Law Library
Planning
& Consulting
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Law Library Consulting
Library Consultant — Law Library Planning and Community Development
Aaron Cohen Associates has worked with law libraries across the United States and internationally, helping county law libraries, federal courts, and university law schools plan, program, and design spaces that serve legal professionals and the communities that depend on them. This is a sample list of the projects Aaron Cohen Associates has worked throughout its years. Additional projects can be sent upon request.
Law libraries occupy a distinct position in the information landscape. They must balance rigorous print collection management with the accelerating shift to digital legal research tools, while serving a demanding user base that ranges from judges and practicing attorneys to law students and self-represented litigants. Our consulting work addresses all of these dimensions: space programming, service analysis, technology integration, and long-range strategic planning.
Project Portfolio
Law Library Projects
The following institutions represent a cross-section of Aaron Cohen Associates' law library consulting engagements. Each project involved a tailored scope of work — from initial space needs assessments and collection analysis to full architectural programming and post-occupancy evaluation. Our approach is grounded in the specific legal information environment of each client, not in generic library templates.
Our Approach to Law Libraries
What Law Library Consulting Actually Involves
County law libraries, court libraries, and law school libraries each operate under different governance structures, funding models, and user mandates. A county law library serves the public as well as the bar; a court library serves the judiciary and its staff; a law school library serves faculty, students, and often the broader legal community. These differences shape every decision about space, collection, staffing, and technology.
Aaron Cohen Associates begins each engagement by understanding the institution's specific legal information environment before making any recommendations. We conduct user studies, analyze collection use patterns, assess current and projected space needs, and work directly with architects and administrators to translate findings into actionable programming documents. Our work with the full range of library types informs our law library practice: the same rigor we bring to academic library consulting applies here, adapted to the particular demands of legal research and legal practice.
Library Environments
Law Library Services
From Space Programming to Digital Integration
Law libraries face a specific version of the challenge confronting all research libraries: how to manage the transition from print-dominant collections to hybrid and increasingly digital environments without losing the depth and reliability that legal research demands. Print legal materials retain authority and citation value that digital equivalents do not always replicate. At the same time, digital legal research platforms have transformed how attorneys and law students work, and library spaces must reflect that shift.
Our consulting services for law libraries include space needs assessments, architectural programming, collection management strategy, technology planning, and service model analysis. We also assist with the organizational and administrative dimensions of library planning — helping law library directors make the case to their governing bodies for investment in facilities and services. For institutions navigating digital transformation, we bring direct experience with the practical and policy dimensions of that transition. For those focused on space and service planning, we provide the structured analysis that turns institutional goals into buildable, fundable programs.