Robert L. Nelson is Professor of Sociology and Law at Northwestern University and the MacCrate Research Chair in the Legal Profession at the American Bar Foundation (where he was Director 2004-2015). He holds a J.D. and Ph.D. in sociology, both from Northwestern, and has held several positions of academic leadership.  He is a leading scholar in the fields of the legal profession and discrimination law.  He has authored or edited 11 books and numerous articles, including Legalizing Gender Inequality, Cambridge University Press 1999, which won the prize for best book in sociology in 2001, Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar, University of Chicago Press 2005, and Rights on Trial: How Workplace Discrimination Law Perpetuates Inequality, University of Chicago Press 2017. His has a forthcoming book, The Making of Lawyers’ Careers: Inequality and Opportunity in the American Legal Profession, University of Chicago Press.