B. Semi-Structured Interviews
The interviews for this study were conducted between 2005 and
2010, with the majority of them held between 2006 and 2009. A total
of 58 interviews were completed. All but five of these interviews took
place in person, typically in the interviewed lawyer’s office. The
remaining five interviews were conducted by telephone. The lawyers
all agreed to have their interviews recorded and transcribed for
purposes of this study, although all interview information that could
identify an individual lawyer or client was omitted from the
transcripts.40 The interviews were semi-structured, meaning that the
interview schedule generally followed the same set of topics and
questions in the same order, but not all interviews ultimately included
all topics and any particular interview was allowed to develop as the
discussion took place and issues were probed.41 Interviews lasted
from about one hour to three hours in duration. Most of the interviews
lasted from about one and a half to two hours. The recorded
interviews were transcribed and analyzed using qualitative research
software,42 which made coding, organizing, and analysis43 of the
interview transcripts easier and more systematic.44
All empirical research has strengths and limits, and all such
research must deal with validity and reliability issues.45