Robert Sussman

Bob Sussman is the principal in Sussman and Associates, a consulting firm that offers advice and support on energy and environmental policy issues to clients in the non-profit and private sectors. 

Professor Sussman recently completed four and a half years of service in the Obama Administration, first as C0-Chair of the Transition Team for EPA and then as Senior Policy Counsel to the EPA Administrator. In this position, Professor Sussman functioned as the Administrator’s principal policy advisor, providing oversight and guidance on the full suite of policy issues across the Agency. He worked closely with all of EPA’s senior officials in Washington and the Regions. He also played a key role in EPA’s interface with OMB, CEQ and other White House offices and worked closely with other agencies, particularly the Department of Energy and Department of Interior.

Professor Sussman served in the Clinton Administration as the EPA Deputy Administrator during 1993-94. He was the Agency’s Chief Operating Officer and Regulatory Policy Officer, testified frequently before Congress and represented EPA at several international meetings. 

At the end of 2007, Professor Sussman retired as a partner at the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he headed the firm’s environmental practice in DC for ten years. He joined Latham in 1987 to start its environmental practice in DC after being a partner at Covington & Burling since 1974. Professor Sussman worked with a wide range of companies and trade associations on all aspects of energy and environmental policy, functioning as a policy advisor, advocate and litigator. 

For several years, Professor Sussman was named one of the leading environmental lawyers in Washington, DC by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers and The International Who’s Who of Environmental Lawyers.

Professor Sussman was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress in 2008, writing and speaking about climate change and energy. 

Professor Sussman is a magna cum laude 1969 graduate of Yale College and a 1973 graduate of Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Bob clerked for Judge Walter K. Stapleton of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

• B.A., LL.B., Yale