When sport gets complicated, which it tends to do these days, it's time to call on the specialists, such as sports law lawyers. But just what is sports law, what are the rules of the game, what sort of cases crop up, and what do the lawyers need in terms of resources. Lereesa Easterbrook and Said Sufi of Bird & Bird give us a fascinating – and in this Olympic year timely – insight into this burgeoning legal field.

While every law librarian should be able to find a case, tracking one from claim form to judgment is another thing entirely. Here Anneli Sarkanen outlines why and when this might need to be done, the various sources that are available and the methods that are used

In this article Jas Breslin, Head of Research and Information Services at Charles Russell Speechlys, gives a brief overview of the type of work performed by a corporate lawyer, and some of the key resources used to support their work.

TRG Screen's Global Director of Marketing Roel Mels talks LIM through ResearchMonitor, a tool that allows legal information professionals and lawyers to keep track of and manage their subscriptions.

Legal information professionals can play a vital role when it comes to patents, whether that's through undertaking research to assist in infringement cases or by assisting in providing due diligence information by conducting searches to identify a company's patent portfolio. But those doing patent research need to know how to identify patents, how to determine their status and how to investigate the litigation history of patents. Niamh Hanratty, of Bird & Bird, explains how all this is done.

Financing work is an important source of revenue for many law firms, so it's no surprise that the finance practice group is often one of the largest in a City firm. But what is finance and what do finance lawyers do? Ian Hunter, Content & Research Manager (EMEA) at Shearman & Sterling (London) LLP, gives LIM the benefit of his wide experience in the sector.

In this article John Franssen, Head of Research at Travers Smith LLP, gives an overview of what private equity is (including a brief glossary of some key terms), how private equity invests, the type of work lawyers in private practice are involved in and some of the key resources that they need and that are available. This article will also highlight the growing importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and sustainability investment for private equity managers.

The European Union Databases User Group (EUDUG) is a group of information professionals, and others, who have an interest in European Union information resources and matters. Here Frederico Rocha (manager of the European Documentation Centre at Cardiff University and chair of EUDUG) and Hester Swift (Foreign and International Law Librarian, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Library and EUDUG secretary) explain the aims of the group, while illustrating the wide and varied range of speakers and organisations that have played a part in its meetings. They also describe how the group has continued to be relevant in this post-Brexit world, while outlining its plans for the future.

Claire Greening explores some of the challenges that library and information professionals face when weighing up hard copy and online resources. Rather than trying to establish a preferred or ‘best’ format, this article instead explores the advantages that both formats have to offer and considers how they can co-exist within the law library. The article concludes with some questions to ask when purchasing and organising resources and explores some of the practical considerations to take into account regarding training.

Universities enter into contracts with publishers or providers of aggregated resources on behalf of university libraries to provide staff and students with access to material in electronic format for educational and research purposes. Following a brief review of twelve database provider contracts, our research demonstrates that Australian academics are potentially breaching the contractual terms and conditions of electronic resources when accessing, downloading and printing articles and other materials. They are covered for research purposes, but not for educational purposes.

The purpose of this article, by Stephanie Biggs of Kirkland & Ellis International LLP, is to give an introduction to private equity. The article provides a brief overview of the industry, then looks in more detail at the two key processes in which private equity lawyers are involved: fundraising and doing deals. The author also looks at the resources available for researching private equity and provides a glossary of commonly used terms.

This article, by Daniel Hayter of Bloomberg Law, is based on a series of seminars presented to legal information professionals during 2007–2008. It includes a guide to corporate finance and methods of raising money in the capital markets. The author also describes the topical area of mortgage-backed securities.

Janice Edwards of Maclay Murray & Spens provides a brief guide to sources of both primary and secondary company information.

John Furlong of Matheson, Ormsby Prentice LLP briefly describes the services provided by the Companies Registration Office.