Andrew Spacone

Professor Spacone brings to his courses almost forty years of outside and inside counsel experience advising and defending for profit and non-profit corporations on a wide range of domestic and international legal issues including corporate governance and compliance, risk management and insurance, high stakes litigation and government investigations and proceedings, environmental, products liability, employment, contracts, securities, mergers and acquisitions, and crisis management. A hallmark of Professor Spacone’s teaching is his ability to introduce to his courses practical, first hand “lessons learned” along with traditional legal theory and doctrine. Additionally, he leverages his career as inside and outside counsel to provide his perspective on how to practice law effectively as well as master the particular practice area.

Professor Spacone was introduced to the world of teaching when he was accepted into the University of Buffalo Department of History Ph.D. program as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. His education was interrupted by the military draft but during his military career and after he continued to pursue the academic life through teaching in various venues, making presentations before numerous professional legal organizations and scholarship.

Professor Spacone currently teaches Securities Regulation, Mergers and Acquisitions, and U.S. Banking Regulation. His approach to teaching law students is to provide them with ample tools and guidance and practical examples from which they can master and learn the subject matter on their own through problem solving. He also interjects a fair amount of humor into his classes to illustrate important points, but more important, help the students to understand that lawyers need to maintain perspective as well as master the subject matter to be good at what they do. The students respond positively to this approach, once they get over the initial shock.

In 2014, Professor Spacone was selected by the students as Adjunct Professor of the Year.

Professor Spacone graduated cum laude from the University of Buffalo Faculty of Law & Jurisprudence where he was Articles Editor of the Buffalo Law Review. He also holds an M.A. in history from the University of Buffalo and is B.S. from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, from which he graduated cum laude. He is a member of the Rhode Island and New York bars, the U.S. District Court, District of Rhode Island, the U.S. District Court, Western District of New York, and the U.S. Claims Court.

Much of Professor Spacone’s legal background centers on his thirty years as in-house counsel with Textron Inc., a Fortune 200 company with worldwide operations in the Aerospace/Aircraft, Defense, Industrial products and Finance business segments. Prior to joining Textron, Professor Spacone was a litigation associate with the Buffalo, New York law firm of Jaeckle, Fleischmann & Mugel. In between his five years with the Jaeckle firm, he took a leave of absence to be a staff member of a Department of Defense task force which studied the application of the Inspector General to the Department. After retiring from Textron as Deputy General Counsel & Assistant Secretary, and head of the Litigation Group, and before joining the law school faculty, he was Of Counsel to Adler, Pollock & Sheehan in Providence Rhode Island. While with Adler Pollock, in addition to general corporate defense litigation, he was outside counsel for a sizeable New York based non-profit corporation. His senior board positions on three Rhode Island non-profit corporations expanded his background on non-profit legal issues. Professor Spacone retired from the United States Army with thirty years of active and reserve service as a Colonel.

Articles

"Broker-Dealer Liability: Are the Rules Pertaining to Providing Advice to Retail Customers About to Change", 64 Rhode Island Bar Journal 13 (March/April 2016)(with Nicole M. Verdi)

"A Practical Guide to Establishing an Effective Crisis Management Plan", 9 In-House Defense Quarterly 52 (Winter 2014)

"Implementing Practical Risk Management: A Guide for 501(c)(3) Nonprofits", 62 Rhode Island Bar Journal 5 (March/April 2014)(with Robert I. Stolzman)

"Reducing the Risks of Outsourcing in China and Other Countries: Contracts & Beyond", 26 ACC Docket 78 (December 2008)

"Strict Liability in the European Union-Not A United States Analog", 5 Roger Williams Law Review 341 (2000)

"The Emergence of Strict Liability: A Historical Perspective and Other Considerations, Including Senate 100", 8 Journal of Products Liability 1 (1985)

"A Practical Guide to Controlling Products Liability Costs", 7 Journal of Products Liability 365 (1984)

"Topless Dancing and the Constitution-A New York Town’s Experience", 25 Buffalo Law Review 753 (1976)