Michael Ambrosio

Professor Michael Ambrosio

Professor of Law

  • Degrees:

  • J.D., Catholic University | B.A., Montclair State University
  • Contact:

  • [email protected]
  • Tel: 973-642-8807
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Courses:

  • Jurisprudence, Remedies, Professional Responsibility

Professor Ambrosio received his B.A. degree from Montclair State University in 1963 and his J.D. degree from Catholic University Law School in 1966. After three years as a staff attorney for Newark-Essex Legal Services he joined the faculty of Seton Hall Law School in 1970. He currently teaches Professional Responsibility, which he has taught for 36 years, Legal Malpractice, Remedies and a Law and Morality Seminar. He has taught Jurisprudence (for 25 years), Contracts (for 20 years), Commercial Law, Torts, Business Associations, and Trial Practice. He was the founder and first director of the law school clinical program. As a visiting professor at Southwestern University Law School, in Los Angeles, California, he designed and taught materials for an experimental two year law school program with a curriculum emphasizing legal theory and practical skills training. He has written extensively on the legal profession, legal ethics and legal malpractice. He served as Vice Chair and Reporter to the New Jersey Bar Committee to Evaluate the Proposed ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and as the Bar's representative on the New Jersey Supreme Court Debevoise Committee to Evaluate the Proposed ABA Model Rules. More recently, he was a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court's Pollack Commission on the Rules of Professional Conduct. He has lectured extensively in ICLE programs including lectures to newly admitted attorneys as part of the New Jersey Supreme Court Skills and Methods program for more than 25 years. He is a consultant to lawyers on ethical and malpractice issues, has argued numerous cases before the New Jersey Supreme Court and has appeared as an attorney or as a legal expert in more than 300 cases involving legal malpractice, attorney discipline or attorney disqualification.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

LAW REVIEW ARTICLES

Neglected Truth in ABA Ethics Canons, 191 N.J.L.J. 71 (January 14, 2008)

Lower Bar for Fraud Against Lawyers, 187 N.J.L.J. 659 (Feb. 26, 2007)

A Disclaimer Would End Hubbub Over 'Super' or 'Best' Lawyers, 186 N.J.L. 267 (October 9, 2006)

Limitations on Client Confidentiality, 186 N.J.L.J. 639 (November 13, 2006)

The Redefining of the Standards of Professional Ethics under Chief Justice Robert.  Wilentz: A Legacy of Reform, 7 Seton Hall Const. L.J. 352 (1997) (McLaughlin)

The Modern Tort Lawyer: Hero or Villain, Book Review Essay, Lawyers And The American Dream, by Stuart M. Speiser, 24 Seton Hall L. Rev. 1195 (1993)

A Moral Appraisal of Legal Education: A Plea for a Return to Forgotten Truths, 22 Seton Hall L. Rev. 1177 (1992)

The Path to Professionalism, 21 Seton Hall L. Rev. 524 (1991)

Censure and the Academic Community, Seton Hall Constitutional L. J. (Inaugural Ed.), Vol. 1, No. 1, p.5. (Spring 1989)

The Changing Standards of the Practice of Law, 18 Seton Hall L. Rev. 602 (1988)

The Use of Expert Witnesses in Establishing Liability in Legal Malpractice Cases, 61 Temple L. Rev. 1351 (1988) (McLaughlin)

The "New" New Jersey Rules of Professional Conduct: Reordered Priorities for Public Accountability, 11 Seton Hall Legislative Journal 103 (1987)

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Conflict of Interest: Clarifying and Applying the Basic Principles, N.J. ICLE Program Materials (2003)

Confidentiality and its Limitations, N.J. ICLE Program Materials (2000)

Legal Realism, The New Jersey Lawyer Magazine, (October, 2000)

The Ethics of Civil Trial Advocacy, N.J. ICLE Program Handbook for Ethics of Advocacy: Civil, Criminal & Matrimonial Ethical Issues (1998)

The Pursuit of Excellence in Work and Play, Proceedings of Second International Conference on Social Values, Oxford University, Oxford, England (1994)

Rethinking The Client-Lawyer Relationship, New Jersey Family Lawyer (February/March 1993)

COMMENTARIES

Good Faith in Contract Law: The Problem of Profit Maximization: A Reply to Professor Sor James Gordley, Proceedings of the Second Annual International Symposium on Catholic Social Thought and Management Education, Brussels, Belgium (1997)