Professor Scordato came to The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law in 2002, having previously been a faculty member at law schools at the University of Maryland, Florida State University, Southwestern University, and Suffolk University.  He currently teaches Tort Law, Advanced Tort Law, and Applied Legal Studies, and has previously taught Agency Law, Corporations, Corporate Finance, Media Law, Entertainment Law, and Free Speech Jurisprudence.

From 2013 until 2021, Professor Scordato served under three different Deans as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research for the law school.

Professor Scordato received his B.A. with a double major in philosophy and psychology from Haverford College, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.  Before starting his career as a law professor, he worked as an associate at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City.

Professor Scordato was voted by the students at the law school as the Outstanding Professor of First Year Classes in 2008.  He was also named the Evening Division Professor of the Year in 2003 and again in 2005.  In the course of his career as a law professor, Professor Scordato has been honored with awards for the quality of his teaching ten separate times at five different law schools.  He has received a formal award for his teaching from every law school at which he has been a faculty member.  He received the Professor of the Year award at the University of Maryland School of Law two years in a row.

Professor Scordato has published twelve law review articles and two book reviews, all in journals sponsored by a law school ranked in the top 100 by U.S. News and World Report.  Nine of these articles have appeared in journals sponsored by a law school ranked among the top 50 by U.S. News, and three of them have been published in journals sponsored by a law school ranked in the top 25.  Professor Scordato is also a co-author of a published casebook, teacher's manual and supplement on Theater Law, the first publication of its kind covering this area of the law.

While at Catholic, Professor Scordato has served as a member of the University Academic Senate, the University Graduate Board, the University Senate Committee on Appointments and Promotions, the University Special Committee on the Academic Senate's Appointments and Promotions Process, the University Special Committee on the Periodic Report to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education Review, the Chair of the University Academic Dishonesty Appeal Board, a member of the University Law School Dean Search Committee, the Chair of the Law School Faculty Admissions and Recruitment Committee, the Chair of the Faculty Bar Pass Working Group, and a member of the Law School Faculty Budget Committee, the Academic Policy Committee, the Academic Excellence Task Force and the Summer Research Grant Committee.  Professor Scordato also served for one year as the Director of the Law School’s Institute for Communications Law Studies.  

Professor Scordato has been quoted in The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and in other newspapers and on numerous radio and television stations.

He is licensed to practice law in Washington DC, New York, and Florida.

Research and Writing

Publications

The Curious Case of Tort Liability for a Defective Product That the Defendant Did Not Make, Sell, or Distribute, 88 Missouri Law Review 135-179 (2023)

Three Kinds of Fault: Understanding the Purpose and Function of Causation in Tort Law, 77 University of Miami Law Review, 149-212 (2022)

Theater Law: Cases and Materials
(co-author)(Carolina Academic Press, 2004)
with accompanying Teacher's Manual and 2005 Supplement

A Legal Definition of Leadership: Understanding §
3B.1 of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines
19 Lewis & Clark Law Review 1061-1081 (2016)

Book Review: Prof. Brian Tamanaha's "Beyond the Formalist-Realist Divide: The Role of Politics in Judging" (Princeton Univ. Press 2011)
46 University of Richmond Law Review 659 (2012).

Innocent Threats, Concealed Consent and the Necessary Presence of Strict Liability in Traditional Fault-Based Tort Law
37 Pepperdine Law Review  205-245 (2010)

Reflections on the Nature of Legal Scholarship in the Post-Realist Era
48 Santa Clara Law Review 353-440 (2008)

Understanding the Absence of a Duty to Reasonably Rescue in American Tort Law
82 Tulane Law Review 1447-1503 (2008)

The International Legal Environment for Serious Political Reporting has Fundamentally Changed:
Understanding the Revolutionary New Era of English Defamation Law
40 Connecticut Law Review 165-207 (2007)

Post-Realist Blues: Formalism, Instrumentalism and the Hybrid Nature of Common Law Jurisprudence
7 Nevada Law Journal 263-300 (2007)

Evidentiary Surrogacy and Risk Allocation: Understanding Imputed Knowledge and Notice in Modern Agency Law
10 Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law 129-166 (2004)

Free Speech Rationales After September 11^th: The First Amendment in
Post World Trade Center America
13 Stanford Law & Policy Review 185-203 (2002) (with Paula Monopoli), republished in Swanson & Castle, First Amendment Law Handbook 2002-2003

Federal Preemption of State Tort Claims
35 U.C. Davis Law Review 1-32 (2001) 

The Elusive Paradigm of the Press
72 Boston University Law Review 673 (1992) (Book Review)

The Dualist Model of Legal Teaching and Scholarship
40 American University Law Review 367-417 (1990)

Distinction Without A Difference: A Reappraisal of the Doctrine of Prior Restraint
68 North Carolina Law Review 1-35 (1989)

Legal Theory and Linguistic Reality: A Critical Examination of Modern Legal Scholarship
2 Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues 257 (1989)  

Awards and Honors

Outstanding Professor of First Year Classes, 2007-2008
The Catholic University of America School of Law

Evening Division Professor of the Year, 2004-2005
The Catholic University of America School of Law

Evening Division Professor of the Year, 2002-2003
The Catholic University of America School of Law

Professor of the Year, 2001-2002
University of Maryland School of Law

Professor of the Year, 1999 – 2000
University of Maryland School of Law

Irwin R. Buchalter Distinguished Professor of Law, 1996-1997
Southwestern University School of Law

Professor of the Year, 1995-1996
Southwestern University School of Law

Professor of the Year, 1993-1994
Southwestern University School of Law

Cornelius J. Moynihan Award for Teaching Excellence, 1989-1990
Suffolk University School of Law

The Municipal Code Professor of the Year, 1985-1986
Florida State University College of Law