Allen W. Nelson

​​Currently, Allen serves as the fractional General Counsel for a private equity-owned national retail company, an international family-owned retail company, an early stage EMS company, and other companies in various industries. He has also served as the fractional GC of a  subsidiary of a major global real estate company.  

​Allen was the General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Administrative Officer of one of the world’s largest publicly traded claims management firms, Crawford & Company (NYSE: CRD:A and CRD:B) which operates in more than 70 countries around the world. Allen advised the company’s Board of Directors and executive management on a wide variety of legal and business issues including mergers and acquisitions, ethics and compliance, litigation matters, government investigations, as well as working closely with major shareholders. At various times during his tenure, Allen was also responsible for internal audit, ethics and compliance, human resources, corporate communications, and real estate. 

​Allen also served as in-house counsel for BellSouth Corporation (NYSE: BLS), a major telecommunications company. While serving as Chief Compliance Counsel, Allen also managed legal matters for the company’s political activities, its risk management function, and handled litigation, traditional labor and employment, and intellectual property matters. 

​Allen 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. He also served for five years on the global Board of Duke Alumni.​