Edward G. "Ed" Sponzilli

Edward G. Sponzilli, a Member of the firm, is a New Jersey Supreme Court Certified Civil Trial Attorney with 48 years experience in complex corporate and commercial litigation, employment and education matters.

He has litigated cases in many different jurisdictions, including Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, in addition to the states where he is admitted. He primarily handles complex corporate and commercial matters, as well as employment litigation relating to restrictive covenant, wrongful termination, CEPA, employment discrimination, and sexual harassment. He has defended public entities, primarily educational institutions, and has represented parties in products liability, toxic tort, and professional malpractice. Additionally, Ed has handled matters involving franchise practices, intellectual property, trademark, health care, estate, real estate, construction, antitrust, commodities, civil RICO, defamation, Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumer fraud, shareholder disputes, civil rights, constitutional law, sports law, personal injury, insurance and reinsurance coverage matters, dram shop, alcohol, defamation, business tort, criminal, and education law matters.

In higher education, Ed has not only litigated matters for colleges and universities but has been consulted for advice on numerous issues, and he has authored opinion letters on a variety of topics. He was part of the legal team which handled the largest merger of higher educational institutions in U.S. history. He has been a member of and lecturer for the National Association of College and University Attorneys for over 35 years.

Ed is a 2008 recipient of the Professionalism Award. In 1999 he was awarded the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Fund for Client Protection’s “Client Protection” Award for his outstanding service on behalf of the public and the Bar of New Jersey in his role as Chancery Court-appointed Receiver in the case of Montano v. Cohen & Cohen.

Ed is a past president of the C. Willard Heckel Inn of Court and the Rutgers—Newark Law School Alumni Association. He has been a Trustee of the Trial Attorneys of New Jersey for over 35 years. He has been on the faculty of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy for over 25 years and, for the nearly twenty years, was one of only two non-government faculty members in the New Jersey Attorney General’s Trial Advocacy Institute. Ed is currently a master of the New York City American Inn of Court and the Lifland (federal practice) American Inn of Court. He has served as a federal arbitrator, and state court certified mediator. He has also been an adjunct professor at Rutgers College.

Ed was a Judicial Law Clerk for The Honorable James A. Coolahan, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (D.N.J.) from 1975-77. During the two-year clerkship, Judge Coolahan held a temporary assignment to the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Ed has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers In America and New Jersey Super Lawyers, as well as Marquis’ Who’s Who In American Law and Who’s Who in America. He was a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee, Bench, Bar, and Media. He served five years as Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Higher Education Committee.

Bar Admissions

• New Jersey
• New York
• District of Columbia
• U.S. District Court
  - District of New Jersey
  - Southern District of New York
  - Eastern District of New York
  - Western District of New York
  - Northern District of New York
  - District of Columbia
• U.S. Court of Appeals
  - Second Circuit
  - Third Circuit
  - District of Columbia Circuits
• U.S. Supreme Court

Areas of Practice

• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Construction Law
• Higher Education
• Labor & Employment
• Litigation

Professional Affiliation

• Fellow of American Bar Association
• National Association of College and University Attorneys
• New Jersey State Bar Association
  - Chair, Higher Education Committee
• New York State Bar Association
• New York City Bar Association
• Bergen County Bar Association
• Essex County Bar Association
• Middlesex County Bar Association
• Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey
• Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys
• New Jersey Defense Association
• Trial Attorneys of New Jersey
  - Board of Trustees
• Master, New York Inn of Court
• Master, Liftland (Intellectual Property) Inn of Court
• Former President, and Master in Heckel Inn of Court
• Past President, Rutgers Law School, Newark Alumni Association
• Faculty, National Institute of Trial Advocacy

Education

• Rutgers School of Law – Newark
  - J.D., 1975
• Columbia University
  - M.A., 1972
• Institut Catholique de Paris
  - Diploma, 1971
• Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  - B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1971
  - Henry Rutger Scholar Award
  - Nancy Higginson Dorr Award