Once you've chosen a topic be sure to review legal literature for a preemption check to be sure that another legal scholar has not already thoroughly covered your topic.
Sources to search for preemption: (1) Legal Periodicals, (2) American Law Reports (ALR), (3) Treatises, hornbooks, and practice manuals, (4) Legal Encyclopedias, (5) Current casebooks, (6) Working papers in SSRN, (7) Blogs & websites, (8) Restatements & model codes
Finding conflicting opinions within a state, among states, between federal circuit courts or between different countries often provides a good starting point for choosing a paper topic.
A federal case search in Westlaw or Lexis for "split w/5 circuits" will provide some example cases. Other strategies include exploring dissenting opinions or certiorari petitions or cases of first impression to find unsettled areas of the law. Try a case law search of "first impression" to find relevant state or federal cases.
This link opens in a new windowLaw firms or professional associations sometimes release newsletters about legal current events that may affect their clients. Luckily, there are databases and websites which gather and publish these newsletters and make them accesible to everyone.
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