John L. Akula

John L. Akula is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has primary responsibility for the MIT Sloan business law curriculum, focusing on law-sensitive skills for those involved in startups, high-growth, and established companies, as well as risks and opportunities associated with entrepreneurship, complex transactions, and innovation. Akula earned a doctorate at Harvard University and later completed a law degree there. He spent 15 years practicing law, including a clerkship for a justice of the highest court in Massachusetts, and worked as a partner at Herrick & Smith and Goodwin Procter. In 1991, he left the practice of law to return to academia, dividing his time between Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and MIT Sloan until 2000. He is active in the school’s executive education, international, and entrepreneurship-related programs.