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Noted Teacher-Scholars Join Villanova

As part of its current strategic plan, the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law has enhanced its curriculum to provide graduates with the academic, practical and professional skills necessary for success in 21st-century legal practice. Central to this outcomes-focused approach is an academic program that infuses business coursework, professional development skills and real-world learning opportunities into Villanova’s rigorous legal education. The recent addition of Brett Frischmann and Josephine Sandler Nelson to our faculty furthers this strategic vision and brings to campus two noted teacher-scholars whose expertise lies at the intersection of law and business.

Professor Frischmann, a noted scholar in intellectual property and internet law, is the inaugural Charles Widger Endowed University Professor in Law, Business and Economics. He is an affiliated scholar of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School and a trustee for the Nexa Center for Internet & Society at Politecnico di Torino, Italy. He most recently served as the Microsoft Visiting Professor of Information and Technology Policy at Princeton University’s Center for Information and Technology Policy. His forthcoming book, co-authored with philosopher Evan Selinger, Re-engineering Humanity (Cambridge University Press), will examine various technologies that are seemingly making man become more machinelike than human.

A scholar, legal consultant and start-up adviser, Professor Nelson teaches and writes on issues related to business law, ethics and white-collar crime. Her recent article on the 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal, “‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Corporate Crime,” was recognized with two top awards—the Holmes-Cardozo Award for best submitted conference paper and the Distinguished Proceedings Award—by the Academy of Legal Studies in Business. She came to Villanova from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she has served since 2015 as Senior Fellow at the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research. Nelson also was an adviser in the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies in the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.