6 American Bar Foundation • www.americanbarfoundation.org

Dear Friends,

Thank you to the many institutions and individuals that continue to support the American Bar Foundation (ABF). Now well into my second year as ABF Director, I’m even more thrilled to be leading one of the world’s foremost research institutes focusing on the study of law, legal institutions, and legal processes. One reason for my continued excitement is the excellent support we have at the ABF, from our outstanding board, now led by Ellen Flannery, to our dedicated staff and faculty to our primary funders: the American Bar Endowment, the ABF Fellows, and the many external funding organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, The Law School Admission Council, and most recently, AccessLex Institute. We are grateful for all the support we have received over the past years.

As the following pages highlight, the ABF has had another productive year of highly innovative and influential research. Despite challenging financial conditions, the ABF faculty published an astonishing number of interdisciplinary books, articles, and professional reports. We also hired two new joint-appointee research professors. And we initiated new programming and secured additional grant revenue to ensure that the ABF remains one of the leading incubators for future scholars and legal professionals.

Let me briefly highlight some of our past research achievements. First, in the area of diversity and law, the ABF continues to be a leading source of empirical and interdisciplinary research on the perennial struggle to diversify the legal and other professions. Our Research Group on Legal Diversity hosted a conference on “Metrics, Diversity, and Law” this past spring; at the same time that the papers from the Research Group’s 2013 conference were published as a new edited volume on Diversity in Practice. In the spring, the ABF also launched its newest diversity initiative linked to the Neukom Chair: The Future of Latinos Project, which has since blossomed into a national program exploring ways to improve opportunities and mobility for our nation’s fastest growing minority population.

Second, the ABF’s Access to Justice research remains on the cutting-edge of new scholarship. Our work on Civil and Community Needs and Services has demonstrated the tragic gap that persists between the legal needs of disadvantaged populations and the supply of legal professionals. Likewise, our work on the organized bar—whether it’s the Texas plaintiffs’ bar and tort reform or criminal defense lawyers in China—has demonstrated the important role that lawyers play as gatekeepers to justice. Similarly, our many research projects that explore the disjuncture between formal law and law in action—from our work on criminal justice to the intersection of law and science—illustrate why conducting empirical research is an essential first step before we can improve access to justice.

Third, our scholarship on legal education and the profession remains a hallmark of ABF research. From our After the JD study to our work on the financing of legal education to our New Legal Realism project and the career trajectory of diverse law professors, the ABF has maintained its leadership as the premier institute for the unbiased and objective study of legal education and the profession.

Finally, much of the outstanding work of our faculty, both as scholars and mentors, was duly recognized this past year. Several ABF researchers were awarded book prizes and accolades for their influential research and teaching. As we look ahead, everyone associated with the ABF—donors, strategic partners, board members, ABF Fellows, staff, faculty, and research assistants—should be proud of all that we have accomplished and the potential for excellence going forward.

Ajay K. Mehrotra

Report of the Director: Ajay K. Mehrotra

www.americanbarfoundation.org • 2016 Annual Report 7

HighlightsExpanding the Network for one of the ABF’s newest Research Projects, “The Future of Latinos in the United States: Law, Opportunity, and Mobility”The new ABF research and programming project, “The Future of Latinos in the United States: Law, Opportunity, and Mobility,” expanded its network in 2016 with several exciting events. The research initiative was launched in 2015 by Rachel Moran, the inaugural ABF William H. Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law and Dean Emerita and Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA Law School. The Latino population is projected to account for nearly 30 percent of the U.S. population by 2050. Thus, this new ABF project is both innovative and timely. A nation-wide, interdisciplinary project, “The Future of Latinos” is dedicated to understanding and advancing research on

• the current condition of Latinos in the United States,

• the structural barriers that impede full equality and integration for this emerging population,

• the sites of intervention that promise to be most impactful in promoting opportunity and mobility through law and policy.

In its first year, the Future of Latinos Project hosted several events. In February 2016, the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation presented a CLE research seminar, “The Future of Latinos in the United States: Law, Opportunity, and Mobility,” at the ABA Midyear Meeting in San Diego. This panel discussion consisted of two ABF-affiliated researchers, Moran, and ABF Director Emeritus, Robert L. Nelson. Moran and Nelson were joined by Luz Herrera, Associate Dean for Experiential Education at Texas A&M University

• Luz Herrera, Associate Dean for Experiential Education at Texas A&M University School of Law, presents at the CLE research seminar, “The Future of Latinos in the United States: Law, Opportunity, and Mobility,” at the ABA Midyear Meeting in San Diego.

• (From left to right) Robert L. Nelson, Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, Rachel F. Moran, Pilar Margarita Hernández Escontrías at the Future of Latinos Midwest Roundtable in June 2016

• Dr. Lilia Fernandez at the Future of Latinos Midwest Roundtable in June 2016

• Cook County Commissioner and former mayoral candidate Jesus "Chuy" Garcia speaking at the Future of Latinos Midwest Roundtable.

• Kevin Johnson, Dean and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o Studies at UC Davis School of Law, and ABF Board Member, Hon. Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar at The Future of Latinos in the United States Planning Summit at UCLA in November 2016.

8 American Bar Foundation • www.americanbarfoundation.org

Highlights

School of Law, and award-winning journalist and trial lawyer, Manny Medrano, who acted as panel moderator. In June 2016, the ABF hosted a Midwest regional roundtable under the auspices of the Future of Latinos project. The ABF assembled over 80 law and interdisciplinary scholars, legal advocates, foundation representatives, politicians, community activists, members of the media, and emerging leaders

for a roundtable forum at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law. The forum focused on key issues facing the Latino community, including economic opportunity, mobility, civic and political engagement, and immigration. In November 2016, “The Network for Justice Planning Summit: Creating Legal and Legislative Support for Latino Communities” convened at the UCLA Luskin Conference Center. The summit was held in Los Angeles, with the goal of helping to establish a California-based network for justice pilot program to connect Latino populations with legal resources. California was chosen for the launch of this new initiative because of its demographic profile, its leadership in both clinical education and social justice, and its capacity to support the establishment of a robust network. The Future of Latinos project will continue to host other events in the coming years, with several regional initiatives planned in 2017, and a culminating national summit anticipated for 2018 in Washington, D.C.

The Fourth Conference of the Research Group on Legal Diversity: Metrics, Diversity, and LawThe Research Group on Legal Diversity (RGLD) held its 2016 Conference on May 5-6, dedicated to the theme of “Metrics, Diversity, and Law.” RGLD co-directors, ABF Director Emeritus and MacCrate Chair in the Legal Profession, Robert L. Nelson, Faculty Fellow Ronit Dinovitzer, and ABF-affiliated scholar David Wilkins convened over 80 scholars and practitioners over two days to examine measures of diversity and inclusion in the professions. With this conference, the RGLD spearheaded a critical analysis of metrics that influence legal and professional workplaces. In the law and other professions, metrics play key roles in the decision-making processes of gatekeepers at critical junctures throughout careers, and in drawing conclusions about successes and failures in efforts to advance diversity and inclusion. The conference investigated how these metrics include assessments of individuals’ characteristics—such as those involved in hiring decisions and performance evaluations—and assessments of organizational characteristics— such as measures of efficiency, diversity, and “quality,” from both firms themselves and external evaluators.

• (From left to right) ABF Board member, Kay Hodge, Former ABF President, David A. Collins, Dean Emerita and Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, Rachel F. Moran, ABF Director, Ajay K. Mehrotra, Paulette Brown, Immediate past President of the ABA, ABF Director Emeritus and the MacCrate Research Chair in the Legal Profession, Robert L. Nelson, ABF Faculty Fellow, Ronit Dinovitzer, and ABF Board Treasurer, Jimmy K. Goodman, at the Research Group on Legal Diversity’s Metrics, Diversity, and Law 2016 Conference, May 5-6, in Chicago.

• Lee S. Webster from the University of Texas Medical Branch presenting at the RGLD 2016 conference.

www.americanbarfoundation.org • 2016 Annual Report 9

CLE Research Seminar on Civil Rights AdvocacyIn August 2016, the ABF Fellows presented a CLE research seminar, “Civil Rights Advocacy: Past, Present and Future,” at the ABA’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The seminar explored the nature of civil rights claims and how the concept of civil rights has been developed, enforced, ignored, and contested. Panelists included Lauren B. Edelman, the Agnes Roddy Robb Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Working Law: Courts, Corporations, and Symbolic Civil Rights; Jocelyn Larkin, Executive Director of the Impact Fund, a legal nonprofit providing support for public interest impact litigation; Melissa Murray, interim dean and the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law; and Cheryl I. Harris, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at UCLA School of Law, coauthor of Cases on Reproductive Rights and Justice, and leading scholar on Critical Race Theory. Dylan C. Penningroth, an affiliated research professor at the ABF and professor of law and history at the University of California, Berkeley, served as panel moderator.

2016 Law in the History of Capitalism ConferenceThe American Bar Foundation and the University of Chicago Law School co-hosted the 2016 Law in the History of Capitalism Conference at the ABF offices on June 27-28. The conference stemmed from a recent surge of interdisciplinary scholarship on the historical relationship between law and capitalism, placing law, legal institutions, and legal processes at the center of capitalist transformations. The conference was an opportunity for junior scholars to share previously unpublished research and connect with senior scholars in the field. The conference was supported by the University of Chicago Law School, American Society for Legal History, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, University of Illinois College of Law, University of Michigan Law School, University of Minnesota Law School, and University of Pennsylvania Law School.

• (From left to right) Melissa Murray, Cheryl Harris, Jocelyn Larkin, Lauren Edelman, and Dylan C. Penningroth

• Panelists Melissa Murray, Jocelyn Larkin, Cheryl Harris, and Lauren Edelman at the CLE research seminar, “Civil Rights Advocacy: Past, Present and Future” in August 2016.

• 2016 Law in the History of Capitalism Conference at the ABF’s offices, June 27-28, 2016.

10 American Bar Foundation • www.americanbarfoundation.org

HighlightsThe ABF’s Community of Emerging Scholars Montgomery Summer Research Diversity FellowshipThe ABF welcomed four undergraduate students to Chicago this summer as part of the Montgomery Summer Research Diversity Fellowship in Law and Social Science. For nearly thirty years, the ABF has invited outstanding students from diverse backgrounds to spend eight weeks in residence at the ABF offices and experience the rewards and challenges of a research-oriented career in law and social science. The fellows spent summer 2016 working alongside ABF research professors on various research projects, meeting with local judges and other legal professionals, attending conferences, and visiting the ABA Chicago headquarters, area courthouses, and other venues.

Doctoral FellowsThe ABF continued its tradition of supporting doctoral students by welcoming a new cohort of doctoral fellows. Ayobami Laniyonu (UCLA), David McElhattan (Northwestern University), Jeffrey Omari (University of California, Santa Cruz), and Emma Shakeshaft (University of Wisconsin-Madison), joined continuing fellows Amanda Hughett and Matthew Shaw in September 2016. Laniyonu’s research focuses on the impact that policing practices and strategies have on political participation. McElhattan’s research explores the use of criminal records by non-criminal justice actors, tracing how the availability of criminal history information dramatically expanded in the United States over the past three decades. Omari’s dissertation, “Democracy Through Technology? Internet Governance and Urban Development in Rio de Janeiro,” examines the political, legal, and cultural implications of Internet governance in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. For her dissertation, Shakeshaft is researching the interpretations and procedures of judges, lawyers, and governmental actors by examining legal resource allocation and case outcomes based on gender, nationality, and race. Her research focuses on transracial adoption case law, human trafficking case law, and data on nonimmigrant visas for victims of criminal activity and human trafficking.

• The SRDF Fellows visiting the Cook County Criminal Court, where they shadowed Assistant State's Attorney Jennifer Coleman

Highlights

The American Bar Endowment is the American Bar Foundation's largest and longest term supporter. The ABE's support is crucial to the ABF's ability to conduct and disseminate world-class research on law and its relationship to society. From left to right: Palmer Gene Vance, Hon. Lee S. Edmon, Martha Barnett, Ajay K. Mehrotra, Ellen Flannery, Anthony (Tony) Patterson, Jonathan Cole

www.americanbarfoundation.org • 2016 Annual Report 11

ABF Welcomes New Board Leadership Two long-time ABF community members took leadership roles at the ABF in fall 2016. Ellen Flannery, a partner in the Food, Drug, and Device practice at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C., was elected President of the American Bar Foundation in October, succeeding former ABF President, David Collins. Flannery is an active member of the ABF community, having served as an ABF Board member since 2005 and as chair of the Fellows of the ABF in 2007-08. New York attorney Michael Byowitz was elected chair of the Fellows of the ABF this past fall. He has been practicing law at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, & Katz for more than 30 years. Byowitz served as the co-chair of The Fellows’ New York chapter for two years and was most recently Chair-Elect and Secretary of the ABF Fellows.

Faculty Activities and Recognition ABF Director Emeritus and MacCrate Chair in the Legal Profession Robert L. Nelson, in collaboration with ABF Faculty Fellow Ronit Dinovitzer, affiliated scholar David Wilkins, and ABF research assistant Spencer Headworth, co-edited, Diversity in Practice: Race, Gender, and Class in Legal and Professional Careers published by Cambridge University Press. The volume is the output from the 2013 conference of the ABF’s Research Group on Legal Diversity. The essays collected in this edited volume examine the reality of diversity practices in contemporary law firms, corporations, and law schools. The collected papers analyze the disconnect between expressed commitments to diversity and the practical goals that are achieved, revealing the often obscure systemic causes that drive persistent professional inequalities. Diversity in Practice is the broadest study of diversity in professional careers to date. ABF Research Professor Elizabeth Mertz co-edited three volumes of The New Legal Realism, an ABF research project that has evolved into a major international school of legal study. The New Legal Realism project aims to develop a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to the empirical study of law and social science, and to advance a shared understanding of law. Since it was launched as an ABF research project co-directed by Mertz in the

late 1990s, New Legal Realism scholarship has grown to become a leading channel for translation between the law and social science. The ABF celebrated the 10th anniversary of the project in 2014. The New Legal Realism, Volume 1: Translating Society for Today’s Legal Practice, combines contributions from eminent scholars from a variety of disciplines to explore relevant issues and offer a model for future empirical law research. The New Legal Realism, Volume II: Studying Law Globally, focuses on the integration of global perspectives into our understanding of law and the interplay among global translations and conceptions of law. Translating the Social World for Law examines the linguistic challenges that arise in translating between law and the social sciences. The authors use empirical research to emphasize the importance of understanding how law operates in action around the world. ABF Research Professor Terence C. Halliday and ABF Faculty Fellow Sida Liu released their new book, Criminal Defense in China: The Politics of Lawyers at Work (Cambridge University Press, 2016) in November. Terence Halliday is a world-renowned sociologist and researcher with a focus on global law-making, professions, and international law reforms

• Ellen Flannery was named ABF Board President in October 2016 ©2016 Paul Sakuma Photography

• Fellows Chair, Mike Byowitz

12 American Bar Foundation • www.americanbarfoundation.org

Highlightsand the co-director of the American Bar Foundation’s Center on Law & Globalization. Liu, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto, is a sociologist of law who has written extensively on Chinese law and sociolegal theory. The book is the culmination of more than a decade of ongoing research on the work and politics of criminal defense lawyers and their fight for basic legal freedoms in China. Drawing from 329 interviews with criminal defense lawyers and activists between 2005 and 2015, as well as news and social media analysis, Criminal Defense in China documents the emergence of politically mobilized lawyers and human rights activism under China’s authoritarian state. In January, Halliday co-authored an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping, published in The Guardian, in which renowned jurists from around the world denounced the Chinese government’s crackdown on members of the legal community and demanded adherence to universal legal standards. On March 11, 2016, Halliday spoke to foreign diplomats, ambassadors, and U.N. officials about new proposals to strengthen the rule of law during a dialogue at the U.N. headquarters. The discussion, entitled, “Strengthening the Rule of Law through the United Nations Security Council (UNSC),” was hosted by the Rule of Law Unit on behalf of the U.N. Rule of Law Coordination and Resource Group, the Permanent Mission of Australia, and the Permanent Mission of Japan. It marked the official launch of a report of policy proposals by Australian institutions to enhance the capacity of the UNSC to strengthen the rule of law when it deploys peace operations, applies sanctions, and authorizes the use of force.

Faculty Awards and RecognitionProfessor Rebecca L. Sandefur, a Faculty Fellow at the ABF and an associate professor of sociology and law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, spoke about her research on public experience with civil justice problems and civil legal aid at a meeting held at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Feb. 29, 2016. The meeting was co-chaired by Loretta Lynch, Attorney General of the United States, and Cecilia Muñoz, director of President Obama’s Domestic Policy Council. The event was attended by cabinet-level representatives from over 20 federal departments,

Crim

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Cover image:

cambridge studies in law and society

Criminal Defense in China

Criminal Defense in China studies empirically the everyday work and political

mobilization of defense lawyers in China. It builds upon 329 interviews across China,

and other social science methods, to investigate and analyze the interweaving of politics

and practice in five segments of the practicing criminal defense bar in China from 2005

to 2015. This book is the first to examine everyday criminal defense work in China as

a political project. The authors engage extensive scholarship on lawyers and political

liberalism across the world, from seventeenth-century Europe to late twentieth-century

Korea and Taiwan, drawing on theoretical propositions from this body of theory to

examine the strategies and constraints of lawyer mobilization in China. The book brings

a fresh perspective through its focus on everyday work and ordinary lawyering in an

authoritarian context and raises searching questions about law and lawyers, politics

and society, in China’s uncertain future.

SIDA LIU is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, Faculty

Fellow at the American Bar Foundation, and a Member of the Institute for Advanced

Study in Princeton in 2016–17.

TERENCE HALLIDAY is Co-Director of the Center on Law and Globalization,

Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation, and Honorary Professor at the

Australian National University, Canberra.

Criminal Defense in ChinaThe Politics of Lawyers at Work

Sida L i u a n d T er ence C . H a l l iday

cambridge studies in law and society

• A Chinese prison © Associated Press

• Human rights lawyer, Wang Yu, with ABF Research Professor Terence C. Halliday in Beijing, China, June 2015. Photo courtesy of Terence C. Halliday.

Highlights

www.americanbarfoundation.org • 2016 Annual Report 13

including the Departments of State, Labor, the Treasury, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Homeland Security. The convening at the DOJ was the inaugural meeting of the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable, created by presidential memorandum in September 2015. Professor Sandefur’s appearance coincided with the release of the DOJ’s Civil Legal Aid Research Workshop Report, to which she was a contributing expert. ABF Research Professor John Hagan was featured as a leading expert in the critically acclaimed documentary “13th,” a revealing depiction of the system of mass incarceration and the history of racial inequality in the U.S. “13th” is directed by Ava DuVernay, the first woman of color to direct a film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Hagan is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and Law at Northwestern University and the co-director of the American Bar Foundation’s Center on Law & Globalization. Other ABF faculty accolades include:

• ABF Visiting Scholar Robert Vargas received the New Scholar Award from the American Society of Criminology’s Division on People of Color and Crime.

• ABF Faculty Fellow and Law & Social Inquiry Editor, Chris Schmidt, was honored with the American Society for Legal History’s (ASLH) Surrency Prize this fall for his article “Divided by Law: The Sit-ins and the Role of the Courts in the Civil Rights Movement.”

• The Law & Society Association (LSA) recognized three ABF scholars with awards in 2016: – ABF Research Professor Shari Diamond

(Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law) received the Ronald Pipkin Service Award for what the LSA described as her “sustained and extraordinary service to the Association.”

– ABF Faculty Fellow Sida Liu (University of Toronto) received an Honorable Mention for the LSA’s Article Award for “Law’s Social Forms: A Powerless Approach to the Sociology of Law.”

– Former ABF doctoral fellow Ellen Berry (University of Denver), won the Herbert Jacob Book Award for the best book in law and society

scholarship published in 2015 for her book The Enigma of Diversity: The Language of Race and the Limits of Racial Justice. The book was based on her dissertation of the same name which she completed during her time as an ABF Doctoral Fellow.

• ABF Research Professor James Heckman was awarded the James Madison Medal from Princeton University, presented to an alumnus or alumna of the graduate school “who has led a distinguished career, advanced the cause of graduate education, or achieved a record of outstanding public service.” In February, Heckman received the 2016 Dan David Prize, a top international prize for outstanding scientific, technological, cultural or social achievements; he was honored for his contributions to “combatting poverty.” He was also named a distinguished 2016 Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Heckman is a University of Chicago Nobel Laureate economist and the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics.

ABF Research Professor John Hagan presenting on mass incarceration at Cornell University. Photo by Cameron Pollack, The Cornell Daily Sun