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Reilly S. Steel

  • Associate Professor of Law
Education

Ph.D., Princeton University, expected 2025
M.A., Princeton University, 2023
J.D., Columbia Law School, 2017
B.A., Middlebury College, 2011

Areas of Specialty

Corporations
Securities Regulation
Financial Institutions
Contracts
Law and Politics
Empirical Legal Studies

Reilly Steel ’17 is an expert in the areas of business, law, and politics, and often employs empirical and social science research methods in his work. His scholarship examines the strategic interactions between economic, legal, and political actors in both private and public institutions, engaging with a range of legal fields including corporate law, financial regulation, and administrative law. He joined Columbia Law School as associate professor of law on July 1, 2025, having earlier served as an academic fellow. 

Previously, Steel was a Ph.D. candidate in political science at Princeton University and served as an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a law clerk to Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr. of the Delaware Supreme Court, and the inaugural Millstein Public Service Fellow at the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. His research has been published or is forthcoming in the Journal of Law, Economics, & OrganizationYale Law JournalColumbia Law ReviewIowa Law ReviewUniversity of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law; and Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law.

While a student at Columbia Law School, Steel was an articles editor of the Columbia Law Review and president of the Law School’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Publications

Professional Experience

  • Cravath, Swaine & Moore, associate, 2019–2021
  • Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr., Delaware Supreme Court, law clerk, 2018–2019
  • U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Millstein Public Service Fellow, 2017–2018
  • Cravath, Swaine & Moore, summer associate, 2016
  • Judge Stephen V. Wilson, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, judicial extern, summer 2015

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