Professor of Law and Executive Director, Law and Economics Center, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Donald Kochan is Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Law & Economics Center (LEC). Professor Kochan is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and serves as an Adviser to ALI's Restatement of the Law Fourth, Property project. Professor Kochan is a Nonresident Scholar at the Center for the Constitution at Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a Visiting Scholar in residence during Fall 2018. Before joining the Antonin Scalia Law School faculty, he was the Parker S. Kennedy Professor in Law at Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law from 2004 to 2020. From 2003 to 2004, Professor Kochan was an Olin Fellow at the University of Virginia School of Law. During 2002-2003, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at George Mason’s Scalia Law School.
Professor Kochan’s scholarship focuses on areas of property law, constitutional law, administrative law, local government law, natural resources and environmental law, and law & economics. He has published several books and more than 50 scholarly articles and essays in well-regarded law journals. His work has been cited in more than a dozen state and federal court opinions, in more than 75 briefs filed in state and federal courts including more than 25 filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, in dozens of books and treatises, and in more than 800 scholarly articles.
Professor Kochan received his JD from Cornell Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Scholar in Law and Economics and managing editor of the Cornell International Law Journal. During law school, he also served as editor and executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy symposium issues in 1997 and 1998. He received his BA from Western Michigan University, magna cum laude, with majors in both political science and philosophy, where he studied as the John W. Gill Medallion Scholar and was honored as the Presidential Scholar (awarded to the top graduate in the political science department).
After graduating from law school, Professor Kochan was a law clerk to The Honorable Richard F. Suhrheinrich of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Following his clerkship, Professor Kochan was an associate with the firm of Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in natural resources & environmental law as well as tort, products, and consumer civil litigation & legislative affairs.
Former Deputy Attorney General for Virginia
Kennerly Davis has over forty years of experience in corporate management, public service, and the private practice of law. He has held senior executive positions in a Fortune 500 electric and gas company. He has served as Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and as a legislative aide to a U.S. Senator and a U.S. Congressman. He practiced law for 25 years with Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP.
Davis is active in the Federalist Society as a member of the Regulatory Process Working Group of the Regulatory Transparency Project, and as a member of the Execuitve Committee of the Administrative Law and Regulation Practice Group. He is active in the national Alumni Free Speech Alliance, and involved in AFSA-chapter initiatives, including litigation, to publicize and correct the serious legal problems created by university Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and the anonymous bias reporting systems used to enforce those DEI programs.
Davis writes and speaks on a wide variety of topics, including those related to the Founding of America, the natural rights foundation of our Republic, the constitutional rule of law, equal protection and free speech, DEI programs and bias reporting systems, capitalism, regulation and regulatory reform, and economic development. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Examiner, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Federalist Society Review, the FedSoc Blog, Real Clear Energy, Townhall, the Daily Caller, reports of the Center for Strategic & International Studies, and other publications. He appears frequently on radio, podcasts, and television.
Davis graduated with honors from Cornell University with an A.B. degree in Government. He earned an M.A. degree from Pembroke College, Oxford, in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He was awarded a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, and an M.B.A. degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Davis lives in Richmond, Virginia. He can be contacted by email: j.kendavis@verizon.net, and by phone: (804) 624-8525.
Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence, Independence Institute
Professor Robert G. Natelson is a constitutional scholar and author.
Rob’s constitutional scholarship has been cited repeatedly by justices and parties at the U.S. Supreme Court—as well as by federal appeals courts, and at least 18 state supreme courts.
Rob’s research into the Constitution’s original meaning has carried him to libraries throughout the United States and in Britain, including four months at Oxford University. His books and articles span many different parts of the Constitution, including groundbreaking studies of the Necessary and Proper Clause, the Indian Commerce Clause, federalism, Founding-Era interpretation, regulation of elections, and the amendment process of Article V. He created the first-ever online bibliography for 18th century materials used in constitutional research. He is a contributing author to the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (on Magna Carta). He contributed eight essays to the third edition of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution: five on the amendment procedure and one each on the Guarantee Clause, the Postal Clause, and the Recess Appointments Clause.
U.S. Supreme Court justices have relied explicitly on Rob’s research in 41 citations in 13 separate cases.
Partner, Mayer Brown LLP
An experienced appellate lawyer, Tim Bishop has argued five cases and briefed more than 60 before the US Supreme Court and has successfully handled dozens of appeals in federal and state appellate courts. He also represents clients in dispositive dismissal, summary judgment, and class certification motions in federal and state trial courts. Tim is co-author of the leading treatise, Supreme Court Practice(9th ed., 2007), a contributor to Federal Appellate Practice (2008), and a prolific author and speaker in the areas of appellate practice, environmental law, and securities law.
Tim has substantial experience in environmental and land use litigation (especially under the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, federal and state Takings Clauses, and nuisance law), securities and antitrust litigation, class certification, federal and state tax controversies, labor and employment law, and constitutional appeals and litigation. In the securities area, he has submitted successful party or amicus briefs in most of the Supreme Court’s recent cases, including Dabit, Dura, Tellabs, Billing, Stoneridge, andAmchem, as well as in leading lower-court cases such as In re IPO Securities Litigation and Newton. He has broad experience in defeating class certification in complex litigation.
In the environmental law area Tim has been ranked as a top practitioner by Chambers, Best Lawyers in America, Euromoney's Best of the Best USA, and other publications, which have called him "the go-to guy if you have a serious environmental issue on appeal - he is excellent at spotting issues and is a great appellate advocate" (Chambers 2009). Tim is ranked Band 1 in Chambers USA 2012 in Environmental Law ("sources unanimously consider Bishop to be an exceptionally strong appellate lawyer") and Legal 500 2012 comments, "Bishop is 'superb and provides exemplary service.'" Tim successfully argued Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County in the Supreme Court, in which the Court struck down the Corps of Engineer’s "migratory bird rule." One leading environmental law professor and practitioner has written that Tim is "industry’s leading Supreme Court lawyer in environmental cases."
Since 1995, Tim has been a partner in Mayer Brown LLP’s 60-strong Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Practice (which "stands head and shoulders above its competitors," according to Chambers USA 2008). Previously, he served as Law Clerk to US Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and to Judge James L. Oakes, US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and was Staff Counsel and Skadden Fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union. Recently, Tim was named one of Benchmark’s 2013 Appellate Illinois Litigation Stars.Chambers USA (2007) notes Tim’s “high visibility” and “incredible reputation for appellate law,” and he has been described in theLawdragon 500 as "a high court superstar" and a "top advocate" (2006).
Professor of Law, University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco
Professor Dave Owen teaches courses in environmental, natural resources, water, land use, and administrative law. His interest in the subject area began when he was about six years old and his parents denied him access to all television except for PBS wildlife specials. He then became inordinately interested in poachers. He went on to study geology in college, primarily because the labs were outside, and became an environmental consultant. During one hot summer day of hazardous waste site sampling, while sweating miserably in a Tyvek suit and inhaling aniline fumes, he decided graduate school sounded like a nice idea. So he became an environmental lawyer. He went to Berkeley Law, where he served as editor-in-chief of Ecology Law Quarterly and was selected for the Order of the Coif.
Professor Owen went on to clerk at federal district court and then work for a small law firm in San Francisco, where his practice focused primarily on water law. He worked on Colorado River allocation, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta litigation, and federal state disputes over the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, among other matters. In 2007, he began teaching at the University of Maine School of Law. He joined the Hastings faculty in 2015.
His research focuses primarily on water resource management, and some recent projects have addressed taxation of water consumption, the roles of federal regional offices, stream protection under the Clean Water Act, policies to expedite dam removals and hydropower upgrades, and the intersection of groundwater use regulation and the takings clause. Four of his articles have been recognized by his peers as among the top environmental law articles of their respective years; another article has won the Morrison Prize as the top sustainability law article of its year, and he has presented three articles at the Harvard Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum. He also contributes frequently to the Environmental Law Prof Blog.
Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Damien Schiff is a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. He leads its environmental practice group, a unique initiative that draws broadly from PLF’s expertise and success in property rights and separation of powers litigation. Over the years, Damien has represented hundreds of landowners and property rights advocates to defend their liberties against heavy-handed and unwarranted environmental and land-use regulation. His litigation experience includes Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a groundbreaking decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of landowners to challenge Clean Water Act compliance orders issued by EPA, and Contoski v. Norton, PLF’s successful effort to force the federal government to make good on its promise to delist the bald eagle from the Endangered Species Act.
Besides litigation, Damien has written academic articles on a variety of subjects, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, greenhouse gas torts, the duty to rescue, and international water law. He has appeared on a variety of television and radio programs and has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harper’s Magazine, and The Economist, among other publications.
He obtained his law degree magna cum laude from the University of San Diego School of Law, and his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University. While at USD, he was a research assistant for Professor Bernard Siegan, a leading constitutional theorist and advocate for property rights and economic liberty. Immediately prior to joining PLF, Damien clerked for Judge (and former PLF attorney) Victor Wolski of the United States Court of Federal Claims. Damien credits the mentoring and examples of Professor Siegan and Judge Wolski for his decision to pursue a career in liberty-based public interest litigation.
Damien lives in Sacramento with his wife, two young sons, four chickens, and a cat named Princess. In his off hours he enjoys stamp collecting, Gregorian chant, and martinis—preferably at the same time.
Andrew Varcoe was formerly a partner at Boyden Gray & Associates in Washington, D.C. From 2014 to 2017, Mr. Varcoe was Deputy General Counsel at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the trade association for the biotechnology industry. He previously served as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. While at USDA, he briefed, argued, and mediated cases in the federal courts of appeals and helped manage USDA’s and its agencies’ nationwide appellate litigation docket, working closely with trial and appellate lawyers at the U.S. Department of Justice. Before joining USDA, Mr. Varcoe was an associate and then counsel at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP (previously Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering). Mr. Varcoe served as a law clerk to Justice Francis X. Spina of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (from 1999 to 2000), and to Judge Edith H. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (from 2001 to 2002).
Mr. Varcoe received his J.D. cum laude in 1999 from Harvard Law School, where he was a research assistant to Professor Martha Minow and an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Mr. Varcoe graduated with honors in 1995 from the University of Chicago, where he was Student Ombudsperson (a mediator, reporting to the President of the University, who investigated and resolved student grievances) and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
In 2018 and 2019, Mr. Varcoe served as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Practice Group.
Distinguished Professor of Law, Widener University Delaware Law School
James R. May is Distinguished Professor of Law, and Chief Sustainability Officer, Widener University (USA). He also serves as co-Director of the Environmental Rights Institute and co-Director of the Dignity Rights Project at Widener University Delaware Law School. May is also an Adjunct Professor of Graduate Engineering, and founded and co-chairs a program on marine policy. May is the editor of Principles of Constitutional Environmental Law (American Bar Association), and co-editor of Shale Gas and the Future of Energy (Edward Elgar), Global Environmental Constitutionalism (Cambridge), Environmental Constitutionalism in Context (Edward Elgar), New Frontiers in Environmental Constitutionalism (United National Environment Programme, forthcoming), Implementing Environmental Constitutionalism(Cambridge, forthcoming), Standards of Environmental Constitutionalism (Cambridge, forthcoming), and Human Rights and the Environment: Indivisibility, Dignity and Legality (Edward Elgar, forthcoming). May is also author or co-author of more than 100 articles and book chapters, and numerous amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. federal courts of appeal on issues including environmental law, constitutional law, comparative constitutional, international environmental law, environmental rights, and human dignity.
May founded two non-profit environmental organizations (the Mid-Atlantic and the Eastern Environmental Law Centers), and has litigated more than 200 public interest environmental claims, including cases throughout the Mid-Atlantic to restore water and air quality, conserve rare species and habitats, and protect biodiversity.
May is a Member of Faculty to the National Judicial College, and a Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, for whom he has served as a delegate to Haiti and China. May has also served as a consultant to the U.S. Embassy on legal education in the Philippines, and to the Hungarian Embassy and the Moroccan Human Rights Council on constitutional reform. May is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, serves on numerous boards, and has won numerous awards, including from Pace University, Sierra Club, and the American Canoe Association. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas (Bowman Scholar), J.D. from the University of Kansas (Appellate Advocacy Scholar and national moot court champion), and LL.M. in Environmental Law from Pace University, where he was the Feldshuh Fellow and graduated first in class.
May is a member of the bar in the State of Pennsylvania, several federal courts of appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Professor of Law and Executive Director, Law and Economics Center, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Donald Kochan is Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Law & Economics Center (LEC). Professor Kochan is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and serves as an Adviser to ALI's Restatement of the Law Fourth, Property project. Professor Kochan is a Nonresident Scholar at the Center for the Constitution at Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a Visiting Scholar in residence during Fall 2018. Before joining the Antonin Scalia Law School faculty, he was the Parker S. Kennedy Professor in Law at Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law from 2004 to 2020. From 2003 to 2004, Professor Kochan was an Olin Fellow at the University of Virginia School of Law. During 2002-2003, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at George Mason’s Scalia Law School.
Professor Kochan’s scholarship focuses on areas of property law, constitutional law, administrative law, local government law, natural resources and environmental law, and law & economics. He has published several books and more than 50 scholarly articles and essays in well-regarded law journals. His work has been cited in more than a dozen state and federal court opinions, in more than 75 briefs filed in state and federal courts including more than 25 filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, in dozens of books and treatises, and in more than 800 scholarly articles.
Professor Kochan received his JD from Cornell Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Scholar in Law and Economics and managing editor of the Cornell International Law Journal. During law school, he also served as editor and executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy symposium issues in 1997 and 1998. He received his BA from Western Michigan University, magna cum laude, with majors in both political science and philosophy, where he studied as the John W. Gill Medallion Scholar and was honored as the Presidential Scholar (awarded to the top graduate in the political science department).
After graduating from law school, Professor Kochan was a law clerk to The Honorable Richard F. Suhrheinrich of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Following his clerkship, Professor Kochan was an associate with the firm of Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in natural resources & environmental law as well as tort, products, and consumer civil litigation & legislative affairs.
Partner, Mayer Brown LLP
An experienced appellate lawyer, Tim Bishop has argued five cases and briefed more than 60 before the US Supreme Court and has successfully handled dozens of appeals in federal and state appellate courts. He also represents clients in dispositive dismissal, summary judgment, and class certification motions in federal and state trial courts. Tim is co-author of the leading treatise, Supreme Court Practice(9th ed., 2007), a contributor to Federal Appellate Practice (2008), and a prolific author and speaker in the areas of appellate practice, environmental law, and securities law.
Tim has substantial experience in environmental and land use litigation (especially under the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, federal and state Takings Clauses, and nuisance law), securities and antitrust litigation, class certification, federal and state tax controversies, labor and employment law, and constitutional appeals and litigation. In the securities area, he has submitted successful party or amicus briefs in most of the Supreme Court’s recent cases, including Dabit, Dura, Tellabs, Billing, Stoneridge, andAmchem, as well as in leading lower-court cases such as In re IPO Securities Litigation and Newton. He has broad experience in defeating class certification in complex litigation.
In the environmental law area Tim has been ranked as a top practitioner by Chambers, Best Lawyers in America, Euromoney's Best of the Best USA, and other publications, which have called him "the go-to guy if you have a serious environmental issue on appeal - he is excellent at spotting issues and is a great appellate advocate" (Chambers 2009). Tim is ranked Band 1 in Chambers USA 2012 in Environmental Law ("sources unanimously consider Bishop to be an exceptionally strong appellate lawyer") and Legal 500 2012 comments, "Bishop is 'superb and provides exemplary service.'" Tim successfully argued Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County in the Supreme Court, in which the Court struck down the Corps of Engineer’s "migratory bird rule." One leading environmental law professor and practitioner has written that Tim is "industry’s leading Supreme Court lawyer in environmental cases."
Since 1995, Tim has been a partner in Mayer Brown LLP’s 60-strong Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Practice (which "stands head and shoulders above its competitors," according to Chambers USA 2008). Previously, he served as Law Clerk to US Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and to Judge James L. Oakes, US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and was Staff Counsel and Skadden Fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union. Recently, Tim was named one of Benchmark’s 2013 Appellate Illinois Litigation Stars.Chambers USA (2007) notes Tim’s “high visibility” and “incredible reputation for appellate law,” and he has been described in theLawdragon 500 as "a high court superstar" and a "top advocate" (2006).
Professor of Law, University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco
Professor Dave Owen teaches courses in environmental, natural resources, water, land use, and administrative law. His interest in the subject area began when he was about six years old and his parents denied him access to all television except for PBS wildlife specials. He then became inordinately interested in poachers. He went on to study geology in college, primarily because the labs were outside, and became an environmental consultant. During one hot summer day of hazardous waste site sampling, while sweating miserably in a Tyvek suit and inhaling aniline fumes, he decided graduate school sounded like a nice idea. So he became an environmental lawyer. He went to Berkeley Law, where he served as editor-in-chief of Ecology Law Quarterly and was selected for the Order of the Coif.
Professor Owen went on to clerk at federal district court and then work for a small law firm in San Francisco, where his practice focused primarily on water law. He worked on Colorado River allocation, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta litigation, and federal state disputes over the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, among other matters. In 2007, he began teaching at the University of Maine School of Law. He joined the Hastings faculty in 2015.
His research focuses primarily on water resource management, and some recent projects have addressed taxation of water consumption, the roles of federal regional offices, stream protection under the Clean Water Act, policies to expedite dam removals and hydropower upgrades, and the intersection of groundwater use regulation and the takings clause. Four of his articles have been recognized by his peers as among the top environmental law articles of their respective years; another article has won the Morrison Prize as the top sustainability law article of its year, and he has presented three articles at the Harvard Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum. He also contributes frequently to the Environmental Law Prof Blog.
Distinguished Professor of Law, Widener University Delaware Law School
James R. May is Distinguished Professor of Law, and Chief Sustainability Officer, Widener University (USA). He also serves as co-Director of the Environmental Rights Institute and co-Director of the Dignity Rights Project at Widener University Delaware Law School. May is also an Adjunct Professor of Graduate Engineering, and founded and co-chairs a program on marine policy. May is the editor of Principles of Constitutional Environmental Law (American Bar Association), and co-editor of Shale Gas and the Future of Energy (Edward Elgar), Global Environmental Constitutionalism (Cambridge), Environmental Constitutionalism in Context (Edward Elgar), New Frontiers in Environmental Constitutionalism (United National Environment Programme, forthcoming), Implementing Environmental Constitutionalism(Cambridge, forthcoming), Standards of Environmental Constitutionalism (Cambridge, forthcoming), and Human Rights and the Environment: Indivisibility, Dignity and Legality (Edward Elgar, forthcoming). May is also author or co-author of more than 100 articles and book chapters, and numerous amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. federal courts of appeal on issues including environmental law, constitutional law, comparative constitutional, international environmental law, environmental rights, and human dignity.
May founded two non-profit environmental organizations (the Mid-Atlantic and the Eastern Environmental Law Centers), and has litigated more than 200 public interest environmental claims, including cases throughout the Mid-Atlantic to restore water and air quality, conserve rare species and habitats, and protect biodiversity.
May is a Member of Faculty to the National Judicial College, and a Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, for whom he has served as a delegate to Haiti and China. May has also served as a consultant to the U.S. Embassy on legal education in the Philippines, and to the Hungarian Embassy and the Moroccan Human Rights Council on constitutional reform. May is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, serves on numerous boards, and has won numerous awards, including from Pace University, Sierra Club, and the American Canoe Association. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas (Bowman Scholar), J.D. from the University of Kansas (Appellate Advocacy Scholar and national moot court champion), and LL.M. in Environmental Law from Pace University, where he was the Feldshuh Fellow and graduated first in class.
May is a member of the bar in the State of Pennsylvania, several federal courts of appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Damien Schiff is a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. He leads its environmental practice group, a unique initiative that draws broadly from PLF’s expertise and success in property rights and separation of powers litigation. Over the years, Damien has represented hundreds of landowners and property rights advocates to defend their liberties against heavy-handed and unwarranted environmental and land-use regulation. His litigation experience includes Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a groundbreaking decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of landowners to challenge Clean Water Act compliance orders issued by EPA, and Contoski v. Norton, PLF’s successful effort to force the federal government to make good on its promise to delist the bald eagle from the Endangered Species Act.
Besides litigation, Damien has written academic articles on a variety of subjects, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, greenhouse gas torts, the duty to rescue, and international water law. He has appeared on a variety of television and radio programs and has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harper’s Magazine, and The Economist, among other publications.
He obtained his law degree magna cum laude from the University of San Diego School of Law, and his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University. While at USD, he was a research assistant for Professor Bernard Siegan, a leading constitutional theorist and advocate for property rights and economic liberty. Immediately prior to joining PLF, Damien clerked for Judge (and former PLF attorney) Victor Wolski of the United States Court of Federal Claims. Damien credits the mentoring and examples of Professor Siegan and Judge Wolski for his decision to pursue a career in liberty-based public interest litigation.
Damien lives in Sacramento with his wife, two young sons, four chickens, and a cat named Princess. In his off hours he enjoys stamp collecting, Gregorian chant, and martinis—preferably at the same time.
Andrew Varcoe was formerly a partner at Boyden Gray & Associates in Washington, D.C. From 2014 to 2017, Mr. Varcoe was Deputy General Counsel at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the trade association for the biotechnology industry. He previously served as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. While at USDA, he briefed, argued, and mediated cases in the federal courts of appeals and helped manage USDA’s and its agencies’ nationwide appellate litigation docket, working closely with trial and appellate lawyers at the U.S. Department of Justice. Before joining USDA, Mr. Varcoe was an associate and then counsel at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP (previously Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering). Mr. Varcoe served as a law clerk to Justice Francis X. Spina of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (from 1999 to 2000), and to Judge Edith H. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (from 2001 to 2002).
Mr. Varcoe received his J.D. cum laude in 1999 from Harvard Law School, where he was a research assistant to Professor Martha Minow and an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Mr. Varcoe graduated with honors in 1995 from the University of Chicago, where he was Student Ombudsperson (a mediator, reporting to the President of the University, who investigated and resolved student grievances) and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
In 2018 and 2019, Mr. Varcoe served as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Practice Group.
Municipality Lawsuit on Climate Change and Public Nuisance: Litigation Update
Donald J. Kochan
Should climate change responsibility be assessed in the courts or by the elected policymaking branches? ...
Municipality Lawsuit on Climate Change and Public Nuisance: Litigation Update
Environmental Law & Property Rights Practice Group Teleforum
TeleforumRegulating Under the Rule of Law
John Kennerly Davis
A review of: How to Regulate: A Guide for Policymakers, by Thomas A. Lambert (Cambridge...
Topics
A New Federalism: Can the Judicial Right and Left Unite as Unlikely Allies?
Recent events are creating strange legal bedfellows. Following President Trump’s election, the administration took swift...
Topics
Is Global Warming A Public Nuisance?
New York City and a number of California municipalities, including San Francisco and Oakland, have...
Why Nineteenth Century Bans on “Sectarian” Aid Are Facially Unconstitutional: New Evidence on Plain Meaning
Robert G. Natelson
Note from the Editor: This article presents original research on the nineteenth century meaning of...
Weyerhaeuser v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Timothy Bishop, Dave Owen
Does the Endangered Species Act authorize FWS to designate as “critical habitat” for an endangered...
Weyerhaeuser v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Environmental Law & Property Rights Teleforum
TeleforumCourthouse Steps: Juliana v. United States
Damien Michael Schiff, Andrew R. Varcoe, James R. May
On December 11, a Ninth Circuit panel heard argument in San Francisco in an unusual appellate proceeding...
Courthouse Steps: Juliana v. United States
Environmental Law & Property Rights Teleforum
Teleforum