John Sivolella

John Sivolella earned a Ph.D. in Political Science (American Politics) from Columbia. The seminar he teaches, Political and Legal Influences on Federal Government Agencies, grew out of his dissertation research. John is also a senior-thesis advisor at Columbia and conducted an independent study course on Voting Rights. His research concentrates on federal agencies, executive power and constitutional and administrative law. He is writing a book on the behavior of federal agencies. As a Teaching Fellow, John was a preceptor for the Senior Honors Seminar and TA to President Lee Bollinger for Freedom of Speech and Press. John is also a Senior Fellow in Law and Policy at the Pioneer Institute, an independent, non-partisan think tank in Boston. He’s leading the establishment of PioneerLegal, the Institute’s public-interest law initiative. John served as a judicial law clerk on the New Jersey Supreme Court. He was a legal counsel to the Governor of New Jersey, where he supervised the process of evaluating nominees for judicial and prosecutorial appointments, was the Governor’s senate liaison, and advised her on legislation and legal issues pertaining to health and human services law. John was also in private law practice in Manhattan, focusing on corporate and securities law, venture capital financings, and mergers and acquisitions. John received his J.D. from New York University School of Law where he was a member of the Annual Survey of American Law. He earned an M.P.A from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, with a concentration in International Relations. John received a B.A. from Rutgers University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa and a Henry Rutgers Scholar.