I am a law and society scholar with a particular focus on legal professions and access to justice. I study lawyers and other law school graduates in both China and the United States. I am interested in the work lawyers do, the contexts in which they do it, their challenges and coping strategies, the clients they represent, and their career trajectories. I care a lot about lawyers because I also care about the supply of and access to legal services. For this reason I also study ordinary people and their everyday problems in China, the extent to which and circumstances under which they do (or do not) seek help inside and outside the legal system, their help-seeking experiences, and their perceptions and assessments of official justice. Finally, I study various dimensions of legal professions in dozens of countries around the world.

You can download my publications, learn about my current projects, and check out my sources of data.