Board of Advisors
Daniel M. Baum received his B.A. from Columbia University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. He is currently practicing law with the law firm of Daniel Marc Baum P.C. in areas including commercial litigation, employment law, mediation, environmental law, and general business advisory services.
Mark Chertok is a partner in Sive, Paget & Riesel, P.C., of New York City, which specializes in environmental law and litigation. His experience spans a broad spectrum of substantive areas, including hazardous substances, wetlands and water quality, coastal zone management, land use and zoning, solid waste, air quality and historic preservation. His practice focuses on environmental impact reviews under the State Environmental Quality Review Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, waterfront permitting and Brownfield redevelopment. His clients have included interstate, state, regional and local governmental bodies, private industrial, commercial and financial entities, and national and regional environmental and civic organizations. Mr. Chertok has taught environmental litigation at Cardozo Law School and the Pace University School of Law, and developmental law at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Historic Preservation. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association, Environmental Law Section, and co-chair of its Committee on Environmental Impact Assessment. Mr. Chertok is a contributing author in several books and has numerous publications. He has served on the faculty of numerous institutions, including the American Law Institute-American Bar Association, the National Judicial College and the Environmental Law Institute. He earned his J.D. in 1970 from Harvard Law School and his B.A. in 1967 from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Michael B. Gerrard is Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice and Director of the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School. He teaches courses on environmental law, climate change law and energy law. He practiced environmental law full-time between 1979 and 2008, most recently as managing partner of the New York office of Arnold & Porter LLP; he is now Senior Counsel to that firm. His practice has concentrated on litigation, project development, and transactions. He was the 2004-2005 Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. He is the author or editor of eight books, two of which were named Best Law Book of the Year by the Association of American Publishers. He has written an environmental law column for the New York Law Journal since 1986, and edited a monthly newsletter, Environmental Law in New York, since 1989.
Eric A. Goldstein is a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. ("NRDC"), a national, non-profit environmental organization, and co-director of its Urban Program. At NRDC he has worked for more than two decades exclusively on urban environmental issues, including air pollution, solid waste, drinking water and environmental justice. He gained nationwide attention in the early 1980's for spearheading the public campaign to reduce levels of toxic lead in gasoline. Over the past decade, he has been intimately involved with public policy efforts to protect the New York drinking water supply via pollution prevention and watershed protection. Mr. Goldstein is co-author of award winning New York Environment Book and has written numerous studies and articles on urban environmental issues. In addition to his work at NRDC, he co-teaches the Environmental Law Clinic at New York University School of Law.
J. Cullen Howe is an environmental law specialist in Arnold & Porter LLP's environmental practice group. He is the managing editor of Environmental Law in New York, a monthly newsletter, and edits the Environmental Law Practice Guide, Brownfields Law and Practice, and Environmental Impact Review in New York. He recently co-authored chapters on climate change and green buildings for the Environmental Law Practice Guide. Prior to joining Arnold & Porter, Mr. Howe practiced for six years at two litigation boutiques in Manhattan, where he focused on commercial litigation and employment law. Mr. Howe is a graduate of Vermont Law School, where he was the managing editor of the Vermont Law Review, and a graduate of DePauw University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Michele is an attorney with a diverse background in environmental and land use law. Most recently, Michele practiced in the environmental and climate change groups at the international law firm of Paul Hastings, Janofsky & Walker in New York. Prior to that, she advised local governments throughout the country as an attorney and planner with the national land use consulting firm, Clarion Associates, located in Denver, Colorado. Michele represented developers in land use matters as an associate at Gibbons, P.C. in Newark, New Jersey, and spent a year working as a fellow at the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University. Currently, Michele is spending precious time at home with her one year old son. Michele obtained her B.A. from Boston College in 1995, her J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 2000, and her M.C.R.P. in 2001 from Rutgers’ Bloustein School. Michele is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
Eileen is a Visiting Professor of Law at the Syracuse University College of Law, where she teaches classes on Regulatory Law & Policy and Environmental Law, and is also Counsel in the New York City office of Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. Immediately prior to rejoining the College of Law community, she was a partner in the Real Property Environmental Group of the New York City office of Gibbons P.C., where her practice involved counseling industry and municipalities on the regulatory and permitting aspects of real estate transactions and development. Prior to joining Gibbons, Eileen was General Counsel to the Interstate Environmental Commission, a tri-state water quality enforcement authority, where she managed and conducted litigation to control and abate water pollution. Eileen has held senior positions in the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and began her career with the Queens County District Attorney’s Office.
In 2009, Eileen served on the New York State Bar Association’s Task Force on Climate Change, and last year, was one of eleven people appointed by Governor David Paterson to the Sustainable and Green Procurement Advisory Council. She has chaired numerous legal education programs and is widely published. In July of 2009 she was the primary author of a New York Law Journal article entitled “Passive Buildings,” about this recent entrant into the green building movement. She is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), and also the New York State Bar Association (and is the first woman of color to achieve such a distinction in that Association’s 133-year history). Eileen is a frequent speaker and lecturer.
Walter Mugdan served as Chair of the Environmental Law Section of the State Bar Association from 2006-2007. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of that Section since 1985, and was a Section officer from 2002 until 2007. Previously he served as Chair of the Section's Hazardous Waste and Hazardous Site Remediation Committees, and he has served three times as Chair of the Section's Nominating Committee. Mr. Mugdan has been employed since 1975 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2. Since 2008 he has served as Director of the Emergency and Remedial Response Division for Region 2 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, responsible for the Superfund program. From 2002 - 2008 he served as Director of Environmental Planning & Protection, responsible for the region's air, water, hazardous waste, pollution prevention and environmental assessment programs. Previously, Mr. Mugdan served as Regional Counsel since 1995. He joined EPA Region 2 in 1975 as a staff attorney, and subsequently served in various supervisory positions in the Office of Regional Counsel. Mr. Mugdan is a frequent lecturer and has authored numerous publications on environmental law and regulation. He was an Adjunct Professor at Pace University Law School teaching Superfund law (1991 - 1997); and has served as Director of U.S. EPA's annual Trial Advocacy Institute since 1992. He has lectured at many law schools, including Columbia, NYU, New York Law School, St. John’s, Hofstra, Rutgers, SUNY-Buffalo and the University of Michigan. He earned his J.D. (1975) and his B.A. (1972) from the University of Michigan. Since 2002 Mr. Mugdan has served as President of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee, a local conservation group in northeastern Queens; and as President of the Westmoreland Association, a local homeowners association, also in northeastern Queens.
Following his heading or co-heading the environmental practice at two large New York City firms, in the 1990’s, Mr. Periconi founded the Manhattan-based Periconi, LLC in 2003, which practices environmental law exclusively. From 1987 through 1989, Mr. Periconi served as Chief of the Solid and Hazardous Waste Enforcement Bureau of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. During his tenure there, he oversaw the nation's largest and most complex state Superfund program. From 1982 to 1987, Mr. Periconi was an Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Department of Law, where he sued the United States Environmental Protection Agency in "acid rain" and Clean Air Act NESHAPs cases, among other work. He also served as an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney's Office from 1977 to 1980. Mr. Periconi was chair of the Environmental Law Section of the New York State Bar Association in 2003-2004, and was thereafter the Chairman of the Board of INFORM, Inc., a New York-based national environmental organization. A New York Metro Area Superlawyer in 2010, and long-time Martindale-Hubbell AV rated environmental attorney, he has just begun a three-year term as President of the New York Chapter of the International Network of Boutique Law Firms. Mr. Periconi is also President of the Board of Trustees of the Pearl Theatre Company and a member of the Council of the Grolier Club.
Gail S. Port is the head of Proskauer Rose LLP’s interdepartmental Environmental Practice Group, and has been practicing environmental law, land use law and litigation for over 30 years. Prior to joining Proskauer, from 1984-1989, Gail was the Deputy General Counsel (and Acting General Counsel) and the chief environmental advisor to the New York State Urban Development Corporation. A 1976 magna cum laude graduate of New York Law School, Gail has lectured and written widely on a broad spectrum of environmental topics. As an adjunct faculty member at Pace University School of Law, she taught a course entitled “Commercial Environmental Law. Gail is past Chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section, the former Chair of the Environmental Law Committee of the City Bar Association and a member of the Boards of Directors of Environmental Advocates and the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund. Since 1992, following her appointment by Governor Cuomo, and subsequent reappointment by Governor Pataki, Gail has served as one of only five citizen members on the New York State Environmental Board.
Jay is a Regional Criminal Enforcement Counsel with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2. Mr. Simpson represents EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and assists in the development and prosecution of environmental crimes, in order to promote deterrence and help ensure compliance with federal environmental laws. Previously, Mr. Simpson was a Senior Attorney with Riverkeeper, a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to protecting the Hudson River and the New York City Watershed. At Riverkeeper he focused on safeguarding the New York City drinking water supply via watershed protection and tracking down polluters. He has also worked in New York City law firms practicing commercial litigation and corporate law. Mr. Simpson has a B.A from the University of Michigan, a J.D. from Vermont Law School, and an LL.M. in Environmental Law from Pace Law School.
E. Gail Suchman has over 25 years of experience in all facets of environmental and energy law and policy. She also teaches at Columbia Law School, Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, and is senior legal advisor to the Urban Design Lab for Sustainable Development at Columbia's Earth Institute. Prior to joining Stroock in 2007, Ms. Suchman was the managing attorney for the New York City office of Gilberti Stinziano Heintz & Smith, P.C. Her practice includes permitting and compliance, transactional due diligence, litigation, and legislative matters. She works closely with real estate and industrial developers on traditional environmental and land use matters, as well as community outreach and green design, and advises on socially responsible investment.
Ms. Suchman began her legal career as an enforcement attorney at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region V, in Chicago. She spent over ten years as an assistant attorney general in the Environmental Protection Bureau at the New York State Attorney General's office and served for three years as regional director for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. As senior environmental counsel for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Ms. Suchman represented communities in litigation and transactional matters involving solid waste management, energy, brownfields and environmental justice.
Philip Weinberg (J.D., Columbia Law School) taught Constitutional Law and Environmental Law at St. John’s University School of Law from 1978 to 2009. Prior to his joining the St. John’s faculty he was Assistant Attorney General in Charge of the Environmental Protection Bureau in the New York State Attorney General’s Office. He argued numerous appeals at the Attorney General’s Office, including three at the United States Supreme Court. Professor Weinberg wrote the Practice Commentary to McKinney’s New York Environmental Conservation Law for over two decades, until 2009, and is author of an environmental law casebook, as well as numerous articles on environmental law and constitutional law. He is a co-author of Understanding Environmental Law (LexisNexis, 2007) and of Environmental Impact Review in New York, (LexisNexis, 1990 and annual updates). He is editor of Environmental Law and Regulation in New York (West/Thomson 2009). He has chaired the New York State Bar Association's Environmental Law Section as well as several New York City Bar Association committees in the environmental law area.