Allison Burdette
Professor in the Practice of Business Law | Emory University, Goizueta Business School
Atlanta, GA, UNITED STATES
Burdette strives to give the students powerful knowledge about our legal system
Biography
M. Allison Burdette joined the Goizueta faculty in 1998. She has taught a variety of legal classes at the business school, including international law and environmental law, as well as debate capstones. Since 2017, Burdette has led a creative seminar with the Goizueta Scholars. But it is the Legal Environment of Business class ("b-law") that she has made her own.
Burdette estimates that she has taught over 7,000 students in her b-law class and is passionate about the positive impact that understanding business law can have in student's future professional and personal life. Burdette feels so honored that the students have recognized her contributions to their educational path. The students have awarded Burdette the BBA Distinguished Educator Award nine time. Additionally, her teaching has been recognized by the alumni, the Marc F. Adler Prize for Teaching Excellence, and by the university, the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award. Burdette's contributions to the student experience at Emory were recognized with the Emory University-wide: Brit Katz Award.
Burdette was twice recognized by Bloomberg Businessweek as one of the top 10 undergraduate business professors in the country. Poets and Quants has profiled her as a "favorite professor" numerous times. And, for a time, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked undergraduate business programs and Goizueta's business law program was ranked consistently in the top two spots. While Burdette's first love is environmental law, the breadth of subjects covered in business law has demanded that she master a wide range of topics. This requirement keeps her on her toes as she is constantly researching a vast array of topics! Burdette enjoys contributing to the student experience beyond her classroom; from presenting to student groups, judging case competitions, writing letters of recommendation, advising pre-law students, and attending Emory concerts, theater productions, and sporting events. Burdette's favorite aspect of her tenure at Goizueta has been the opportunity to teach and learn from and have a positive impact on the amazingly talented students in the BBA program.
Education (2)
Harvard Law School: Juris Doctor 1989
University of Tennessee - Knoxville: BA (Hons) 1986
Areas of Expertise (1)
Business and Environmental Law
In the News (6)
Can Employers Require COVID Vaccinations?
FOX5 News at 4pm tv
2021-09-08
But if you are employed by the public sector we're talking about in Georgia. Only the rules are different. And this, according to Allison Burdette, she's over at Emory University's Goizueta business school. In the state of Georgia right now, because of an executive order that the governor put out, public employers that would be the University of Georgia education system. Public school employees, they cannot be required to have a vaccine because of the executive order. Now other states view this differently and do allow public sector industries to require vaccination. Some federal employees are required to be vaccinated to be on the job, and that could include contract workers. And even if you're in a job where it's not required, they will be mask wearing and there will be stringent Covid testing required and you're going to see that in private sector to Walmart.
Black leadership, white old guard clash in a changing metro Atlanta city
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution online
2021-03-12
Representation in hiring is something governments consider. Seeking diversity can, however, lead even well-meaning officials into tricky legal territory, said Allison Burdette, a professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act makes it unlawful to decline to hire someone on the basis of their race instead of qualifications. In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of white Connecticut firefighters who said they’d faced discrimination while seeking promotions. Burdette said the precedent has since made building a more representative workforce so fraught that consulting firms are often hired to ensure plans don’t run afoul of Title VII.
Magazine releases #GoizuetaKudos for Fall 2016
emorybusiness.com online
2016-12-01
Goizueta continued its tradition of hosting summer programs aimed at arming high-achieving college and high school students with the skills to succeed in business. This year Libby Egnor, assistant dean of the BBA program, coordinated the Goizueta Summer Business Institute (SBI), which included faculty members Allison Burdette, Ryan Hamilton, and Clifton Green. SBI welcomed 18 non-business students with a professional development course and an intensive academic experience that provides immersion into the functional areas of business while giving students the opportunity to prepare a pitch for a new business venture. For the high-school set, Professors Chip Frame and Earl Hill prepared an academic challenge for this year’s LEAD Global Business Institute for high-potential diverse students. The program, now in its second year, offered scholars exposure to a variety of business topics, issues, and functions.
Emory University 2007 Sustainability Innovators Award for Innovation in Faculty and Student Education and Research.
GOIZUETA MAGAZINE print
During Emory’s Earth Week celebration, Allison Burdette, assistant professor in the practice of business law, received the Emory University 2007 Sustainability Innovators Award for Innovation in Faculty and Student Education and Research. She was honored for the dinner and discussion series she developed last year on global climate change. The first evening in the series addressed the science of global climate change and media response to it; the second examined the law and politics of global climate change. Forty students and faculty members participated. The series was so successful that it will continue this fall, when it will address global health and business issues.
A look at alumni in the business of sustainability
emorybusiness.com online
2014-12-14
There are many definitions, depending on who you ask and their focus, but I think it all boils down to The Brundtland Commission’s definition, which is “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In my line of work, sustainability means making our buildings more efficient—whether that’s energy efficiency, water conservation, or materials and waste management—in order to reduce the building’s carbon footprint. It was actually Professor Allison Burdette who sparked my interest in this area. While I was not the most astute business law student, she knew I had interned and planned to pursue my career in real estate. She pushed me to take her B-Law 2 class, introduced me to LEED, and planted the seed of a very rewarding career for me.
Making a difference in students’ lives
GOIZUETA MAGAZINE print
On a Wednesday evening in mid-August, Emory BBA students and alumni packed PS450, a chic restaurant-lounge in New York’s Murray Hill section. The event, sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations and the BBA Career Management Office, promised casual networking, but that wasn’t the big draw. Instead they came to see Allison Burdette, an assistant professor in the practice of business law, who’s got a following that some rock bands would envy.
