Nathan M. Crystal is a practicing attorney, educator, and scholar focusing on the fields of attorney ethics, professional responsibility, legal malpractice, and contract law.

Resume of Nathan M. Crystal September 1, 2026

Practice 

Nathan is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Georgia, New York, and South Carolina.  He is one of the founding members and the managing partner of Crystal & Giannoni-Crystal, LLC, a boutique firm based in Charleston, South Carolina with offices in Washington, DC; New York City; and Alpharetta (Atlanta), Georgia. He advises individuals and entities, including major law firms, on all matters of professional ethics and contract law.  His services include advice on conflicts of interests and law firm departures; testimony as an expert witness in legal malpractice and disqualification cases throughout  the country; and defense of  lawyers in disciplinary proceedings.  Crystal was a member of the South Carolina Bar Ethics Advisory Committee for more than 20 years and served as chair of the Committee from 2002-2003.  He represented the South Carolina Bar in its petition to adopt the South Carolina version of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. He also served as a member of the New York City Bar Association Ethics Advisory Committee.

For over 15 years, Professor Crystal has written, the bimonthly column entitled “Ethics Watch” for the South Carolina Bar.  In these almostE 100 publications he has analyzed and provided his views on many contemporary ethical issues facing lawyers, including the duty of competence; the duty of confidentiality, the attorney-client privilege, and the work product doctrine; conflicts of interest of various types; limitations on zealous representation; delivery of legal services; Judicial conduct; and law firm issues.  Nathan Crystal was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© since 2015 in the fields of Ethics and Professional Responsibility Law and in 2018 as The Best Lawyers in America© / Lawyer of the Year for Charleston, SC in the fields of Ethics and Professional Responsibility Law.

Educator

Professor Crystal is currently an adjunct professor of professional responsibility at NYU School of Law where he has taught for more than 10 years.  He previously was Class of 1969 Professor of Professional Responsibility and Contract Law at the University of South Carolina,  and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Charleston School of Law.  Nathan has held various administrative positions including Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of South Carolina School of Law; Director of South Carolina’s Center on the Legal Profession; and Director of the Legal Methods Program at Harvard.

Crystal holds a B.S. degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania  where he majored in Finance; a J.D. from Emory Law School, where he was second in his class and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public Law (now the Emory Law Review), and an from L.L.M. Harvard Law School, where he served as Director of the Legal Methods Program.

Scholarship

Professor Crystal has authored or coauthored three books on professional ethics and contract law:

• PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY: PROBLEMS OF PRACTICE AND THE PROFESSION (Aspen Law & Business, 8^th ed. 2024) with Grace Giesel (University of Louisville School of Law), app. 600 pp. (first edition published by Little Brown & Co. 1996). The book is used at more than 30 schools around the country
• ANNOTATED SOUTH CAROLINA RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT (S.C. Bar 2025 ed.  supplemented 2026).
• PROBLEMS IN CONTRACT LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS (with Danielle Kie Hart and Joshua M. Silverstein; Charles L. Knapp and Harry G. Prince coauthors on prior editions) (Aspen Law & Business 10th ed. 2024,11th ed forthcoming 2027) 1200p. The book is used at more than 80 law schools around the country. Our publisher tells us that it is either the first or second most widely adopted contracts book in the country.

In addition to his books, Professor Crystal has published numerous articles in scholarly journals, including the Akron Law Review, Charleston Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Global Jurist, Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Illinois Law Review, Kansas Law Review, Kentucky Law Journal, Mercer Law Review, Notre Dame Journal of Law Ethics and Public Policy, NYU Annual Survey of American Law, Penn State law Review, Saint Mary’s Law Journal, Saint Louis Law Journal, South Carolina Law Review, University of Pittsburgh Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, and Washington Law Review.

Professor Crystal lectures frequently on matters of professional ethics to national, regional, and local organizations, including the American Bar Association and the United States Justice Department.

Languages

English (mother tongue)

Professional Affiliations

• American Bar Association
• South Carolina Bar
• Georgia Bar
• Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers
• American Association for Justice
• New York City Bar Association
• New York State Bar Association