Harold Paul Green Research Professor of Law, George Washington University School of Law
Robert J. Cottrol joined the law school faculty in 1995 as a visiting professor of law of legal history. Previously, he taught at Rutgers University and Boston College, and had visited at the University of Virginia. As well as specializing in American legal history, Professor Cottrol has also taught torts and criminal law. His writings on law and history have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, American Journal of Legal History, Law and Society Review, Slavery and Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies and American Quarterly, among others.
He is the author of The Afro-Yankees: Providence’s Black Community in the Antebellum Era (selected by Choice as an outstanding academic book for 1983), editor of Gun Control and the Constitution: Sources and Explorations on the Second Amendment (Book of the Month selection by the History Book Club), and From African to Yankee: Narratives of Slavery and Freedom in Antebellum New England (1998). Professor Cottrol’s book Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture and the Constitution (2003) won the Langum Project Prize for Historical Literature in 2003 and was a “Book-of-the-Month” selection of the History Book Club. Most recently, he has authored The Long, Lingering Shadow: Slavery, Race, and Law in the American Hemisphere (2013).
He is currently doing research contrasting the role of law in the development of systems of slavery and racial hierarchy in the United States and Latin America. He has lectured on American law at the Federal Universities of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and the University of Buenos Aires and La Universidad del Museo Social in Argentina.
Jonathan Goldstein brings decades of experience as an entrepreneur and business owner to his law practice. Mr. Goldstein’s practice focuses on firearms law and election law as well as entrepreneurial business advising.
Mr. Goldstein is an NRA certified pistol instructor and a volunteer attorney for several firearms organizations including the National Rifle Association. He actively lectures on firearms law and firearms safety across Pennsylvania and is a frequent presenter for continuing legal education providers such as CAPE, NACLE and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.
In May 2011, Mr. Goldstein was awarded the Defender of Justice Award by the National Rifle Association’s Institute of Legislative Action for his “tireless service to the Constitution and with particular emphasis on the protection and furtherance of the Second Amendment.”
Mr. Goldstein served for several years as a non-director member of the NRA board’s Legal Affairs Committee and was a member of the NRA’s 2016 Nominating Committee. In April 2025, he was elected to the NRA’s board and to the board’s Audit Committee. He currently chairs the NRA’s Finance Committee and serves as a member of the NRA’s Legal Affairs Committee as well as a trustee of the NRA’s Civil Rights Defense Fund.
A brief prepared by Mr. Goldstein on behalf of Black Guns Matter was cited favorably by Justice Alito in his Bruen concurrence.
Mr. Goldstein received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. He returned to the University of Pennsylvania for law school, earning his J.D. in 2005.
Mr. Goldstein is admitted to practice law in state and federal courts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as well as Washington, D.C., several Circuit courts and the United States Supreme Court, where his firm argued a case in the 2023–2024 term.
In September 2025, Mr. Goldstein began teaching a course on Second Amendment law as an adjunct at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. He regularly publishes scholarship on the 2nd Amendment:
https://hq.ssrn.com/
In addition to nearly a dozen scholarly articles on 2nd Amendment topics, he is the author of several books:
Essential Questions in Firearms Law: Why the Firearms Laws Are What They Are
https://www.amazon.com/
Pennsylvania Firearms Law: A Complete Overview
https://www.amazon.com/
Pennsylvania Hunting Law: A Complete Overview
https://www.amazon.com/dp/
In addition to practicing law, Mr. Goldstein is an active private equity investor purchasing and turning around small American manufacturing companies. Mr. Goldstein is also a licensed commercial pilot.
Francis Pileggi is the managing partner of the Wilmington office of Lewis Brisbois and is chair of the Directors & Officers Litigation Practice and a member of the Complex Business & Commercial Litigation Practice. His litigation practice emphasizes representation in high-stakes disputes of corporations, stockholders, members of boards of directors, members and managers of LLCs, and those with managerial or ownership interests in other forms of entities. He has extensive experience in matters involving fiduciary duties and corporate governance as well as summary proceedings under the Delaware General Corporation Law in the Delaware Court of Chancery. Francis has also been certified as a mediator.
He has been asked to testify as an expert witness on Delaware Corporate Law and Delaware LLC Law.
One of his law review articles on corporate law has been cited by both the Delaware Supreme Court and the Delaware Court of Chancery. The Delaware Superior Court also cited one of his articles. He has published over 1,000 articles in multiple publications on topics including corporate and commercial law as well as legal ethics and constitutional law. He also often speaks at seminars on those topics.
Francis created and maintains the Delaware Corporate and Commercial Litigation Blog at www.delawarelitigation.com, which was named one of LexisNexis’ Top 25 Business Law Blogs and was selected for inclusion in the ABA Journal’s Blog 100 in 2011 and 2012. In turn, he has been described as “a brand name in Delaware corporate litigation.”
He also has enjoyed success in litigating, in both federal and state appellate courts, groundbreaking Second Amendment cases and related constitutional issues on behalf of civil rights organizations. In 2015 and 2019, he was honored with The Chief Justice William Killen Award for Distinguished Second Amendment Appellate Advocacy.
Francis published a book entitled, American Legal Ethics: A Retrospective from 1997 to 2018 (Outskirts Press, 2018), available on Amazon.com.
Francis has represented townships in Delaware County and Chester County, Pennsylvania, as special counsel on litigation matters. He has also represented a school district in Delaware County and educational and nonprofit institutions in Pennsylvania and elsewhere on corporate governance, litigation, and related issues. He has represented governmental entities and private parties in connection with the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law, and he is the coeditor of a blog that provides commentary and insights on that law.
Thirteenth Annual Delaware Firearms Law Seminar
Delaware Lawyer Chapter
WIlmington, DE