The History of Legal Research Technologies: From Research to Search
My manuscript-in-progress is a history of how American lawyers began using databases for their work. In the book, I tell the story of the people who developed LexisNexis, one of the most popular platform for legal research, and how they transformed legal practice. In 1964, lawyers with the Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA) decided to harness emerging computing technology to better the work of Ohio lawyers and make legal services more affordable. Despite initial skepticism, daunting and escalating expenses, and countless software and hardware failures, they managed to launch a working service by 1970. By then, control over the Ohio Bar Automated Research (OBAR) service migrated from Ohio to NYC, from local lawyers to corporate executives and consulting firms, who worked to develop the service into a national product. In 1973, the service was relaunched as Lexis, a commercial legal information service that still dominates the American legal information services market, with a trailing second platform in Westlaw. My book project tells the story of how lawyers and technologists crafted a system that challenged long-entrenched ideals and practices of legal research and how that system took over American law firms and law schools.
You can read my dissertation in full here.
Maintenance, Repair, and Work Automation
In “Stewards of the Organization,” I analyze how the move from paper to computer in repair work transformed both the practice and perception of repair work. Based on observations of supervisors in repair and maintenance at a major research university (2017-2019), I show how data-driven repair and maintenance prioritizes the constant sorting and boundary work between repair teams. iPads, desktop computers, and cellular phones feature as working tools – they are used by workers to document, communicate about, and keep track of assignments; they also alter how work is allocated, prioritized, and evaluated. I also show where practice defies data-driven classification schemas and how team supervisors subvert organizational policies to solve internal organizational tensions.