I am an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an Access to Justice Faculty Scholar at the American Bar Foundation. I work at the intersection of law and social sciences using quantitative and qualitative methods as well as legal analysis.
My research examines how inequality is caused or influenced by "legal consciousness"--how people think about the law. What factors and experiences shape people's willingness to use a legal aid office? To sue a neighbor? To refuse a police search? How well does the law take legal consciousness into account (spoiler alert: not well). My most recent project looks at the relationship between access to justice and legal consciousness, and is supported by the National Science Foundation.
I also spend a lot of time thinking about how parole hearings work on the ground: how parole commissioners think about their decision-making process, which factors influence an inmate's odds of receiving a grant, and the implications of these findings for mass incarceration.
Additionally, I have a sociological interest in legal education, and hope to improve it through better empirical understanding of law school's social structure. My book, How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School (Stanford University Press, 2018) draws on interviews and surveys of more than 1100 law students from over 100 law schools. I'm currently working on an article that talks about how access to justice goals can, and should, transform legal education.
My work appears in Law & Society Review, Social Forces, California Law Review, Harvard Law Review, and other journals, and has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Washington State Supreme Court. I have worked in a number of legal settings, including the Federal Defender's Office for the Northern District of California, the San Joaquin DA's Office, and the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford Law School. I am very involved in the Law & Society Association, and am on the Editorial Board of Law & Social Inquiry and the Editorial Advisory Board of Law & Society Review.
My research examines how inequality is caused or influenced by "legal consciousness"--how people think about the law. What factors and experiences shape people's willingness to use a legal aid office? To sue a neighbor? To refuse a police search? How well does the law take legal consciousness into account (spoiler alert: not well). My most recent project looks at the relationship between access to justice and legal consciousness, and is supported by the National Science Foundation.
I also spend a lot of time thinking about how parole hearings work on the ground: how parole commissioners think about their decision-making process, which factors influence an inmate's odds of receiving a grant, and the implications of these findings for mass incarceration.
Additionally, I have a sociological interest in legal education, and hope to improve it through better empirical understanding of law school's social structure. My book, How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School (Stanford University Press, 2018) draws on interviews and surveys of more than 1100 law students from over 100 law schools. I'm currently working on an article that talks about how access to justice goals can, and should, transform legal education.
My work appears in Law & Society Review, Social Forces, California Law Review, Harvard Law Review, and other journals, and has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Washington State Supreme Court. I have worked in a number of legal settings, including the Federal Defender's Office for the Northern District of California, the San Joaquin DA's Office, and the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford Law School. I am very involved in the Law & Society Association, and am on the Editorial Board of Law & Social Inquiry and the Editorial Advisory Board of Law & Society Review.