Laura Beth Nielsen

Research Professor
- 750 N. Lake Shore Drive
- 4th Floor
- Chicago, IL 60611
Joint appointment
Associate Professor of Sociology and Law, Northwestern University
Education
Ph.D., Jurisprudence & Social Policy, University of California, Berkeley; J.D., University of California, Berkeley
Bio
Laura Beth Nielsen is a Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Legal Studies at Northwestern University.
She is a graduate of the…
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Research focus
The sociology of law, with particular interests in legal consciousness and the relationship between law and inequalities of race, gender, and class.
Projects
- Public Interest Law Firms
- Latest finding: Feb 21, 2008, with Catherine R. Albiston
- Using a multi-method research design, this project investigates how lawyers in public interest law organizations (PILOs) conceptualize and pursue their goals. At the organizational level of analysis,…
- Cause Lawyering in Context
- Latest finding: Feb 12, 2008, with Catherine Albiston
- The Constraints and Opportunities of Practicing Public Law in Public Interest Law firms will provide an unprecedented, empirical portrait of a national sample of the public interest bar.
Aenean eros…
- Employment Discrimination Litigation
- Latest finding: Feb 11, 2008, with Robert L. Nelson, 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…
All projects »
Commentary
Oct 19, 2008
On Friday, a great friend of the ABF passed away. M. Peter Moser has been part of the ABF family longer than I have serving on the Board and then as the President. When I first started going before…
Jun 25, 2008
Produced by Eight Forty-Eight on Tuesday, October 23, 2007
WBEZ Chicago Public Radio
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Publications
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Contesting Workplace Discrimination in Courts: Characteristics and Outcomes of Federal Employment Discrimination in Courts 1987-2003
- Report
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“Divergent Paths: Conflicting Conceptions of Employment Discrimination in Law and the Social Sciences”
- Annual Review of Law and Social Science
-
“Rights of Inclusion: Integrating Identity at the Bottom of
the Dispute Pyramid”
- Law & Social Inquiry
All publications »
Presentations
- Rights and Realities: Studying Law, Consciousness, and
Inequality in Employment Discrimination
- Jan 2007
- They Can’t Do That. . . Can They? How Ordinary
People Experience the Legal System
- Jan 2007
- The Procedural Attack on Civil Rights: The Empirical
Reality of Buckhannon for Public Interest Litigation
- Jan 2007
All presentations »
Professional Service & Recognition
- Director, Northwestern University, Center for Legal Studies
- External Grant Committee Chair, Law & Society Association
- Elected Member, Sociology of Law Council, American Sociological Association