Access to Legal Databases for Law Students

Access to Westlaw Edge, Lexis Advance, and Bloomberg Law

UNC School of Law students are entitled to academic accounts for Westlaw Edge, Lexis Plus, and Bloomberg Law. First year students, transfer students, and international students will receive instructions for registering accounts during Fall orientation.

If you need to set up access to any of these databases after that time, please contact Assistant Director for Public Services Nicole Downing at ndowning@email.unc.edu or 919-843-9734.

Law students have access to a number of additional legal databases with their ONYEN and password. To view and access these databases, please visit the Subscription Databases page of the Law Library website.

Bloomberg Law

Law students may use their Bloomberg Law account for any research that they conduct throughout their time in law school, including over the summer.

Lexis Plus

Law students automatically have full access to Lexis Advance all summer for both educational and work purposes. During this Summer Access period, students may use their Lexis Advance IDs to conduct research for their summer positions at law firms, courts, government agencies and public interest organizations.

Westlaw Edge

Law students automatically have access to Thomson Reuters products, including Westlaw Edge and Practical Law, over the summer for non-commercial research. They can turn to these resources to gain understanding and build confidence in their research skills, but they cannot use them in situations where they are billing a client. Examples of permissible uses for academic password include the following:

  • Summer coursework
  • Research assistant assignments
  • Law Review or Journal research
  • Moot Court research
  • Non-Profit work
  • Clinical work
  • Externship sponsored by the school

Other Databases

Students have continued access throughout the summer to many other legal databases accessed through the law library website, such as ProQuest Congressional, HeinOnline and Law360. Please view the Subscription Databases page for a full list of databases.

Bloomberg Law

Graduating law students retain complete access to Bloomberg Law for six months after graduation. They do not need to register for this extension.

Lexis Advance

Graduating law students automatically retain access to Lexis+ through December 31, 2021. Your Student Homepage will transition to a new “Grad view” in July 2021. At that time, you will also have the opportunity to select an additional grad gift which includes one of the following:  subscription to Law360, Lexis Practical Guidance, Intelligize, or Lexis for Microsoft Office or you may select one of 13 LexisNexis eBooks. Additionally, the Graduate Homepage provides access to research resources, videos, career support and breaking legal news.

Westlaw Edge

Graduating law students can use Thomson Reuters products, including Westlaw and Practical Law, for 18-months after graduation. “Grad Elite” access gives graduating students 60-hours of usage per month, with no restrictions against using them for professional purposes. Graduating students will need to actively extend their access by logging into Westlaw after graduation or clicking on this link: https://lawschool.westlaw.com/authentication/gradelite. 

Other Databases

After graduation, law students will not have access to databases that require authentication with their ONYEN and password.

If you need help accessing or navigating any of the legal databases available to members of the UNC Law community, please visit the Reference Desk in person, by email at refdesk@unc.edu, or by phone at 919-962-1194. Reference librarians are also available to help in recovering account details for access to the databases.