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. He is an elected fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers.
Representative Publications
- Public Lands, Statutory Procedures, and the President, 40 Natural Resources & Environment 17 (Winter 2026) (with Garrett Rose)
- Quantifying the substantive influence of public comment on United States federal environmental decisions under NEPA, Environmental Research Letters (2025) (with Ashley Stave et al.)
- The Trump Administration’s Self-Inflicted Problem: Why Repealing CEQ Regulations Will Delay Infrastructure and Energy Development, 55 Environmental Law Reporters 10378 (2025) (with John Ruple & Jamie Pleume)
- Conservation Rights-of-Way on Public Lands, 55 U.C. Davis Law Review 89 (2021) (with Zeke Peterson)
- Compensatory Mitigation and Public Lands, 61 Boston College Law Review 1046 (2020)
- The Common Law of Liable Party CERCLA Claims, 70 Stanford Law Review 191 (2018) (with Dale Ratliff) (cited in Guam v. United States, _ F. Supp. 3d. _ (D.D.C. 2018))
- 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