This collection of articles and essays by Herbert Kritzer draws on his extensive research related to lawyers and legal practice conducted over the last 35 years. That research has applied existing theoretical frameworks and developed innovative ways of thinking about how to understand what it is that lawyers do. The chapters reflect the wide range of both qualitative and quantitative research methods he has employed, and draw on his work on the Civil Litigation Research Project, a massive study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Carter administration, and continues through subsequent studies of lawyer-client relationships in Canada, contingency fee legal practice, and insurance defense practice. This book is for scholars and practitioners interested in understanding the work of lawyers in day-to-day litigation-like settings--and those concerned about what the future might hold for the structure of the legal profession and the nature of legal practice. "Through wide-ranging field research over 35 years Professor Kritzer has done more than anyone to document the craft of lawyers at work. This extraordinary compilation finds the whole in a professional lifetime of research, cementing Kritzer's reputation as pioneer and master of empirical legal research."-- Tom Baker / Univ. of Pennsylvania Law School "Professor Kritzer has long been recognized as one of the most astute scholarly commentators on the U.S. legal profession. This collection of papers allows readers to see his body of work as a whole, and to appreciate the unique combination of quantitative and qualitative skills on which it rests. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to cut through the myths that pervade debates about policy and practice in civil justice."-- Robert Dingwall / Nottingham Trent University, UK
