Built inside the systems clients must now navigate.
Before he was an attorney, he was a bench scientist. Before he built a law practice, he built the offices that now investigate people like his clients. This is that career, told in full.
What he built, led, and improved from the inside.
Across a career spent inside research universities and as a higher-education compliance consultant, this work spanned several interlocking institutional systems that most attorneys only ever encounter from the outside.
Research Integrity & Misconduct Review
At Georgia State University, he leads the research integrity portfolio that reviews allegations of misconduct, data-integrity concerns, and violations of the responsible conduct of research — from initial inquiry through federal referral.
Conflict of Interest Oversight
Georgia Tech had no dedicated conflict-of-interest office until he built one. As its first director, he created the university's inaugural Conflict of Interest Review Committee and the disclosure and management-plan process that came with it. He had already led a similar system at Emory, developing its enterprise-wide electronic conflict-disclosure platform.
Export Controls & Research Security
When Jeffrey assumed responsibility for export controls and research security at Georgia State University, he transformed and formalized the university's compliance program. He authored the university's first comprehensive Export Control Manual, led its NSPM-33 federal research security readiness review, and mapped compliance responsibilities across administrative units ranging from Sponsored Programs to international student services.
Federally Funded Research Compliance
As a consultant with Huron Consulting Group, he advised research universities, academic medical centers, and health systems on the same problem from a different seat: how to bring research administration into alignment with federal requirements, and how to build the operating model that keeps it there.
Program & Governance Design
Each of these roles shared a common challenge: strengthening and institutionalizing complex compliance programs through thoughtful policy development, governance, technology, and operational design. In some cases that meant building entirely new structures; in others, it meant transforming existing programs into more mature, scalable, and sustainable institutional functions. At Georgia Tech, that work included supporting compliance oversight for a research portfolio exceeding one billion dollars annually.
Internal Investigations
Allegations, evidence, witness interviews, findings — the mechanics of an investigation are the same whether the subject is a researcher, a conflict of interest, or a compliance failure. He has run that process from the institution's side — the seat most attorneys only ever argue from the outside.
Judgment shaped by both chairs at the table.
Steltzer Law advises with the same practical understanding of governance, documentation, and defensibility that comes from having built these systems — not studied them from the outside.
For individual clients, that same experience becomes something more personal: an accurate, early read on how an investigation or complaint will actually unfold, because he already knows the process, the committee, and the pressure points.
From the bench, to the offices that oversee it, to the practice built on both.
Jeff Steltzer's career did not begin in a law office. It began at a lab bench. He ran molecular-genetics research at the University of Pittsburgh, then biomedical research on HIV-associated cardiomyopathy at Emory University School of Medicine, publishing findings in peer-reviewed journals alongside career research scientists. That work gave him a firsthand understanding of how research is actually done: the pressure, the collaboration, the recordkeeping, and the professional stakes when something goes wrong.
From there, he moved into the institutions that oversee that work rather than perform it — first at Emory, then at Georgia Tech, where he built the university's first conflict-of-interest and research-objectivity office from the ground up. Later, at Georgia State, he built and led the university's export control program, helped develop its research security framework, and now leads its research integrity portfolio. In between, he spent a year as a compliance consultant with Huron Consulting Group, advising research universities and academic medical centers across the country on how to build or repair the same kind of programs he had spent a decade running.
Founding Steltzer Law Firm was not a departure from that work. It was the next application of it. The judgment that built these systems now defends the people and institutions navigating them — a scientist who understood the stakes, a compliance leader who built the offices, a consultant who fixed them elsewhere, and now an attorney representing clients who are facing that process for the first time.
A career built inside these systems, in order.
B.S. in Ecology, University of Pittsburgh (1996)
Admitted to the State Bar of Georgia since 2005, in good standing
Admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
Selected Publications
Before turning to law, he coauthored the following peer-reviewed papers:
Lewis, William, et al. "Transgenic expression of the deoxynucleotide carrier causes mitochondrial damage that is enhanced by NRTIs for AIDS." Laboratory Investigation 85, no. 8 (2005): 972–981.
Lewis, William, et al. "Decreased mtDNA, oxidative stress, cardiomyopathy, and death from transgenic cardiac targeted human mutant polymerase gamma." Laboratory Investigation 87, no. 4 (2007): 326–335.
What clients and colleagues ask first.
Is Steltzer Law separate from Georgia State University?
Yes. Jeffrey D. Steltzer serves as Director of the Office of Research Integrity Assurance at Georgia State University as a university employee. Steltzer Law Firm is an independent, separate practice. Georgia State University does not sponsor, endorse, or participate in Steltzer Law Firm, and the two should not be understood as affiliated.
Is Steltzer Law separate from Jones Law Group?
Yes. Jeffrey D. Steltzer serves as Of Counsel to Jones Law Group in matters involving Social Security Disability and professional license defense. Jones Law Group is a separate firm and is not affiliated with, and does not sponsor or participate in, Steltzer Law Firm.
Will my matter receive your personal attention?
Yes. Steltzer Law Firm is a boutique practice built around direct, personal involvement in each matter, not a volume operation where files are handed to junior staff. Scope and timeline are discussed candidly at the outset of every engagement.
What types of matters do you accept?
Steltzer Law Firm accepts matters involving research misconduct and research integrity, professional license defense, whistleblower and retaliation representation, higher education and institutional counsel, investigations and regulatory compliance, and Social Security Disability. Fit and current capacity are assessed directly during an initial consultation.
Do you represent Georgia State University or other University System of Georgia institutions?
No. While employed at Georgia State University, Jeffrey D. Steltzer does not undertake matters involving Georgia State University or any University System of Georgia institution. This is a firm policy, not a case-by-case determination.
How do you avoid conflicts of interest?
Every matter is reviewed for conflicts before it is accepted — including any connection to Georgia State University, the University System of Georgia, or existing Jones Law Group clients. Independence is treated as a threshold question, not an afterthought.
Ready to talk about your situation?
However complex, most matters begin with a single conversation.