Robert Nelson
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Professor Areas of Interest: Law and Society, Organizations-formal/complex, Occupations/Professions On Leave |
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Robert Nelson's publications include Partners with Power: The Social Transformation of the Large Law Firm; Lawyers Ideals and Lawyers Practices (a collection of works on the ideologies of American lawyers, co-edited), The Hollow Core: Private Interests in National Policymaking (a study of the role of lawyers and lobbyists in federal policy formation during the Carter and Reagan years, with Heinz, Laumann and Salisbury), Legalizing Gender Inequality: U.S. Courts, Markets, and Unequal Pay for Women (with William Bridges), the Handbook of Employment Discrimination Research (edited with Laura Beth Nielsen), Urban Lawyers (John Heinz, Rebecca Sandefur, and Edward Laumann), and Global Perspectives on the Rule of Law (edited with James Heckman and LeeCabatingan). Legalizing Gender Inequality received the Distinguished Publication Award from the American Sociological Association (ASA) for best book in sociology in 2000, as well as other book awards. Nelson is the founding director of the Center for Legal Studies at Northwestern, was the Director of the Bar Foundation's Program on Professionalism, Law and Economic Change from 1988 to 1992, and served as Department Chair from 1997-2000 and as Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Sociology in 1991-92 and 1993 through 1996. In 1992-93, he was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, and co-directed a Special Project at the Center from 2003-2008. He serves on the Council of the American Sociological Association's Section on the Sociology of Law and has served on the Board of Trustees of the Law and Society Association and as Secretary and treasurer of the Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section of the ASA. He is a member of the Sociological Research Association.
Research, Funding and Collaboration with Graduate Students:
1) Current and future research projects: Changing Dynamics of Employment Discrimination Litigation: large NSF and ABF funded project employing large dataset on federal employment discrimination filings and in-depth interviews with parties and lawyers; After the JD Project: Large survey research project on the careers of lawyers who passed bar in 2000. Need statistically oriented RAs and RAs with good library and qualitative coding abilities
(2) Availability of funding for students who might work on these projects: should be able to pay money over the summer and maybe American Bar Foundation-Northwestern University RAship for the next academic year.
(3) Opportunities for non-funded collaboration: Yes for both projects.
Contact : 
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1810 Chicago Ave., Room 321
Evanston, Illinois 60208-1330
Phone: (847) 491-3203
ABF: (312) 988-6532
Fax: (847) 491-9907
Office Hours: On Leave
Relevant Links : Top
Courses : Top
Publications : Top
Books:
Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar, with John P.Heinz, Rebecca L. Sandefur, and Edward O. Laumann, University of Chicago Press, 2005.
Legalizing Gender Inequality: Courts, Markets, and Unequal Pay for Women, with William Bridges, Cambridge University Press, 1999.
The Hollow Core: Private Interests in National Policy Making, with John P. Heinz, Edward O. Laumann, and Robert H. Salisbury, Harvard University Press, 1993.
Lawyers' Ideals/Lawyers' Practices: Transformations in the American Legal System, Robert L. Nelson (Editor); David M. Trubek (Editor); Rayman L. Solomon (Editor), Cornell University Press, 1992.
