Herbert M. Kritzer

Professor Herbert M. Kritzer joined the Law School faculty July 1, 2009, from William Mitchell College of Law, where he taught empirical legal studies, politics of legal policy, and statistics for lawyers. He is a leading scholar on the legal profession, the work of lawyers and other aspects of the American civil justice system, and state judicial selection. He is an affiliated professor in the University of Minnesota's Department of Political Science.

Previously, Professor Kritzer was a professor of political science and law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, chaired the Department of Political Science from 1996-99, and was director of the Legal Studies Program from 2000-04. He was a visiting fellow, Faculty of Law, University College London, in 1986-87. He taught political science as an assistant professor at Rice University in 1975-78 and as a visiting assistant professor at Indiana University in 1974-75. He was an instructor at the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research Summer Institute, University of Michigan, in 1974-77.

Professor Kritzer has written more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. His most recent book is a study of contingency fee legal practice in the United States, Risks, Reputations, and Rewards (Stanford, 2004). He co-edited with Peter Cane The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research (Oxford University Press 2010). He is associate editor of the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, the former editor of Law & Society Review, and a regular peer reviewer for leading political science, law, and social science journals. His primary research and writing interests are U.S. and comparative judicial process topics and the legal profession. He has received numerous grants and awards, including several from the National Science Foundation.

Professor Kritzer received a B.A. in sociology, magna cum laude, from Haverford College in 1969 and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1974.