Faculty Books
Robert Nelson
Professor - On Leave
Director of American Bar Foundation
1810 Chicago Avenue
Room 321
Phone: (847) 491-3203
ABF: (312) 988-6532
r-nelson@northwestern.edu
Office Hours: By Appointment Only
Areas of Interest
Law and Society
Organizations-Formal/Complex
Occupations
Professions
Relevant Link
American Bar Foundation
Institute for Policy Research
Law School
Biography
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.
Books
Global Perspectives on the Rule of Law
(with James J. Heckman and Lee Cabatingan), Routledge-Cavendish, 2010
Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar
(with John P. Heinz, Rebecca L. Sandefur, and Edward O. Laumann),
University Chicago Press, 2005
Handbook of Employment Discrimination Research: Rights and Realities
(with Laura Beth Nielsen), Springer, 2005
Courses Taught
SOCIOL 318: Sociology of Law Syllabus
Publications
Experiencing Discrimination: Race and Retention in America's Largest Law Firms
(with Monique R. Payne-Pikus and John Hagan), Law & Society, 2010
Individual Justice or Collective Legal Mobilization: Employment Discrimination Litigation in the Post-Civil Rights United States
(with Laura Beth Nielsen and Ryan Lancaster), Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 2010
After the JD II: Second Results from a National Study of Legal Careers
(with Ronit Dinovitzer, G. Plickert, R. Sandefur, and Joyce Sterling),
American Bar Foundation and The NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education, 2009
Are We There Yet?: Empirical Research and the Predicted Demise of Large Law Firms: An Introductory Essay, American Bar Foundation,
Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, 2009
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Upcoming Events
Colloquium: Kate Kellogg, Sloan School of Business, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
May 23, 2013 • 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Colloquium: Vilma Ortiz, University of California, Los Angeles
May 30, 2013 • 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
