Jonathan Robert Nelson | partner
212-382-4301 
Jonathan Nelson practices primarily in the fields of civil litigation and corporate law, concentrating on the representation of religious institutions. He is a highly-regarded church law practitioner.
In 1991, after eight years of practice in corporate litigation and financial transactional work with major law firms in Chicago and New York City, Mr. Nelson founded an independent law practice that he later brought to Nelson Madden Black. Mr. Nelson represented or advised hundreds of clients in the religious community, including Christian churches of many kinds, a religious order, Hindu temples, Jungians, a Yoruba cultural center, mosques, pastors, church trustees, missionaries, and victims of religious persecution seeking asylum. Mr. Nelson has advised lay boards and clergy on a wide variety of legal concerns. Mr. Nelson has been a panelist at meetings organized by the American Bar Association and other lawyers’ groups. He also served as lead counsel in numerous judicial and administrative litigations, including a precedent-setting lawsuit brought by the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church against the City of New York in 2001 to enforce the church’s First Amendment rights to serve homeless people on the steps of the church. Mr. Nelson has been listed in SuperLawyers since 2012, and has been rated “AV Preeminent” since 1998.
Education
- Yale College, B.A. 1978
- Northwestern University School of Law, J. D. 1983
- The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, M.A. 1984
Bar Admissions
- New York State
- United States District Court, Southern District of New York
- United States District Court, Eastern District of New York
- United States District Court, Northern District of New York
- United States District Court, Western District of New York
- United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois
- United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- Supreme Court of the United States of America
Publications
- “The Many Benefits of Reviewing and Updating Bylaws,” New York Law Journal (2023)
- “U.S. Supreme Court Expands Religious Freedom in Key Rulings,” New York Law Journal (2020)
- “Broad Tax Exemptions Benefit Congregations,” New York Law Journal (2019)
- “When Can Courts Decide Between Local Churches and Their Denominations?” New York Law Journal (2019)
- “Hiring and Firing Clergy of Congregational Houses of Worship,” New York Law Journal (2019)
- “Religious Institutions and Trustees: An Unorthodox Relationship,” New York Law Journal (2018)
- “Religious Accommodations: How Far Must Employers Go?,” New York Law Journal (2018)
- “Congregations Transferring Real Estate: When is Court Approval Needed?,” New York Law Journal (2018)
- “When Can State Courts Decide Religious Disputes?,” New York Law Journal (2017)
- “The Implementation of the Refugee Act of 1980: A Decade of Experience,” Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (co-author) (1990)
- “Judge-Made Law and the Presumption of Arbitrability,” 58 Brooklyn Law Review 279 (Summer 1992)
- “Shaking the Pillars: An Asylum Applicant Shakes Loose Some Unusual Relief,” 83 Interpreter Releases 1 (2006)
Languages
- English, proficient in Spanish and French