About Richard Lazarus

Richard Lazarus


Richard Lazarus is the Charles Stebbins Fairchild Professor of Law at Harvard University, where he teaches Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law, Supreme Court Advocacy, and Torts.  He also recently served as the Executive Director of the President’s Commission responsible for investigating the root causes of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1979 and he has a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in economics from the University of Illinois, where he focused on environmental issues.

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Books and Reports

Book cover of The Making of Environmental Law
Book cover of Deep Water
Book cover of The Rule of Five
Book cover of The Making of Environmental Law
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Law Review Articles

The Rise of Constitutional Alarmists on the Supreme Court and Its Portent for the Future of Environmental Law, 85 Ohio St. L. J. (forthcoming 2024)

Sackett v. EPA: The Judicial Destruction of the Clean Water Act, U. Chi. L. Rev. Online 1 (August 11, 2023)

Stewart’s Paradoxes of Liberty, Integrity, and Fraternity: Sobering Lessons from COVID-19 for Environmental Law, 29 N.Y.U. Envtl. L.J. 543 (2021)

Justice Gorsuch and the Future of Environmental Law, 43 Stan. Envtl. L. J. 1 (2024)

The Scalia Court: Environmental Law’s Wrecking Crew Within the Supreme Court, 47 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 407 (2023)

Advocacy History in the Supreme Court, 2020 Sup. Ct. Rev. 423.

Reflections on Farber’s Inequality and Regulation, 3 Am. J. L. & Equality 414 (2023)

Justice Breyer’s Friendly Legacy for Environmental Law, 95 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1395 (2023)

The Super Wicked Problem of Donald Trump, 74 Vand. L. Rev. 1811 (2020)

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Supreme Court Advocacy

Counsel of Record for Respondent St. Croix County, Joseph P. Murr, et al., v. State of Wisconsin and St. Croix County, 137 S. Ct 1993 (2017)

Counsel of Record for Environmental Respondent Riverkeeper, Entergy Corp. v. Riverkeeper, 556 U.S. 208 (2009)

Co-Counsel, Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 568 U.S. 78 (2013)

Co-Counsel for Petitioners, Massachusetts v. U.S. Envt’l Prot. Agency, 549 U.S. 497 (2007) (jurisdictional stage only)

Co-Counsel for Respondents, Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, 561 U.S. 139 (2010)

Counsel of Record for Respondents American River and Friends of the Presumpscot River, S.D. Warren v. Maine Department of Environmental Protection, 547 U.S. 370 (2006)

More Advocacy

Recent Presentations

  • Morning Prayers, Harvard Memorial Church (September 6, 2024)
  • The Challenge of U.S. Climate Law in the Next Five Years, Harvard Climate Action Week, Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, Harvard University (June 10, 2024)
  • Do you trust our court system?, The Middle with Jeremy Hobson (May 3, 2024)
  • The Portent of the Current Supreme Court for Environmental Law’s Future, Harvard Law School (April 16, 2024)
  • The Making of Environmental Law, Middlebury College (April 10, 2024)
  • The Making of Environmental Law: The Challenges of Climate Change and Environmental Justice, Weston Roundtable Keynote Presentation, University of Wisconsin (April 4, 2024)
  • How Chemistry is Relevant to Environmental Law, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois (March 29, 2024)
  • The Making of Environmental Law in the United States and the Challenge of Climate Change, Alumni Lecture Series, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois (March 28, 2024)
  • The Making of Environmental Law in the U.S., Keynote Presentation, Twenty-Ninth Annual Tulane Environmental Law & Policy Summit (February 24, 2024)
  • Why the Supreme Court Has Mattered for Environmental Law and the Portent of the Current Court for Environmental Law’s Future, Keynote Presentation, Ohio State Law Journal Symposium 2024 (February 23, 2024)
  • The Endangered Species Act at 50: Potent Statute, Risky Future with Richard Lazarus and Andy Mergen, CleanLaw Podcast, Harvard Law School (January 17, 2024)

In The News

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