Most of my research interests involve the work of non-profit legal organizations. This includes  law reform organizations (or: impact organizations; legal advocacy organizations) and direct legal service providers. This interest is motivated by the same kinds of beliefs about the importance of political parties or interest groups. These legal organizations represent the interests of large and small segments of the public and I am interested in how they represent and advance those interests.

My dissertation asks how legal organizations operating within a social movement behave. I learned that lawyers are very focused on the non-litigation aspects of their work whether it's trying to determine what community needs are, how they can collaborate with other organizations, what ways they can educate the public and their constituency, or how they can create change via agency rule-making. The implication is that unlike previous literature that positions non-litigation work in the periphery, this non-litigation work is central to both organizational identity and strategy.   

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My dissertation committee included Dr. Julie Novkov (Chair, SUNY - Albany), Dr. Ellen Andersen (University of Vermont), and Dr. Matthew Ingram (SUNY - Albany).