In addition to a variety of legal research and drafting tasks covered under the Litigation/Court Practice and Transactional/Business Law tabs in this guide, research and drafting tasks in governmental or public interest legal departments may call on other skills, resources, and tools:
Start with your employer's precedent documents. Your supervising attorney or the organization's librarian may have information on how to search and use any such internal resources.
Then look for models and examples in practical guidance and other research materials:
WL > Practical Law > Government Practice: Federal > Resource Types:Standard Documents and Standard Clauses
WL > Practical Law > Government Practice: State & Local > Resource Types:Standard Documents and Standard Clauses
National Conference of State Legislatures—nonpartisan organization of and for legislative staffers; offers bill tracking and trend reports/policy analysis on a wide variety of policy issue/topical areas.
Sutherland on Statutes & Statutory Construction (WL)—leading treatise on legislative powers and functions; guidance and leads on drafting, with a view to how legislative language will be interpreted.
Nonprofit Corporation Forms Handbook (WL) - chapters covering California and several other major jurisdictions
LX+ > Sample Forms > Practice Area:Governments—search, then filter
WL > Form Finder > [scroll down to browse Forms by Topic:Civil Rights ... Elder Law ... Municipal Law ... etc.]
NCLC > My NCLC > Consumer Litigation > Consumer Law Pleadings
WL > Practical Law > Government Practice: State & Local > [filter by jurisdiction]—includes overviews, articles, forms, and checklists on a handful of California state and local government topics (e.g., Zoning, Public Finance & Economic Development).
register for CEB AccessLaw > Practitioner > Environmental, Land Use & Natural Resources > CEQA & Other Environmental Regulation—workflows, checklists, document templates, etc. for lead agency and other roles in California Environmental Quality Act compliance and enforcement.
Advising California Nonprofit Corporations (CEB)
California Municipal Law Handbook (CEB)
Condemnation Practice in California (CEB)
There are many resources for writing effectively for formats like a white paper or policy briefing, that analyze and/or advocating for policy via statutory, regulatory, or other legal changes. Policy analysis and communication and associated advanced degree programs are a broad field and this is no substitute for the entire discipline. Here are a couple of law school oriented resources with tips:
A sip—Tips for Writing Policy Papers: A Policy Lab Communications Workshop (Stanford Law School, 2018)
A gulp—A Policymaking Checklist for the Legislative Process (Christopher Plein, Professor of Public Administration, West Virginia University, 2016)
A deep dive—A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving (e-book, 2020; also in print at Doe Library)
ABA/Bloomberg Law: Lawyer's Manual on Professional Conduct—authoritative one-stop shop for researching questions of legal ethics and professional responsibility
California State Bar: Judicial Ethics resources