Professor Ronald J. Colombo, Esq.
Professor Ronald J. Colombo has been a FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) arbitrator since 2009 and a certified panel chairperson since 2011. Through his service as a FINRA arbitrator, Professor Colombo has helped resolve dozens of disputes between brokers and their employers, and between brokers and their customers. He brings his dispute resolution skills to Mediation Solutions, helping to resolve commercial disputes.
He serves as the Associate Dean for Distance Education and Professor of Law at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, where he teaches courses on business organizations, corporate and securities law, securities regulation, and contracts. His scholarship has focused largely on securities fraud, financial regulation, and corporate constitutional rights. From 2013-2015, Professor Colombo served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of Hofstra Law School.
Professor Colombo is the author of The First Amendment and the Business Corporation, published by Oxford University Press in 2015 and Law of Corporate Officer and Directors, an annually updated practioner-oriented treatise published by Thomas Reuters.
He has earned the Stessin Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication and has addressed academic and professional associations around the country. He has been quoted in both national and international new media, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Newsday, Bloomberg, and The Daily Beast.
His op-eds have been published in The Washington Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Financial Times, and The Huffington Post. Professor Colombo serves on the editorial review board of the Review of Business, and as an arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Before joining the Hofstra Law faculty in 2006, Professor Colombo served in the Complex Global Litigation Group of Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc., as vice president and counsel. Prior to that, he practiced as a litigation associate at the New York office of Sullivan & Cromwell. From 2000-2003, Professor Colombo also served on the Committee on Professional and Judicial Ethics of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
Professor Colombo graduated, magna cum laude, from NYU School of Law, where he served on the NYU Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Immediately following graduation, Professor Colombo clerked for Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Professor Colombo is available to mediate or arbitrate cases virtually or at all our office locations.
Mediating/Arbitrating Cases In:
- Commercial disputes
Honors
Solomon Rosen Award for Teaching and Excellence (2018-19)
“Teacher of the Year” (2018-19)
Hofstra Law Review “Teacher of the Year” (2017-18)
Winner of Lawrence A. Stessin Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication (2008)
Memberships and Professional Activities
FINRA Arbitrator, New York, NY (2009 – present)
- Certified Panel Chairperson (2011 – present)
National Legal Innovation Tournament, Final Round Judge (Oct. 7, 2022)
Thomson Reuters Expert Witness Services, Expert Consultant (2017 – present)
CognoLink / Third Bridge, Expert Consultant (2011 – present)
Sedes Sapientiae School, Board of Trustees (2015 – 2022)
Review of Business, Editorial Review Board (2009 – 2019)
Rio Vista Mahwah Homeowners Association, Board of Trustees (2012-2017)
American Bar Association, Law School Accreditation Site Visit Team Member (Spring 2014)
Themis Bar Review, Agency, Partnership, and Corporate Law Instructor (2010-2014)
Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network, Applicant Interviewer (2008-2012)
New York University School of Law, New York, NY
- Academic Careers Program. Provide mock job talk / mock interview feedback and assistance to aspiring law professors (Fall 2006 – Fall 2011)
- Lawyering Program. Volunteer instructor to pairs of students in briefing and oral argument exercises. (Spring 2001, Spring 2003, Spring 2004)
Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Committee on Professional and Judicial Ethics (2000-2003)
Education
New York University School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, May 1998
- Order of the Coif
- New York University Law Review – Note and Development Editor (1997-1998)
Cornell University, B.S., Policy Analysis, May 1994
- Dean’s List
- Cornell Tradition Fellow
Selected Publications
The Past, Present, and Future of Christian ADR, 22 Cardozo J. Conflict Resol. 45 (2020)
A Legal Analysis of Religious Arbitration, Canopy Forum on the Interactions of Law & Religion (2022); https://canopyforum.org/2022/04/16/a-legal-analysis-of-religious-arbitration/
Law of Corporate Officers and Directors (Thomson Reuters 2017) (republished annually)
The First Amendment and the Business Corporation (Oxford University Press 2015)
Rights and Responsibilities of the American Business Corporation, in Business and Human Rights (Manoj Kumar Sinha, ed., SAGE 2013) (book chapter)
Bitcoin: Hype or Harbinger? 16 J. Int’l Bus. & L. 1 (2016)
Tipping the Scales Against Insider Trading: Adopting a Presumption of Personal Benefit to Clarify Dirks, 45 Hofstra L. Rev. 117 (2016)
Trust, Financial Services Regulation, and the Dodd Frank Act, 30 Banking & Fin. Servs. Pol’y Rep. 1 (2011)
Effectuating Disclosure under the Williams Act, 60 Cath. U. L. Rev. 311 (2011)
Professional Experience
Maurice A. Deane School of Law, Hofstra University (2006-present)
- Professor of Law (2012-present)
- Associate Dean for Distance Education (2015-present)
- Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (2013-2015)
- Associate Professor of Law (2006-2012)
Lecturer, Rutgers School of Law (Fall 2022)
Visiting Associate Professor of Law, St. John’s School of Law (2017-2018)
Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School (Spring 2009)
Judicial Clerk, Hon. Jerry E. Smith, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1998-1999)
Vice President & Counsel, Complex Global Litigation, Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated (2004-2006)
Litigation Associate, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP (1999-2004)
Summer Associate, Kirkland & Ellis (Summer 1998)
Legal Intern, Federal Defender Division, Eastern District of New York, Legal Aid Society (1997-1998)
Law Clerk, American International Group (AIG) (1996-1997)