Lynn M Mather
Professor
B.A., University of California/Los Angeles
Ph.D., University of California/Irvine
University at Buffalo Law School
The State University of New York
418 O'Brian
Hall, North Campus
Buffalo, NY 14260-1100
Phone:(716) 645-5541
Faculty Assistant:
Susan Martin, 622 O'Brian Hall, Phone: (716) 645-2080
Biography:
Lynn Mather is a Professor of Law and Political Science at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. She was director of the Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy, an endowed academic center for interdisciplinary research on law and legal institutions from 2002-2008. Before moving to UB Law School in 2002, Mather held the Nelson A. Rockefeller Chair in Government at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. While at Dartmouth, Mather served as department chair, acting director of the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences and, in 1995, was awarded the Dartmouth College Distinguished Teaching Award.
A leading scholar in the field of law and society, Mather has published extensively on lawyers, legal professionalism, women in the legal profession, courts in popular culture, litigation against tobacco, trial courts and public policy, divorce mediation, plea bargaining, and the transformation of disputes. Her most recent book, Private Lawyers and the Public Interest: The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Profession (2009), was co-edited with Robert Granfield and published by Oxford University Press. Her previous book (co-authored), Divorce Lawyers at Work: Varieties of Professionalism in Practice (2001) also published by Oxford, received the C. Herman Pritchett Award from the American Political Science Association for the best book in the field of law and courts. Her earlier books include Empirical Theories About Courts (1983) and Plea Bargaining or Trial? The Process of Criminal-Case Disposition (1979).
Mather's research has been published in British journals such as Legal Ethics and International Journal of Law and the Family, and in the French journal Droit et Societe. Her 1983 book was translated into Japanese. Her work has been funded through grants from the National Science Foundation, Mellon Urban and Regional Studies, the New Hampshire Humanities Council, and the National Institute of Justice (LEAA).
An active member of the international Law and Society Association, Mather served as LSA president in 2001-2002, and as treasurer for two terms during the 1980s. She served as chair of the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association in 1993-1994. Mather also has been a member of the New Hampshire Judicial Council, the National Center for State Courts Research Advisory Board, and the National Science Foundation (Law and Social Science) review panel. She was a guest scholar in residence at the Brookings Institution and at the London School of Economics, and while on leave in 2009 has been Visiting Scholar at UCLA School of Law.
Mather was born in Los Angeles and received her undergraduate degree (with honors) from UCLA in political science and mathematics. She did graduate study in law and social science at the University of Wisconsin and in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her Ph.D. is in political science from the University of California, Irvine.
Selected Publications:
Books
Private Lawyers and the Public Interest: The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Profession (with R. Granfield, editors) (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Divorce Lawyers at Work: Varieties of Professionalism in Practice (with Craig A.McEwen and Richard J.Maiman) (Oxford University Press, 2001) (Winner of the American Political Science Association's C. Herman Pritchett Award for the best book published on law and courts, 2002)
Empirical Theories About Courts (with K.O. Boyum, editors) (Longman, 1983)
Plea Bargaining or Trial?: The Process of Criminal-Case Disposition (D.C. Heath, 1979)
Articles
The Only Peer-Reviewed, General Journal on Law and Policy, Law & Courts vol. 15(3): 12-13 (2005)
Changing Patterns of Legal Representation in Divorce: From Lawyers to Pro Se, Journal of Law and Society vol. 30: 137-155 (2003) [SSRN]
Introduction to Mini-Symposium: The Politics of Litigation by State Attorneys General, Law & Policy vol. 25: 425-428 (2003) [SSRN]
Reflections on the Reach of Law (and Society) Post 9/11: An American Superhero? (LSA Presidential Address) Law & Society Review vol. 37: 263-281 (2003)
What Do Clients Want? What Do Lawyers Do?, Emory Law Journal vol. 52: 1065-1086 (2003) (Ethics Symposium:What Do Client Want?)
The Future of Legal Professionalism in PracticeM (with Craig A. McEwen and Richard J. Maiman) Legal Ethics vol. 2(1): 71-85 (Summer 1999)
Theorizing About Trial Courts: Lawyers, Policymaking, and Tobacco Litigation, Law and Social Inquiry vol. 23: 897-940 (1998)
Lawyers,Mediation, and the Management of Divorce Practice (with Craig A.McEwen and Richard J.Maiman) Law & Society Review vol. 28: 149-87 (1994)
Language, Audience and the Transformation of Disputes (with Barbara Yngvesson) Law & Society Review vol. 15: 775-821 (1980-81)
Chapters
Bringing the Lawyers Back In in Exploring Judicial Politics (M.C. Miller, editor) (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Lawyers and Judges as Conduits of Culture: Litigation against Tobacco in Britain and the U.S. in Fault Lines: Tort Law and Cultual Practice (D. Engel & M.McCann, editors) (Stanford University Press, 2009)
Law & Society in The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics (G. Caldeira, D. Keleman & K. Whittington, editors) (Oxford University Press, 2008)
APSA Law & Courts Section in Encyclopedia of Law and Society: American and Global Perspectives (D.S. Clark, editor) (Sage Publications, 2007)
Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy in Encyclopedia of Law and Society: American and Global Perspectives (D.S. Clark, editor) (Sage Publications, 2007)
Courts in American Popular Culture in Benchmark: Judging Courts in American Democracy (K.L. Hall & K.T.McGuire, editors) (Oxford University Press, 2005) (233-261)
Beverly Blair Cook: The Value of Eclecticism in The Pioneers of Judicial Behavior (with Lee Epstein) (N. Maveety, editor) (University of Michigan Press, 2003) (172-192)
Gender in Context:Women in Family Law in Women in the World's Legal Profession (U. Schultz & G. Shaw, editors) (Hart Publishing, 2003) (33-47)
Disputes in Law, Social Construction/Transformation in International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (N.J. Smelser & P.B. Baltes, editors) (Elsevier, 2001) (3772-3776)
