Professor Lombardi, who joined the UW law school faculty in 2004, teaches constitutional law, comparative law, and development law. He has a special expertise in Islamic legal systems. Professor Lombardi's current research and writing have focused on comparative constitutionalism and particularly the way that constitutional systems deal with religious organizations and religious law. He also studies how the establishment of particular judicial and administrative institutions impact legal development.

Professor Lombardi has a Ph.D. in Religion from Columbia University where he focused on Islamic law. At Columbia Law School in 1998 he was a James Kent Scholar and editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. From 1999-2000, he clerked for Judge Samuel A. Alito, then on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He practiced law with the firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York City, where he specialized in representing sovereigns and in complex transnational commercial matters, often with sovereign participation.

Professor Lombardi has lived, worked or studied in Indonesia, Yemen, Egypt, and Afghanistan. He has taught courses on Islamic law at Columbia Law School and the NYU Department of Middle East Studies. He has spoken at the Council on Foreign Relations and numerous academic forums. He has been involved in projects advising on constitutional or legal reform in the Muslim world, including Iraq and Afghanistan. In recognition of his work, he was named a Carnegie Scholar for 2006-08, which will allow him to expand his research into Islamic law and constitutionalism in the modern world.