Applied
anthropology
for the law

Our findings are built through direct fieldwork in the communities, territories, and institutions at the center of each case, structured interviews, participant observation, and archival research conducted where the sociocultural context lives.

This is the same methodological standard used by country-conditions experts and forensic anthropologists across jurisdictions: analytical authority comes from direct engagement with the evidence, not from document review at a distance.

What reaches your legal team is the resulting analysis, a written expert opinion, technical consultation, or, when the case requires it, testimony, prepared to the evidentiary standard your matter demands.

Qualifications

Do you need to be licensed or certified to provide expert consulting or testimony in U.S. legal matters?

Admissibility of expert testimony in U.S. courts is governed by Federal Rule of Evidence 702, which qualifies an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, not by state licensure, bar membership, or citizenship. Anthropology, like many specialized social science disciplines, has no state licensing requirement in the United States; qualification is assessed case by case, on the strength of documented methodology and field experience, the same standard applied to any expert witness regardless of nationality.

Our role is structured accordingly: we provide sociocultural analysis, technical consultation, and expert opinion, the factual and methodological groundwork a legal team builds its argument on. We do not provide legal advice or determine the application of law to facts; that responsibility remains with retained counsel.

Scope of work

What is the boundary between your work and the work of retained counsel?

We supply the sociocultural facts, context, and analysis that the legal team uses to build its case. We do not advise on legal strategy, draft legal arguments, or determine how law applies to the facts, that is the exclusive domain of your attorneys. In practice, the clearest way to think of it: we answer the anthropological questions so your counsel can answer the legal ones.

Jurisdiction

Can your expert reports be used in both U.S. and Mexican proceedings?

Yes. Our reports and opinions are prepared to the evidentiary and procedural standards of the jurisdiction where your matter is heard, whether that is a U.S. federal or state court, a Mexican tribunal, or an international forum such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The underlying methodology is the same; the format and framing adapt to the applicable rules.