I'm a professor at the George Washington University Law School. I am also Associate Editor of Law & Society Review and affiliated faculty at the American Bar Foundation. Before coming to GW, I was a professor in the sociology department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. My research investigates how people think about and interact with law (often called "legal consciousness") and the effects for access to justice. I ask questions like: Why might some people go to legal aid to solve problems, while others do not? Why might some people be more inclined to fight a bill, sue a neighbor, or refuse a police search? How do race and class manifest in interactions with the legal system?
Additionally, I hope to improve legal education by developing a better empirical understanding of social and organizational structures in law schools. My book, How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School (Stanford University Press, 2018) draws on interviews and surveys of 1100 law students from over 100 U.S. law schools. My current study follows 53 law students longitudinally over their 1L year and beyond.
Parole is another main area of my work. I have examined which factors influence a person's odds of receiving a grant, including indirect racial effects; how parole commissioners make sense of amorphous concepts like remorse; and the implications of my findings for racial disparities in mass incarceration.
My research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the American Bar Foundation, and appears in Law & Society Review, Harvard Law Review, California Law Review, Social Forces, and many 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.
Currently, I teach evidence law. In the past, I've taught courses related to criminal procedure, social psychology, policing, qualitative research methods, law and society, ethics, and teaching pedagogy.
Additionally, I hope to improve legal education by developing a better empirical understanding of social and organizational structures in law schools. My book, How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School (Stanford University Press, 2018) draws on interviews and surveys of 1100 law students from over 100 U.S. law schools. My current study follows 53 law students longitudinally over their 1L year and beyond.
Parole is another main area of my work. I have examined which factors influence a person's odds of receiving a grant, including indirect racial effects; how parole commissioners make sense of amorphous concepts like remorse; and the implications of my findings for racial disparities in mass incarceration.
My research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the American Bar Foundation, and appears in Law & Society Review, Harvard Law Review, California Law Review, Social Forces, and many 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.
Currently, I teach evidence law. In the past, I've taught courses related to criminal procedure, social psychology, policing, qualitative research methods, law and society, ethics, and teaching pedagogy.