Lexis and Westlaw both restrict student access over the summer, but continuing students and new graduates may request an extension of their passwords if they meet certain conditions.  For continuing students, examples of these conditions include:

• Taking summer law school classes that require access for their course preparation and assignments;
• Doing research associated with law review, law journal, or moot court work over the summer;
• Serving as a research assistant for a faculty member; or
• Working in an unpaid, nonprofit public internship or externship position for school credit or to fulfill a graduation requirement.

Note that this continued access must be for academic purposes only.  Using a Lexis or Westlaw password for a commercial purpose is in direct violation of our academic subscription terms.

The extension of student passwords needs to be done separately with each vendor and can be done directly from the home page of both Westlaw (lawschool.westlaw.com) and Lexis (www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool).  After you log in, there will be a rotating set of headlines in the center “announcements” box on both websites.  Select the “LexisNexis Summer Access” on Lexis and the “Need your Westlaw password this summer?” option on Westlaw and follow the ensuing prompts.

In addition, both Lexis and Westlaw allow graduating students to extend their passwords while they are studying for the bar exam.  Note that this access is limited to only a few hours per month (5 or so) through the end of July, and graduating students must affirmatively request this continued access using the same links referenced above.

Finally, Lexis continues to offer its Aspire program in 2011, which allows continuing access to certain tools and services for both current students and graduates pursuing public interest work.  For more details on the program restrictions and how to register, see the “Will you be part of the solution this summer?” option from the same rotating set of headlines in the center announcements box on the Lexis home page (www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool).

If you have additional questions regarding summer password extensions, please direct them to Jason Spray at Westlaw (Jason.Spray@thomsonreuters.com) and/or Tom Berdan at Lexis (Tom.Berdan@lexisnexis.com).