Cornell H. Winston is the Law Librarian and Records Center Supervisor for the United States Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, as well as the incoming Vice President/President-Elect of AALL. He talks about his career path from student worker at the Harbor-UCLA medical library, to circulation clerk at Whittier Law, to library roles at law firms, to his current home at the Department of Justice. Hear about the “11th Commandment” he applies to every class or presentation he leads, as well as a discussion about the enormous increase in the complexity and breadth of legal research today.
The Practising Law Librarian, part of the PLI Ever Current podcast, brings you conversations with — and for — the law librarian community. PLI is proud to offer resources to support the essential work of law librarians and practitioners including PLI PLUS, the award-winning legal research platform, and the PLI Librarian blog.
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Featured in this Episode
Cornell H. Winston
Cornell H. Winston is the Law Librarian and Records Center Supervisor for the United States Attorney’s Office, Central District of California. He has been at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, one of the largest in the United States, for 22 years. Cornell has over 35 years of library experience working at a law school (Whittier College School of Law) and two law firms (Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP) in Los Angeles.
Cornell is the former chair of the Library Advisory Group for the United States Attorneys’ Offices, which provides library support for the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices that don’t have professional librarians. He has taught legal research classes for many years for Department of Justice support staff at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina.
Cornell is active in the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). He is the incoming Vice President/ President-Elect of the Association. He formerly served as Treasurer of the Association (2019–2022), having served on the AALL Executive Board (2006–2009) and various AALL committees, and is a former chair of the AALL Black Caucus (2011–2012). Cornell is also a member of the Southern California Association of Law Libraries (SCALL), where he served on several committees and was SCALL President (2001–2002).
Cornell is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and serves as Associate Pastor for Education Ministries at Santa Clarita Christian Fellowship in Castaic, California. He has been married to his wife Cynthia for 33 years and has two daughters and two granddaughters.
