J.S. Nelson is a professor of law and expert legal consultant with a deep, diverse background bridging law and business school. She is visiting at Harvard Business School over the 2021-22 academic year.
Professor Nelson teaches and writes on issues related to business law, business ethics, and white collar crime. Her work explores the intersection of business ethics, criminal, and corporate law. She concentrates on the way that legal rules shape ethical behavior within business organizations and the impact of different frameworks on white collar crime.
Professor Nelson has received numerous awards from the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, including its 2017 Distinguished Proceedings Paper and Holmes-Cardozo awards, 2016 Ralph Bunche prize for Outstanding International Paper, and its 2015 Outstanding Proceedings award. She was a co-founder of the Academy’s Law and Management Section, and current chair of its Technology Section’s Entrepreneurship Interest Group. Her scholarship has been published in both legal and business journals, including the Harvard Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Cardozo Law Review, U.C. Davis Law Review, Berkeley Business Law Journal, Journal of Management Inquiry, Journal of Legal Studies in Business, and the Academy of Management Learning and Education journal.
Her book co-authored with Lynn Stout, Business Ethics: What Everyone Needs to Know, is published by the Oxford University Press. It is available for order at https://www.amazon.com/Business-Ethics-What-Everyone-Needs/dp/0190610263 and other sites.
Before becoming the first tenure-track appointment in a U.S. law school specifically to teach business ethics and to develop law-school curricula around the subject, Professor Nelson spent nearly ten years teaching in business schools. Since 2017, she has served as an associate professor of law at Villanova Law School, with a courtesy appointment in Villanova Business School. Since 2015, she has also been a senior fellow at the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She came to Villanova from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was an advisor in the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. In addition to her roles at Penn and Stanford, Professor Nelson previously taught at the Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, the Mihaylo School at Cal State Fullerton, and she was a faculty mentor at the Haas Business School of the University of California at Berkeley.
Prior to her work in academia, Professor Nelson served as staff counsel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and she clerked for the Honorable David M. Ebel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the Honorable William H. Yohn Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She also worked as a deputy district attorney and as a business litigator in Denver, Colorado. Nelson is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where she was the Supreme Court Co-Chair of the Harvard Law Review. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with honors and distinction in the major from Yale University.
- Featured Work
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co-authorship with Lynn A. Stout, Oxford U. Press
AMAZON
BARNES AND NOBLE
INDIEBOUND
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Release Date: April 21, 2022
Key Points:
- An authoritative and practical guide to business ethics
- Offers practical advice on whistleblowing, ethics programs, and negotiations
- Draws on material from moral philosophy, behavioral science, and corporate law
- Written in an accessible question-and-answer format
Description:
An authoritative and practical guide to business ethics, written in an accessible question-and-answer format
In today’s turbulent business climate, business ethics are more important than ever. Surveys of employees show that misconduct is on the rise, and penalties can be severe. Cover stories reporting indictments, prosecutions, and penalties imposed for unethical business conduct appear almost daily. Legislatures pass requirements elevating the levels of punishment and their enforcement against corporations and individuals. Organizations face pressure to design and implement effective ethics and compliance programs. As a result, businesses and businesspeople are increasingly worried that their conduct might cross lines that put their wealth and reputations at risk.
Business Ethics: What Everyone Needs to Know explains what those lines are, how not to cross them, and what to do when they are crossed. It is a guide for both businesspeople facing real-life dilemmas, as well as students studying ethical questions. This succinct business ethics book uniquely surveys materials from moral philosophy, behavioral science, and corporate law, and shares practical advice. Experts J.S. Nelson and Lynn A. Stout cover a wide array of essential topics including the legal status of corporations, major ethical traps in modern business, negotiations, whistleblowing and liability, and best practices. Written in the short question–and-answer style of the What Everyone Needs to Know series, this accessible resource provides engaging and readable introductions to the basic principles of business ethics, and it is an invaluable guide for dealing with ethical dilemmas.
in CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK OF COMPLIANCE (D. Daniel Sokol & Benjamin van Rooij, eds., Cambridge
U. Press, 2021)
in Milton Friedman 50 Years Later, a Reevaluation (Luigi Zingales, Jana Kasperkevic,
& Asher Schechter, eds., ProMarket, Stigler Ctr. for the Study of the Econ. and the
State, U. Chi., Booth Sch. of Bus., 2020).
in ETHICAL SYSTEMS (ed. with Brian Harward, reference work for researchers and the
public, 2020 onwards)
105 CORNELL L. REV. 3, 101 (2020)
Highlighted in Columbia L. Sch.'s Blue Sky, Duke L. Sch.'s Global Markets, and Harvard L. Sch.'s Just Money blogs. Selected for “Emerging Voices in Securities Regulation,” 2020 AALS Ann. Meeting.
Berle XI Symposium: Law and Corporate Culture
Highlighted in Columbia L. Sch.’s Blue Sky and Duke L. Sch.’s Global Markets blogs. Featured in its own episode of Stanford L. Sch.’s Business Scholars podcast. Selected for “New and Emerging Voices in Workplace Law,” 2020 AALS Ann. Meeting.
52 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 3, 1487 (2019)
Distinguished Proceedings Prize & Holmes-Cardozo Award, 2017 Acad. of Legal Stud. in Bus. Highlighted in Oxford University’s Business Law and Columbia L. Sch.’s Blue Sky blogs. Re-posted by the Business Law Prof. blog. Selected for AALS Crim. Justice Roundtable, 2017 ABA Meeting; and “Emerging Voices in Securities Regulation,” 2018 AALS Ann. Meeting.
(with Constance E. Bagley, Adam J. Sulkowski, Sandra A. Waddock, & Paul Shrivastava),
ACAD. OF MGMT. LEARNING AND EDUC. (AMLE), 2019
Online first Nov. 2019;
selected for print edition Vol. 19, No. 4; print released Dec. 1, 2020;
online print edition released Dec. 23, 2020.
105 GEO. L.J. 4, 871 (2017)
Best Paper Award, 2016 Western Acad. of Legal Stud. in Bus.; and Ralph Bunche Outstanding Int’l Paper Award, 2016 Acad. of Legal Stud. in Bus. Basis of 2020 Doctoral Dissertation applying ideas to Scandinavia and the European Union, “Monsoon Paper Dragons,” Shruti Kashyap, Uppsala U., Sweden.
26 J. of Mgmt. Inquiry 3, 280 (Nov. 2016) (special issue on corruption, management
and organizations).
37 CARDOZO L. REV. 1, 249 (2015)
Outstanding Proceedings Award, 2015 Acad. of Legal Stud. in Bus.; Outstanding Paper, 2014 Pac. Sw. Acad. of Legal Stud. in Bus.; translation into Chinese and publication for the Chinese market.
36 CARDOZO L. REV. 3, 969 (2015)
Best Paper Award, 2014 Western Acad. of Legal Stud. in Bus.
(with Richard O. Parry), 20 J. OF LEGAL STUD. IN BUS. (2015-16)
(with Richard O. Parry), 10 BERKELEY BUS. L.J. 1, 115 (2013)
Distinguished Proceedings Paper, 2013 Acad. of Legal Stud. in Bus.
113 HARV. L. REV. 3, 822 (2000).
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