I am an associate professor at the George Washington University Law School, where I teach Evidence. I am also an associate professor (by courtesy) in the GW Sociology Department, an affiliated faculty member at the American Bar Foundation, and an incoming Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. Before coming to GW Law, I was a sociology professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
My research investigates "everyday legality": the relationship between everyday people and the law, and the implications of this relationship for people's ability to access just resolutions for problems. I ask questions like: Why might some people go to legal aid, 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?
Some of my other work focuses on improving 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.
My research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the American Bar Foundation, and has been published in Law & Society Review, Harvard Law Review, California Law Review, Social Forces, and other journals, and cited by multiple state supreme courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.
My research investigates "everyday legality": the relationship between everyday people and the law, and the implications of this relationship for people's ability to access just resolutions for problems. I ask questions like: Why might some people go to legal aid, 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?
Some of my other work focuses on improving 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.
My research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the American Bar Foundation, and has been published in Law & Society Review, Harvard Law Review, California Law Review, Social Forces, and other journals, and cited by multiple state supreme courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.