Bert Kritzer's Website

Herbert (aka "Bert") Kritzer joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota Law School in July 2009. Prior to retiring in May 2022, he held the Marvin J. Sonosky Chair of Law and Public Policy, and was also an Affiliate Professor of Political Science. From 2007 to 2009, he was on the faculty at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul. Before moving to the Twin Cities, Professor Kritzer taught for 30 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he held an appointment as Professor of Political Science and Law (he took emeritus status at UW in May 2007). During his time in Madison he served as chair of the Political Science Department (1996-99), Director of the Legal Studies Program (2000-2004), and Director of the Data and Computation Center (1982-86). He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1974) and a B.A. in Sociology from Haverford College (1969). 

Professor Kritzer is the author or coauthor of eleven books, coeditor of two books, editor of a four volume encyclopedia (Legal Systems of the World ), and the author of over 100 journal articles or book chapters. (A complete list of his publications can be found on his publications page, which includes links to copies of most of his journal articles and book chapters.) He served as editor of Law & Society Review for four years (2004-2007. His most recent published books are Advanced Introduction to Empirical Legal Research (2021),  Judicial Selection in the States: Politics and the Struggle for Reform (Cambridge University Press, 2020), When Lawyers Screw Up: Access to Justice for Victims of Legal Malpractice (University Press of Kansas, 2018), Justices on the Ballot: Continuity and Change in State Supreme Court Elections (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and Lawyers at Work (Quid Pro Books, 2015).  His latest book, Litigating Judicial Selection, was published by Cambridge University Press in late 2024.

Professor Kritzer's research focuses on the empirical study of judicial selection, the legal profession, and a variety of other legal phenomena. His current project is a study of the selection and retention state supreme court justices over a 50-year period starting in 1976. His research has involved a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies including the analysis of data derived from institutional records, systematic surveys, semi-structured interviews, and ethnographic-style observation.