Brad Wendel joined the Cornell faculty in 2004 after teaching at Washington and Lee Law School from 1999 to 2004. Before entering graduate school and law teaching, he was a product liability litigator at Bogle & Gates in Seattle and a law clerk for Judge Andrew J. Kleinfeld on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Wendel’s teaching interests are in the regulation of the legal profession and torts, and his research focuses on the application of moral and political philosophy to problems of legal ethics.
Overview and Courses
Exploring your personal take on the ethics of business and fostering standards for your organization can improve decision making, fortify team culture, and enable you to avoid potential issues and dysfunctions in various business settings.
This certificate program will give you the tools to apply the ethics of business to your organization. Throughout the program, you will break down the role ethics play in society and decision making. By using ethical reasoning, you will be able to anticipate issues that arise in business settings and create plans for avoiding them. You will then determine how to recognize psychological factors in yourself and others that interfere with making good ethical decisions and apply strategies to mitigate them.
The program will culminate in the discussion of research-based blockers that negatively affect work culture ethics at the personal and organizational levels. You will examine responsive strategies for the most common social and organizational factors that exacerbate the human tendency to overlook or misapply ethical analysis. By the end of the program, you’ll be prepared to foster the development of a responsible organizational culture and address potential legal and ethical issues, supporting your team in today’s complex and ever-changing business landscape.
For the best experience in this program it is recommended to take these courses in the order that they appear.
Course list
Ethical reasoning can be a pinnacle of decision making in business. In this course, you will survey the role that ethics play in society and gain a foundation for making good ethical decisions. You'll begin by identifying the similarities and differences between ethics and the law and examine myths and misunderstandings about ethics. You'll then investigate the contributions and insights from a number of major Western ethical traditions and use that analysis to inform your own ethical decision-making process. By the end of this course, you will be able to categorize and evaluate various situations and identify the relevant ethical considerations.
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View Course Details- Mar 26, 2025
- Jun 18, 2025
- Sep 10, 2025
- Dec 3, 2025
With technology playing a significant role in business, it is crucial to understand the ethical implications of the tools we use every day. This course will prepare you to anticipate and identify ethical and legal issues and apply appropriate ethical reasoning. You will begin by examining the objectives of a business or organization to assess how ethics relate to that purpose. By using case studies and real-world examples, you will establish an ethical decision-making framework that can be adapted to your organizational context and applied in your day-to-day work. Considering issues such as privacy, trust, and surveillance in the context of modern technology, you will leave this course with the ability to identify ethical issues and decisions that were made in complex, multifaceted cases.
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View Course Details- Apr 9, 2025
- Jul 2, 2025
- Sep 24, 2025
- Dec 17, 2025
Business and professional leaders sometimes make bad ethical decisions because personal and psychological factors influence how they perceive and address situations. This course is designed to help you recognize such personal factors and take steps to avoid the dangers associated with them. You will begin by considering implicit bias and other limitations that potentially affect all of us. By examining the hallmarks of ethical decision making, you will craft ways to avoid the psychological tendency to begin condoning a lowering of ethical standards. Finally, you will examine several case studies and draw insights from them that may help avoid ethical mistakes in your own decision making.
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View Course Details- Apr 23, 2025
- Jul 16, 2025
- Oct 8, 2025
- Dec 31, 2025
Social and organizational pressures combined with inherent human tendencies may help create organizational cultures that do not adhere to the ethical standards of society. In this course, you will identify a number of social influences on decision making. You will consider ways that a dysfunctional organizational culture may lead to wrongdoing. By looking into case studies and investigating real-world situations of ethical scandals at major companies, you will develop awareness and acquire guidelines for best practices in complex situations. Finally, you will apply what you have learned by identifying steps you and your organization might take to improve its culture and ensure that organizational decision making is ethical.
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View Course Details- May 7, 2025
- Jul 30, 2025
- Oct 22, 2025
How It Works
Format
All Online
Time Commitment
2 months with 3-5 hours of study per week
Cost
$3,900
Learn From Top Minds
Courses are developed by Cornell faculty.
Power Your Career
Gain today’s most in-demand skills to stand apart.
Flexibility Fits Your Life
Learn on your schedule without stepping out of your job.
Small-class Experience
Participate in facilitated discussions and live sessions with industry peers.
Real-world Projects
Apply learnings and insights to your work to make an impact right away.
Personalized Feedback
Enjoy meaningful feedback on assignments from expert facilitators.
Format
All Online
Time Commitment
2 months with 3-5 hours of study per week
Cost
$3,900
Learn From Top Minds
Courses are developed by Cornell faculty.
Power Your Career
Gain today’s most in-demand skills to stand apart.
Flexibility Fits Your Life
Learn on your schedule without stepping out of your job.
Small-class Experience
Participate in facilitated discussions and live sessions with industry peers.
Real-world Projects
Apply learnings and insights to your work to make an impact right away.
Personalized Feedback
Enjoy meaningful feedback on assignments from expert facilitators.
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Faculty Author
Professor of Law, Cornell Law School
Key Course Takeaways
- Identify the role of ethics in society and establish a broad foundation for making good ethical decisions
- Anticipate and apply ethical reasoning to issues that arise in business settings
- Address ethical issues arising from emerging technology
- Avoid pitfalls of psychological factors that interfere with making ethical decisions
- Diagnose and suggest responsive strategies for the social and organizational factors that exacerbate the human tendency to overlook or misapply ethical analysis
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Not ready to enroll but want to learn more? Download the certificate brochure to review program details.
What You'll Earn
- Business Ethics Certificate from Cornell Law School
- 40 Professional Development Hours (4.0 CEUs)
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Who Should Enroll
- Business managers and leaders
- Founders and entrepreneurs
- Anyone looking to work effectively with legal professionals
- Professionals, particularly those working in highly regulated industries
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Business Ethics
| Select Payment Method | Cost |
|---|---|
| $3,900 | |
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