Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship 2003 Empirical Inquiry Twenty-Five Years After The Lawyering Process Stefan H. Krieger Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University Richard K. Neumann Jr. Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/faculty_scholarship Recommended Citation Stefan H. Krieger and Richard K. Neumann Jr., Empirical Inquiry Twenty-Five Years After The Lawyering Process, 10 Clinical L. Rev. 349 (2003) Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/faculty_scholarship/155 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. EMPIRICAL INQUIRY TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER THE LAWYERING PROCESS RICHARD K. NEUMANN, JR. & STEFAN H. KRIEGER* One of the many ways in which The Lawyering Process was a pioneering book was its extensive reliance on empirical research about lawyers, lawyering, and activities analogous to some or another aspect of lawyering. To what extent has the clinical field accepted Gary Bellow and Bea Moulton's invitation to explore empirical stud- ies generated outside legal education and perhaps engage in empirical work ourselves to understand lawyering more deeply? Although some clinicians have done good empirical work, our field as a whole has not really accepted Gary and Bea's invitation. This article ex- plains empirical ways of thinking and working; discusses some of the mistakes law scholars (not only clinicians) make when dealing with empirical work; explores some of the reasons why empiricism has encountered difficulty in law schools; and suggests that empiricism might in some ways improve our teaching in clinics.