If you are asked to research an area of law with which you are unfamiliar, start out by looking of a an overview of summary of the issue. It is beneficial to develop a basic understanding of the issue before attempting to locate cases or statutes, because the a summary will help you generate a list of appropriate search terms and may even provide you with references to the relevant primary law.
When researching a recent trend or new development in the law, a law review or bar journal article may be helpful. These articles tend to focus on singular issues and provide detailed analysis regarding specific issues, especially new developments, rather than provide a broad overview of a topic.