White House Taps University of Arizona Law Professor Justin Pidot for Council on Environmental Quality

University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law Professor Justin Pidot has been appointed as general counsel to the White House Council on Environmental Quality.  

The Council on Environmental Quality coordinates federal efforts to improve, preserve, and protect America’s public health and environment; advises the president; and develops policies on environmental justice, federal sustainability, public lands, oceans, and wildlife conservation, among other areas. 

“I am tremendously honored to be joining the team the Biden-Harris administration has assembled to tackle the immense challenges we face,” said Pidot. “Climate change and environmental justice are among the top priorities of this administration, and I will devote my best efforts to advancing these and other crucial issues.” 

Pidot is co-director of the Environmental Law, Science and Policy Program at University of Arizona Law, where his scholarship and teaching focus on environmental, natural resources, public lands and administrative law. He will be on leave during his service at the Council on Environmental Quality. 

During the Obama-Biden Administration, Pidot was deputy solicitor for land resources at the U.S. Department of the Interior. He has also served as an appellate litigator at the Environment & Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and clerked for Judge Judith W. Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Pidot holds a BA from Wesleyan University and a JD from Stanford University. 

“Justin Pidot exemplifies a modern scholar and teacher whose work and interests navigate the space between theory and practice,” said Marc Miller, University of Arizona Law dean. “Justin will be missed by all of his colleagues and students here at Arizona Law, but we were heartened to hear that he would be joining the new administration, and putting his substantial legal, intellectual and personal skills to work in pursuit of wise environmental policy and environmental justice.”