Ashish Nanda will join the HLS faculty as professor of practice
April 14, 2008
Ashish Nanda
Ashish Nanda, an expert in law firms and other professional service organizations, has accepted an offer to join the Harvard Law School faculty as Professor of Practice, Dean Elena Kagan ’86 announced today. Currently an adjunct professor at HLS, Nanda is the research director of the Program on the Legal Profession and faculty director of the school's principal Executive Education courses.
"Ashish Nanda is known far and wide for his deep understanding of law and other professional service firms," said Kagan. "He is the perfect person to lead our executive education programs and to conduct research on, and teach our students about, important aspects of the legal profession. Through his appointment, Harvard Law School will strengthen its connection to the world of legal practice, to the great benefit of our students, faculty, and alumni and to the profession itself."
As research director, Nanda plays a leading role in the Program on the Legal Profession’s corporate purchasing project, which is a quantitative and qualitative analysis of how corporations procure legal services. He also teaches a course entitled “Professional Services” in the J.D. curriculum.
"I am delighted to join Harvard Law School and look forward to working with, and learning from, the Harvard Law School community," said Nanda. "Through research and teaching at the law school, I hope to help bring the domains of academia and practice closer."
Prior to his work at the Program on the Legal Profession, Nanda was a professor at Harvard Business School for 13 years, where he taught courses in both the MBA and Executive Education programs. A recipient of the Henry B. Arthur Fellowship and the Center in Ethics and the Professions Fellowship, he has published numerous case studies and other scholarly articles, the most recenty of which is entitled “Linklaters (A): Seeking Clear Blue Water.” Nanda is a co-author (with Tom DeLong) of Professional Services: Cases & Text, the first casebook published on the management of professional service firms.
Nanda has advised law, accounting, investment banking, management consulting, advertising, and executive search firms on topics ranging from strategic planning, review of specific organizational practices and systems, leadership programs, and personal coaching. Before coming to Harvard, he was an executive with the Tata group of companies in India.
Nanda received a bachelor of technology in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Delhi, and a post graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad. He also holds an A.M. in economics from Harvard, and a Ph.D. in business economics from Harvard Business School.