Annelise Riles’s (Professor of Law in Far East Legal Studies and Professor of Anthropology at Cornell) work is characterized by an intense and productive dialogue between law and anthropology. This results in a form of research which, simultaneously, brings legal reasoning to the center of the ethnographer’s concern (as an object of social scientific investigation) and makes this same reasoning a productive tool for anthropological inquiry. In this conversation carried out right after the workshop ‘Markets for Collective Concerns?’ held last December at Copenhagen Business School, Riles discusses her latest book on her long-term ethnographic work with financial regulators and lawyers in Japan, Collateral Knowledge, and her more recent articles on collaborative research. The interview was conducted by José Ossandón and Gustavo Onto helped elaborate the questions.