J. Scott Colesanti

J. Scott Colesanti, LL.M., has taught at Hofstra since 2002. In 2006, while serving as an adjunct professor, he was selected 'Professor of the Year' by the Hofstra Law Review.

Prior to joining academia, Professor Colesanti was the first law clerk to a Chief Hearing Officer of the New York Stock Exchange; he subsequently served as Investigative/Trial Counsel for the NYSE Division of Enforcement for 10 years. Afterwards, he served within the NYSE Office of the General Counsel, and as a securities industry arbitrator for over a decade. He has handled appeals before the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Social Security Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the New York State Division of Human Rights.

In 2008, he was named Professor of Legal Writing. At Hofstra, he has developed and taught 10 different courses and advised over 75 student Notes. Professor Colesanti has taught Securities Regulation at Hofstra Law since 2002, and in September 2020, he launched his Podcast, 'Stock Law Now.' He also serves as an advisor to the Corporate Compliance and Business Law Honors Concentrations.

Separately, Professor Colesanti has had over 40 articles published by law reviews/industry journals, and his writings have been downloaded from SSRN and/or the Hofstra Digital Commons over 3,000 times. Other of his writings are included in treatises on securities law and have appeared as expert commentaries introducing seminal business law cases.

In July 2016, Professor Colesanti published his first book,Legal Writing, All Business. A review in The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing concluded 'If you teach a first-year legal-writing class, you should consider using Colesanti's book as a text. Its substantive lessons will serve your students well in law school and beyond.' In December 2017, Professor Colesanti released his second book, Oral Advocacy, Style and Substance. In May 2018, he released his third book: Fairness, Inc.: The Origins (and Billion-Dollar Bonuses) of Rule 10b-5 as America's Insider Trading Prohibition.

Professor Colesanti is a member of the Bars of New York, Missouri, and Washington, D.C. He has taught in Italy, Curaçao, and Germany as part of the Hofstra Study Abroad program. He previously served on the editorial board of theJournal of Securities Law, Regulation and Compliance,and as a former contributing co-editor of the Business Law Professor Blog.

Curriculum Vitae

Publications

Books [with accompanying Teacher Manuals]

Fairness, Inc.: The Origins (and Billion-Dollar Bonuses) of Rule 10b-5 as America's Insider Trading Prohibition (Carolina Academic Press, 2018)

Oral Advocacy: Style and Substance (Carolina Academic Press, 2017)

Legal Writing, All Business (Carolina Academic Press, 2016)

Law Reviews and Journals

"Caging the Bored Ape: How the FTC's Expanded Anti-Monopoly Authority Can Tame 'NFTs' for WEB 3.0", 14 Wm. & Mary Bus. L. Rev. ____ (Fall 2023).

"Sorry, They Were on Mute: The SEC'S 'Token Proposal 2.0' as Blueprint for Regulatory Response to Cryptocurrency" Arizona State University Corporate and Business Law Journal (Winter 2021).

"Cryptocurrency Meets Bankruptcy Law: A Call for Creditor Status for Investors in Initial Coin Offerings" (with Professor Miriam Albert) 36 Georgia State University Law Review (2020).

"Trotting Out the White Horse: How the S.E.C. Can Handle Bitcoin's Threat to American Investors", 65 Syracuse L. Rev. 1 (2015).

"Other People's Volatility: A Call For Rules That More Equitably Stabilize the Stock Market" 39 U. Dayton L. Rev. 1 (2014).

"Wall Street as Yossarian: The Other Effects of the Rajaratnam Insider Trading Conviction" 40 Hofstra L. Rev. 411 (2012).

"Demanding Substance or Form? The SEC's Plain English Handbook as a Basis for Securities Violations" 18 Fordham Journal Corp. & Fin. Law 1 (Fall 2012).

"Another Madoff Masquerade? Questioning 'Securities Fraud' in the Crime and Its Cleanup" 56 St. Louis U. L.J. 521 (Winter 2012).

"Taking Stock of the S.T.O.C.K. Act" 16 N.Y. Bus. L. J. 26 (Winter 2012).

"Harmony or Cacophony' A Preliminary Assessment of the Responses to the Financial Crisis at Home and in the EU" 1 Harv. Bus. L. Rev. Online 60, April 9, 2011.

"In Favor of a 'Bail-In': How A Trillion Dollars Might Better Rescue A Stock Market", St. John's Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development (Spring 2011).

"Laws, Sausages and Bailouts: Testing the Populist View of the Causes of the Economic Crisis", 4 Brook. J. Corp., Fin. & Com. L. 175 (Spring 2010).

"Circuit Breakers and the Mission of Stock Market Stability", Chapman University School of Law, 15 NeXus: Chap. J. L. & Pol'y 43 (Winter 2010).

"Not Dead Yet: How New York's Finnerty Decision Salvaged the Stock Exchange Specialist", 23 St. John's Journal of Legal Commentary 1 (Spring 2008).

"Developments in Securities Arbitration and their Implications for the Industry", 1 Journal of Securities Compliance 3 (Spring 2008).

"'We'll Know It When We Can't Hear It': A Call for a Non-Pornography Test Approach to Recognizing Non-Public Information", 35 Hofstra L. Rev. 2 (Winter 2006).

"Bouncing the Tightrope: The S.E.C. Attacks Selective Disclosure, But Provides Little Stability for Analysts", 25 Southern Illinois University Law Journal 1 (Fall 2000).

"The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995", 26 Securities Regulation Law Journal 139 (Summer 1998).

"The U.S.-U.K. Memorandum of Understanding of 1986", 11 Fordham International Law Journal 1 (Fall 1987).

Periodicals/Commentary

"The Case for Regulating Cryptocurrency 'Exchanges' Sooner Rather Than Later", The New York Law Journal, July 21, 2021.

"Carrots and Sticks: An Update on Digital Coin Regulation" [with Ms. Savannah Aronson], The New York Law Journal, July 29, 2020.

"The S.E.C. vs. Cryptocurrency: From Dante to Facebook", The New York Law Journal, August 1, 2019.

"Unnecessary Roughness: Insider Trading and Two Athletes" [with Ms. Emily Knight], The New York Law Journal, January 22, 2019.

"The Short Arm of Congressional Insider Trading Statutes", The New York Law Journal, August 24, 2018.

"Something Borrowed and Blue: New York's Delayed Marriage to Bitcoin Regulations", The Columbia Law School Blue Sky Law Blog (February 2015).

"Responses to the Global Financial Crisis: A Transnational Perspective", Society of Actuaries Semi-Annual Newsletter (Aug. 2013).

"Business Arbitration: The New Handicapping", The Suffolk Lawyer (Nov. 2012).

"On Supervising the Law Review Note", The Law Teacher (Fall 2011).

"The Financial Regulatory Reform of 2009 and the Retail Investor", The New York Law Journal, August 18, 2009.

"The SEC Comment Policy and the Economic Crisis", The New York Law Journal, February 20, 2009.

"Will the Howey Test Prize Substance Over Form?", LexisNexis Expert Commentary, September 2008.

"Why Materiality May Someday Become Immaterial", LexisNexis Expert Commentary, July 2008.

"The Subprime Disaster and the Retail Investor: Does the Law Permit a Recovery?", New York State Bar Association Business Law Journal, July 2008.

"In the Eye of the Beholder: 'Interpositioning' as a Crime, Violation or Nuisance", LexisNexis Expert Commentary, May 2008.

"'A Crisis of Confidence': The Treasury Blueprint, And Its Unlikely Impact upon the Securities and Exchange Commission", LexisNexis Emerging Issue Commentary, May 2008.

"The Subprime Meltdown and Class Action Litigation: Predictable or Revolutionary Law?", LexisNexis Emerging Issue Commentary, April 2008.

"On the Inevitable State Interpretations of Insider Trading", The New York Law Journal, March 14, 2008.