Ryan H. Nelson (he/him) is an Associate Professor of Law at South Texas College of Law Houston. His research focuses on leveraging the civil litigation and other dispute resolution systems to facilitate access to justice and advance the rights of poor and other marginalized workers. His scholarship has been published in the Michigan Law Review, Fordham Law Review, BYU Law Review, and the online companions to the NYU Law Review, California Law Review, and Vanderbilt Law Review. He has advised state attorneys’ general offices and other administrative agencies on employment law reforms and helped to draft associated proposed legislation and regulations. He has provided legal commentary for Slate, USA Today, and the Houston Chronicle, as well as Fox 26 Houston and KPRC 2 News | Houston. He is also the only full-time law professor in the nation to serve on the Board of Directors of the National LGBTQ+ Bar.

Before joining South Texas, Ryan completed a research fellowship with the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and taught on the adjunct faculty at Boston University School of Law, New England Law | Boston, and New York Law School. He also spent nearly a decade practicing labor and employment law, including as in-house employment law counsel for one of the world’s largest financial services companies and as an attorney with one of the top labor and employment law firms in the country where he specialized in workforce affirmative action law. He obtained his LL.M. from Harvard Law School where he was awarded the Irving Oberman Memorial Prize for Best Paper on Law and Social Change; his J.D., cum laude, from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, where he served on the Editorial Board of the Moot Court Honor Society; and his B.S.B.A. with a major in economics from the University of Florida where he was a National Merit Scholar and became an avid fan of Florida Gators football.

In his free time, Ryan enjoys trivia (he loves pub trivia and has appeared as a contestant on Jeopardy!, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and The Hustler), karaoke (with a preference for country music and musical theater), and board games (favorites include Pandemic Legacy, Hansa Teutonica, Sushi Go Party!, and Chess).