Professor Linnan joined USC School of Law faculty 1987 after serving as a Research Fellow at Max Planck Institute in West Germany (1979–81) and as an Associate Attorney with O'Melveny & Myers in L.A. and New York (1981–87). A specialist in Asian Law, he has focused much of his recent research and service on Indonesia where he has been a Senior Scholar with the Fulbright Southeast Asia Regional Research Program, in cooperation with the University of Indonesia, working out of Jakarta Stock Exchange on capital markets regulation (12/94–1/95, 11/96–1/97); Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies and Faculty of Law, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Visiting Research Fellow at the Indonesia Project, Department of Economics and the Faculty of Law (1/95–6/95); visiting Professor, Faculty of Law, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2015); Program Director and Principal Investigator under the USAID Cooperation Agreement (2000–04) establishing the Law and Finance Institutional Partnership (LFIP), Jakarta, Indonesia (2000 to date);  and lecturer in the International Undergraduate Program of the Faculty of Law, Gadjah Mada University (IUP FH-UGM, 2012 to date).

Professor Linnan teaches courses in Comparative Law, Corporate Finance, Corporations, International Economic Law, International Environmental Law, Public International Law and Regulation of the Financial Sector. A frequent user of instructional technology, he has taught numerous courses linking students at USC with scholars and students overseas via videoconferencing, including a course on human trafficking taught synchronously at three institutions (USC, U. of Cologne, U. of Indonesia) in 2003; a course on Asian and Comparative Law course taught synchronously at three institutions (USC, U. of Washington, U. of Wisconsin) while serving as a visiting Professor of Asian Law at the University of Washington in Seattle (2004);  and various international trade law, corporate finance and project finance courses taught 2005 to date at three institutions (USC, U. of Indonesia, Gadjah Mada U.). Professor Linnan has published a number of books and papers dealing with Asian Law, Legal Development, Public International Law, Muslim-Christian relations, and Distance Education/Instructional technology. He also holds an appointment as an associated faculty member at the University of South Carolina School of the Environment (8/97 to date) and the International Undergraduate Program of the Faculty of Law, Gadjah Mada University (IUP FH-UGM, 2012 to date).