Sam Williams (Idaho), Dissecting the Frog: How a Meme Explains the Westlaw/Lexis and Generational Divide:

One of the most controversial elements of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris was a drag show during the opening ceremony that allegedly parodied Christianity by recreating Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper." A legal meme emerged showing both images side-by-side, labeling da Vinci's painting "Westlaw" and the drag show "Lexis." In this article, I explain why this meme is funny by showing how the differences between Westlaw and Lexis and legal minds' attitudes towards those differences offer fascinating parallels to this controversy. Westlaw's print-focused, grid-oriented organization and aesthetic might appeal to the trained legal mind, but Lexis' emphasis on discrete information and keyword searching might make the database more appealing to new attorneys and law students who are increasingly unfamiliar with print resources. By embracing the beauty of something new and unfamiliar, attorneys of any age can improve themselves and their profession.

Conclusion
I have focused this essay on the Olympics and a very silly meme that they inspired. However, as suggested at the outset, I do believe that thinking about Lexis and Westlaw this way we can embody the core Olympic values of excellence, respect, and friendship. Excellence is the easiest to demonstrate. By thinking deeply about the tools that we take for granted, our understanding of the work we use those tools to accomplish can only increase. This article has invoked the importance of respect, in giving those who are different from us the benefit of the doubt and respecting things even (and maybe especially) when our first instinct is to dislike them. And finally, this essay fosters friendship. Those who prefer Westlaw or Lexis have plenty to offer the other, sitting alongside longstanding legal debates with practical consequences but no true resolution. But I also foster friendship by engaging with my research assistant and his love of stupid memes, by sharing my thoughts with colleagues and gauging their own reactions. A rigid world view can be a fortress, but it can also be a prison. By experimenting with that view and testing its foundation, it’s possible that we might open a few doors.

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