Robert L. Nelson
ABF Director & MacCrate Research Chair in the Legal Profession
- 750 N. Lake Shore Drive
- 4th Floor
- Chicago, IL 60611
Joint appointment
Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University
Education
Ph.D., Sociology, Northwestern University; J.D., Northwestern University School of Law
Bio
Robert L. Nelson is the Director of the American Bar Foundation, the MacCrate Research Chair in the Legal Profession at the ABF, and professor of sociology and law at Northwestern University. He…
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Research focus
The social organization of law practice and the relationship between law and social inequality. Research has addressed transformations in the legal profession, the role of corporate counsel, gender inequality, and employment discrimination.
Projects
- After the JD
- Latest finding: Jan 4, 2010, with Bryant G. Garth, Ronit Dinovitzer, Joyce Sterling
- The After the JD (AJD) project is an empirical study of the career outcomes of a cohort of almost 5,000 new lawyers, offering both a nationally representative picture of lawyer career trajectories…
- Employment Discrimination Litigation
- Latest finding: Feb 11, 2008, with Laura Beth Nielsen, Ryon Lancaster, John Donohue III, Peter Siegelman
- At the center of current debates about the role of anti-discrimination law in American society is the system of discrimination litigation. Despite the sheer magnitude of changes in employment…
- Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar
- Latest finding: Sep 24, 2008, with John P. Heinz, John P. Heinz, Robert L. Nelson, Rebecca L. Sandefur and Edward O. Laumann
- Published by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2005
Over the past several decades, the number of lawyers in large cities has doubled, women have entered the bar at an…
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Publications
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Individual Justice or Collective Legal Mobilization?
Employment Discrimination Litigation in the Post-Civil Rights United States
- Journal of Empirical Legal Studies
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Global Perspectives on the Rule of Law
- Book
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“Are We There Yet? Empirical Research and the Predicted Demise of Large Law Firms: An Introductory Essay”
- The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics
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Presentations
- Discussant on Panel “The Professional Project Revisited"
- Sep 2009
- Surveys Relating to Solo and Small Firms
- Jun 2009
- Discussant on Panel on “Careers and Lawyer Mobility"
- May 2009
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Professional Service & Recognition
- Member, Kalven Prize Committee, Law & Society Association
- Chair, Scholarship Committee, World Justice Project, ABA Presidential Initiative
- Principal Investigator, After the JD – Wave 2.
- Co-Principal Investigator and Member, Advisory Committee, National Science Foundation/Law & Society Association/American Bar Foundation, Doctoral Fellowships in Law and Inequality
- Member, Sociological Research Association
- Member, Faculty Advisory Board, Center for Legal Studies, Northwestern University