Justin Pidot

Justin Pidot holds the Ashby Lohse Chair in Water & Natural Resources at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, where he also co-directs the Environmental Law, Science and Policy Program. Professor Pidot’s teaching and scholarship focus on environmental and natural resources law, administrative law, and related fields. He is a co-author of Practicing Environmental Law, the first environmental law casebook to use a problems-based approach to the subject. His scholarship has appeared in leading general interest law reviews, including the Stanford Law Review, and specialty journals, including the Harvard Environmental Law Journal. 

During the Biden Administration, Professor Pidot served as General Counsel for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, a political appointment within the Executive Office of the President. He previously held a political appointment as the Deputy Solicitor for Land Resources at the Department of the Interior during the Obama Administration and served as an appellate lawyer in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, which he joined through the Attorney General’s Honors program.  Professor Pidot brings insights from his diverse government service to his research and teaching.

Before joining the faculty at the University of Arizona, Professor Pidot taught at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He also clerked for Judge Judith W. Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and completed a fellowship at the Georgetown Environmental Law & Policy Institute. 

Professor Pidot received his J.D. with distinction from the Stanford Law School, where he was editor in chief of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal. He received his B.A. with high honors from Wesleyan University. 

SSRN Published Papers

Representative Publications

• The Bureau of Land Management’s Infirm Compensatory Mitigation Policy, 30 Fordham Environmental Law Journal 2 (2018).
• The Common Law of Liable Party CERCLA Claims, 70 Stanford Law Review 191 (2018) (co-author, with Dale Ratliff).
• Tie Votes in the Supreme Court, 101 Minnesota Law Review 245 (2016).
• Governance and Uncertainty, 37 Cardozo Law Review 113 (2016).
• Environmental Settlements and Administrative Law, 38 Harvard Environmental Law Review 191 (2015) (co-author, with Courtney McVean).
• Complete List of Publications

Education

• J.D. Stanford Law School
  2006
  Graduated with Distinction
• B.A. Wesleyan University
  1999

Work Experience

• Professor of Law; Ashby Lohse Chair in Water & Natural Resources & Co-director of the Environmental Law Program
  James E. Rogers College of Law
  2019 - present
• General Counsel, White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)
  Executive Office of the President of the United States of America
  2021-2024
• Professor of Law, Associate Professor with Tenure, & Assistant Professor
  University of Denver Sturm College of Law
  2011 - 2019
• Deputy Solicitor for Land Resources
  U.S. Department of the Interior
  2016 - 2017
• Attorney, Appellate Section
  Environment & Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice
  2008 - 2011
• Law Clerk
  Judge Judith W. Rogers, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
  2007 - 2008
• Fellow
  Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute, Washington, D.C.
  2006 - 2007