strengths of interview-based research46 is the ability to probe issues
and statements in-depth, particularly with follow-up questions and
requests for concrete examples from particular cases.47 The
interviewed lawyers for this study were generous with their time and
were quite willing to talk about themselves, their practices, and the
law. As a result, many of the interviews contained rich detail for
analysis. Of course, there are limits to interview-based research. The
interviewed lawyers may have selective memories or provide
statements about what they “usually” do rather than what they
actually do.48 But a good interviewer should be aware of these
possibilities and probe responses to get concrete examples of what
was done (and why) in particular cases in order to minimize such
limitations.
C. Sampling and Lawyer Characteristics
The 58 interviewed lawyers were selected by a non-random
“snowball” sampling technique49 designed to identify lawyers with
more than five years of experience enforcing trademarks and
copyrights and who currently practiced more than 50% of the time in
this area. Lawyers identified in the snowball sample were then
contacted by letter asking them to participate in this study. The letters
were followed up by a phone call. The response rate for this study
was very high, as all but one lawyer who was contacted by telephone
agreed to participate. Only three lawyers who agreed to participate
were not interviewed, mostly due to scheduling issues