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Melissa
Nelken

Emerita Honorable Raymond Sullivan Professor of Law

Biography

Professor Nelken attended Brandeis University, B.A. (1965), Harvard University, M.A. (1967), and the University of Michigan, J.D. (1974). She cofounded and was the Faculty Chair of the UC Law SF Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution (CNDR). She is the author and coauthor of books and articles on negotiation, and has taught both trial advocacy and negotiation in continuing legal education programs around the country. A practicing psychoanalyst for over 20 years, she has also written on attorney sanctions and on the psychotherapist-patient privilege in federal court.

Professor Nelken lives in Berkeley with her husband, a UC Berkeley professor, and has three adult daughters.

Courses Taught: Negotiation, Mediation, and Law, Psychiatry & the Mental Health System

Expertise

Education

  1. Brandeis University 1965

    B.A.

  2. Harvard University, 1967

    M.A.

  3. University of Michigan 1974

    J.D.

Selected Scholarship

  1. Negotiating Classroom Process: Lessons from Adult Learning 2009

    Negotiation Journal

  2. Negotiation and Psychoanalysis: If I'd Wanted to Learn About Feelings, I Wouldn't Have Gone to Law School 1996

    Journal of Legal Education

  3. The Impact of Federal Rule 11 on Lawyers and Judges in the Northern District of California 1990

    Judicature

  4. Sanctions Under Amended Federal Rule 11—Some "Chilling" Problems in the Struggle Between Compensation and Punishment 1986

    Georgetown Law Journal

Links

  1. Publications