About the Director

Melanie Stallings Williams is a professor in the Department of Business Law at California State University, Northridge and the executive director of California’s Real Estate and Land Use Institute (RELUI). Professor Williams teaches business law, negotiation and business ethics at the graduate and undergraduate levels. She has taught, as well in international business programs at ICN (Nancy, France), INSEEC (Paris, Bordeaux), Toulouse Business School, and Corvinus University (Budapest). Her areas of academic research include antitrust law, intellectual property, ethics, biotechnology, small business programs and pedagogy. She is the past chair of the department and director of graduate studies in the college. 

Professor Williams has a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz and J.D. from Boston University School of Law.  She is a member of the State Bar of California and has practiced in the areas of civil litigation, business matters and intellectual property. She volunteers to help foster children, serving on the advisory board of the Foster Care Project and as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for foster children (CASA).