Profile

As a former public company general counsel, Allen W. Nelson has significant experience leading global teams, and providing advice on a wide range of topics important to boards of directors and members of senior management.

Before joining Taylor English, Mr. Nelson served for eleven years as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & Chief Administrative Officer of Crawford & Company (NYSE: CRD.A and CRD.B). Crawford is the world’s largest publicly-traded claims management firm, which operates in more than 70 countries around the world. For eleven years, Mr. Nelson advised the company’s Board of Directors and senior management on a wide variety of legal and business issues including mergers and acquisitions (for which he was responsible for dozens of transactions); ethics and compliance; litigation matters; government investigations and negotiations; and the legal and compliance aspects of Crawford's status as a NYSE-listed company among many other areas of law and business. At various times during his tenure, Mr. Nelson was also responsible for internal audit; ethics and compliance; human resources; corporate communications; and real estate.

Prior to joining Crawford, Mr. Nelson was BellSouth Corporation’s Chief Compliance Counsel. He also managed legal matters for the company's political activities; its risk management function; litigated matters; traditional labor and employment matters; as well as intellectual property issues. Mr. Nelson also supported major transactions, including the acquisition of AT&T Wireless by Cingular Wireless. Prior to joining BellSouth, Mr. Nelson practiced in two Atlanta-based law firms, focusing on commercial litigation and employment/labor law.

Mr. Nelson currently teaches an upper-level course on in-house practice at Duke University School of Law as a senior lecturing fellow. Topics include ethics and compliance; public company matters; litigation, international law, employment law and a wide variety of other corporate law topics.  

Memberships

State Bar of Georgia

American Bar Association

International Association of Defense Counsel

Fellows of the American Bar Foundation

Community Involvement

Atlanta Ballet, Chairman, Board of Trustees

Duke University School of Law, Board Member, Law Alumni Association

The Woodruff Arts Center, Board Trustee

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