The law school’s Empirical Legal Studies Center supports both quantitative and qualitative empirical work of law faculty, conducts occasional seminars, and facilitates faculty sharing of expertise and experience. 

Its current co-directors are J.J. Prescott and Margo Schlanger.

Who We Are

Laura Beny, Earl Warren DeLano Professor of Law

Laura Nyantung Beny

  • Earl Warren DeLano Professor of Law
  • Associate Director, University of Michigan African Studies Center
Albert Choi, Professor of Law

Albert H. Choi

  • Paul G. Kauper Professor of Law
Kristina Daugirdas, Professor of Law

Kristina B. Daugirdas

  • Associate Dean for Academic Programming
  • Professor of Law
Ed Fox, Assistant Professor of Law

Edward G. Fox

  • Professor of Law
James Hines, L. Hart Wright Collegiate Professor of Law

James Hines Jr.

  • L. Hart Wright Collegiate Professor of Law
  • Richard A. Musgrave Collegiate Professor of Economics
JJ Prescott, Co-director, Empirical Legal Studies Center

JJ Prescott

  • Henry King Ransom Professor of Law
  • Co-director, Empirical Legal Studies Center
  • Co-director, Program in Law and Economics
  • Professor of Economics
Adam Pritchard, Frances and George Skestos Professor of Law

Adam C. Pritchard

  • Frances and George Skestos Professor of Law
Gabriel Rauterberg, Assistant Professor of Law

Gabriel V. Rauterberg

  • Professor of Law
Margo Schlanger

Margo Schlanger

  • Wade H. and Dores M. McCree Collegiate Professor of Law

Featured Scholarship

  • Criminal Law
  • Legal Writing and Research

"Understanding Violent-Crime Recidivism"

Notre Dame Law Review

"The Voluntariness of Voluntary Consent: Consent Searches and the Psychology of Compliance"

Yale Law Journal
  • Corporate and Securities Law

"Does Capital Bear the U.S. Corporate Tax After All? New Evidence from Corporate Tax Returns"

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies
  • Legal Writing and Research

"Mapping the Iceberg: The Impact of Data Sources on the Study of District Courts"

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies
See All Scholarship

Empirical Legal Studies Research Scholar

Meghan M. O'Neil 
(2019-2023)

Meghan M. O’Neil is a Research Scholar at the Empirical Legal Studies Center. Her current research includes a mixed-methods study examining how fines and fees operate in community corrections  (Community Corrections Fines and Fees) and a randomized controlled trial funded by the National Science Foundation which tests whether online legal tools can improve social and economic outcomes for people in recovery from opioid use disorder (Removing Barriers to Recovery). She earned her MA in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences, magna cum laude, from Columbia University, and her PhD in Sociology from the State University of New York at Albany. 

Meghan’s Bio 

Community Corrections Fines and Fees Project 

Meghan_Oneil

 

Also of Interest