Michael B. Gerrard
Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice
Assistant Info
Courses/Current Research• Environmental Law
• Climate Change Law and Policy
• Energy Regulation
Education• J.D., New York University School of Law, 1978 (Root-Tilden Scholar)
• B.A., political science, Columbia University, 1972
Media Contact:Public Affairs, (212) 854-2650.
Detailed Biography:Michael B. Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School, teaches courses on environmental law, climate change law, and energy regulation, and is director of the
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. He is also Chair of the Faculty of Columbia
University’s Earth Institute. From 1979 through 2008 he practiced environmental law in New York, most recently as partner in charge of the New York office of Arnold & Porter LLP. Upon joining the Columbia law faculty in 2009, he became Senior Counsel to the firm. His practice involved trying numerous cases and arguing many appeals in federal and state courts and administrative tribunals, handling the environmental aspects of numerous transactions and development projects, and providing regulatory compliance advice to a wide variety of clients in the private and public sectors.
A prolific writer in environmental law and climate change, Gerrard twice received the Association of American Publishers' Best Law Book award for works on environmental law and brownfields. He has written or edited eleven books, including
Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, the leading work in its field (second edition published in 2014, co-edited with Jody Freeman) and the twelve-volume
Environmental Law Practice Guide. Among his other books are
The Law of Clean Energy: Efficiency and Renewables (2011),
The Law of Adaptation to Climate Change:
U.S. and International Aspects (2012) and
Threatened Island Nations: Legal Implications of Rising
Seas and a Changing Climate (2013). Since 1986 he has been an environmental law columnist for the
New York Law Journal.
Gerrard was the 2004-2005 chair of the American Bar Association's 10, 000-member Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. He also chaired the Executive Committee of the New York City Bar Association, and the Environmental Law Section of the New York State Bar Association. He has served on the executive committees of the boards of the Environmental Law
Institute and the American College of Environmental Lawyers. Several independent rating services ranked Gerrard as the leading environmental lawyer in New York and one of the leading environmental lawyers in the world.
Gerrard has taught courses at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and New York University Law School, and was a visiting professor at Universite Paris 1 Panteon-Sorbonne, and a visiting distinguished scholar at Vermont Law School. He has also lectured on environmental law in Great Britain, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Italy, Malta, Israel, China, Taiwan, India, Japan, Chile, Brazil, The Marshall Islands, Canada and throughout the United States.
