Riaz Tejani Ph.D.
Education
- Ph.D., Princeton University
- J.D., USC Law School
Professional Background
Riaz Tejani is Professor in the School of Business and Society where he teaches courses in law, ethics, and society. His research generally has explored the role of law in neoliberal social, political, and corporate organizational life. His current project investigates ethics differentials in the Law & Economics movement with special interest in its treatments of distributive justice, social inequality, and organizational ethics. Riaz’ first book, Law Mart: Justice, Access, and For-Profit Law Schools (Stanford, 2017), was an ethnographic account of for-profit legal education during and after the global financial crisis. His second, Law and Society Today (University of California, 2019), critically surveyed contemporary themes in socio-legal studies. And his third book, Law and Economics: New Trajectories in Law (Routledge 2023), was a critical introduction to Law & Economics for sociolegal and humanities scholars.
Riaz has served on corporate and non-profit boards and remains a public Arbitrator for the Financial Industries Regulatory Authority (FINRA). He is Co-director of the Law and Society Association’s CRN 28 on New Legal Realism, and a member of the board of conveners for the Law and Humanities Interdisciplinary Workshop. His most recent articles are forthcoming or published in Law and Society Review, Alabama Law Review, Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, and American Ethnologist. Riaz’ work has been cited or reviewed in publications such as the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal Forum, Annual Review of Law and Social Science, The Nation, Huffington Post, Salon, and NPR. He holds a PhD in social anthropology from Princeton University and a JD from the USC Gould School of Law, where he was a Fellow at the Center for Law, History, and Culture. Since launching his teaching career in 2011, Riaz has won multiple student, collegiate, and University awards for teaching (2017) and research (2013, 2014, 2020, 2023)
Publications
CHAPTERS
- “A Shout in the Cathedral: Elizabeth Mertz’ Groundbreaking Language of Law School,” Leading Works in Legal Anthropology, London and New York: Routledge, 2024.
- “Anthropology,” Research Handbook of New Legal Realism, eds. Shauhin Talesh, Elizabeth Mertz, Heinz Klug, Edward Elgar Publishers (UK), 2021.
- “Legal Education For Profit and the United Nations Call for “Strong Institutions” in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda,” Crime Prevention and Justice in 2030 The UN and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, eds. Slawomir Redo and Helmut Kury, New York, NY: Springer Publishing, 2020.
- “Market Creep: “Product” Talk in Legal Education,” Power, Legal Education, and Law School Cultures, eds. Meera Deo, Mindie Lazarus-Black & Elizabeth Mertz, New York, NY: Routledge, 2020.
- “Distance in Law and Globalization: Armchair Anthropology Revisited,” Comparative Law and Anthropology, ed. James Nafziger, Edward Elgar Publishers (UK), 2017.
- “‘Fielding’ Legal Realism: the Law Student as Participant Observer,” The New Legal Realism: Translating Law-And-Society For Today’s Legal Practice, eds. Stewart Macaulay, Elizabeth Mertz & Thomas Mitchell, Cambridge University Press, 2016.
ARTICLES and WORKING PAPERS
- “Calabresi’s Invite: Law and Economics and the Problem of Situated Valuation,” (forthcoming, Law and Society Review).
- “Moral Convergence: The Rules of Professional Responsibility Should Apply to Lawyers in Business Ethics”, Chinese Translation: Ethics and Norms of the Legal Profession, Shanghai People’s Publishing House, (forthcoming).
- “Moral Convergence: The Rules of Professional Responsibility Should Apply to Lawyers in Business Ethics”, 35 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 33, 2022.
- “The Life of Transplants: Why Law-And-Economics Has ‘Succeeded’ Where Legal Anthropology Has Not,” 73 Alabama Law Review 734, 2022.
- “’To See Society’s Heart in Its Mind’: Looking For Justice With Carol Greenhouse,” Political and Legal Anthropology Review, Online Forum: Festschrift for Carol Greenhouse, July 2020. https://polarjournal.org /2020/07/06/to-see-societys-heart-in-its-mind-looking-for-justice-with-carol-greenhouse/
- “A Working Class Profession: Opportunism and Diversity in U.S. Law,” Dialectical Anthropology 42:2, 131-148, 2018.
- “Professional Apartheid: the Racialization of US Law Schools After Global Economic Crisis,” American Ethnologist 44(3), 2017.
- “Efficiency Unbound: Processual Deterrence in the New Legal Realism,” 6 UC Irvine Law Review 207, 2016.
Selected Presentations
- Wenner-Gren Ethnography of Law Symposium and Conference, UC Irvine, Spring 2025 (TBA).
- 20th Anniversary New Legal Realism Conference, Harvard Law School, Oct 18-19, 2024.
- “Method and Doubt: The Ethnography of Law and Economics,” New Methodological Approaches Panel, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting; Denver, Co, June 7, 2024.
- Discussant, Governance, Regulation, and the State Panel, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting; Denver, Co, June 7, 2024.
Author Guest Lecturer, “Law Mart: Justice Access and For-Profit Law Schools,” Legal Anthropology, Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, GA, (remote) August 22, 2023. - Discussant, Law and Anthropology Roundtable, Max Plank Institute, Halle, Germany, (remote) July 10, 2023.
- “Calabresi’s Invite: Law and Economics and the Problem of Situated Valuation,” American Bar Foundation, American Bar Foundation, Chicago, IL, December 7, 2022.
- “A Shout in the Cathedral: Elizabeth Mertz’ Groundbreaking Language of Law School,” Leading Works in Law & Anthropology Workshop, Max Plank Institute, Halle, Germany, (remote) January 17, 2022.
- “Legal Anthropology,” New Legal Realism, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Chicago/online, May 29, 2021.
- Chair: “Legal Education After Covid-19: Realist Approaches,” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Chicago/online, May 28, 2021.
- “Scientism in Law and Economics,” Anthropologists Among Lawyers, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Chicago/online, May 27, 2021.
- “Leadership Success for International Students”, Office of Campus Diversity and Inclusion, March 31, 2021
- “The Life of Transplants: “Success” In Legal Anthropology and Law & Economics,” Legal Anthropology Workshop, University of Alabama School of Law (online), February 20, 2020.
- “Mutual Moral Deferment: “Law & Economics" Changes the Role of Law in Organizational Ethics,” Webinar, Redlands Business Day, University of Redlands School of Business December 5, 2020.
- “Mutual Moral Deferment: “Law & Economics" Changes the Role of Law in Organizational Ethics,” Webinar, Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, September 23, 2020.
Awards and service
Affiliations
- “Legal Anthropology,” New Legal Realism, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Chicago/online, May 29, 2021.
- Chair: “Legal Education After Covid-19: Realist Approaches,” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Chicago/online, May 28, 2021.
- “Scientism in Law and Economics,” Anthropologists Among Lawyers, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Chicago/online, May 27, 2021.
- “Leadership Success for International Students”, Office of Campus Diversity and Inclusion, March 31, 2021
- “The Life of Transplants: “Success” In Legal Anthropology and Law & Economics,” Legal Anthropology Workshop, University of Alabama School of Law (online), February 20, 2020.
- “Mutual Moral Deferment: “Law & Economics" Changes the Role of Law in Organizational Ethics,” Webinar, Redlands Business Day, University of Redlands School of Business December 5, 2020.
- “Mutual Moral Deferment: “Law & Economics" Changes the Role of Law in Organizational Ethics,” Webinar, Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, September 23, 2020.
- “Ethnographic Sympathy, Vectors of Neoliberalism,” Legal Anthropology Roundtable, University of Alabama School of Law, (moved online) August 10, 2020.
- Discussant, “Law in the First Person: The Power and Potential of Ethnographic Legal Research,” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Denver (moved online) 2020
- Commentator, “On Shared Suffering: Judicial Intimacy in the Rural Northland,” Law & Humanities Junior Scholars Workshop, UCLA School of Law, (moved online) 2020
- “Law and Society Today,” Book Reception and Public Lecture, University of Redlands, Banta Center for Ethical and Purposeful Leadership, December 2019.
- Discussant, “Law in the First Person: The Power and Potential of Ethnographic Legal Research,” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, June 2020.
- “Law and Society Today,” Banta Center for Ethical and Purposeful Leadership, University of Redlands School of Business, December 10, 2019.
- Commentator, “Mens Daemonica,” Law and Humanities Junior Scholars Workshop, University of Pennsylvania School of Law, June 3, 2019.
- “Fourth-Tier Schismogenesis,” Center for Empirical Research on the Legal Profession, UC Irvine School of Law, June 1, 2017.
- “Marketing Justice: Neoliberal Access and the For-Profit Law School,” American Bar Foundation, Chicago, IL, February, 2016.
- “Race, Law, and Ideology: Emancipatory Discourses in the Marketization of Access to Justice,” Department of Anthropology, UC San Diego, CA, January, 2016.
- Discussant, “Qualitative and Mixed Methods Workshop,” Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, New York, NY, January, 2016.