westlaw and LexisNexis offer some dockets and briefs, with Bloomberg Law, you can access the other documents filed in the case, such as complaints, orders, etc.  And Bloomberg Law also offers an alert system which can notify you of new documents filed for a case.

Federal content is pulled from PACER, the online case management system for the federal courts.  Unlike PACER, however, any law student, faculty or staff may access Bloomberg Law at no charge.

Sample Transactional Documents

Bloomberg Law’s Dealmaker offers sample transactional documents and a powerful search tool to locate them.  Select from a list of transaction types and/or keyword search.

Daily Briefings

For those interested in monitoring developments in securities, bankruptcy and intellectual property law, the Bloomberg Daily Briefings will definitely pique your interest.


For an overview of Bloomberg Law, see the quick reference guide.  To access it, you'll need to have your own id and password.  To request, contact Bonnie Shucha, Head of Reference at bjshucha@wisc.edu.  Please state whether you are a UW Law student, faculty or staff.

Submitted by Bonnie Shucha on November 12, 2010

This article appears in the categories: Law Library