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John
Leshy

Emeritus Harry D. Sunderland and Distinguished Professor of Real Property Law

Biography

Professor John Leshy came to UC Law SF in the fall of 2001, after serving as Solicitor (General Counsel) of the U.S. Department of the Interior throughout the Clinton Administration. Previously he taught at Arizona State University College of Law (1980-1992), and served in the Interior Department in the Carter Administration, as special counsel to the Chair of the Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, and with the Natural Resources Defense Council in California. He started his legal career as a litigator with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

In 2008-2009 Leshy co-chaired the Obama Administration transition team for the Interior Department, after heading the Interior transition team for Clinton-Gore in 1992-93. In 2013 he received the Defenders of Wildlife Legacy Award for lifetime contributions to wildlife conservation.

In 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2011 Leshy was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1969, after earning an A.B. at Harvard College. His publications include books on the Mining Law of 1872 (1987) and the Arizona Constitution (2d edition published in 2013), and a co-author of textbooks on water law (6th edition published in 2018) and federal land and resources law (7th edition published in 2014).

Expertise

Education

  1. Harvard Law School 1969

    J.D. magna cum laude

  2. Harvard College 1966

    A.B. cum laude

Accomplishments

  1. Distinguished Achievement Award, American Bar Association, Section on Environment, Energy and Resources 2018

  2. Defenders of Wildlife Legacy Award for Lifetime Achievement in Wildlife Conservation 2013

  3. Vanity Fair Magazine recognition as one of the Nation’s Best Environmental Stewards 2004

Selected Scholarship

  1. Our Common Ground 2022

    (Forthcoming) Yale U. Press

  2. America’s Public Lands—A Look Back, A Look Ahead 2021

    67 Rocky Mountain Mineral L. Institute Proceedings

  3. Building Better Conservation Easements for America the Beautiful (with K. King Burnett and Nancy A. McLaughlin) 2021

    Harvard Environmental L.Rev. Online

  4. Public Land Policy After the Trump Administration: Is This a Turning Point? 2020

    31 Colo. Nat. Resources Energy & Envtl. L. Rev. 471

  5. Interior’s Authority to Curb Fossil Fuel Leasing 2019

    49 Envtl. L. Rep. 10631

  6. The Interaction of U.S. Public Lands, Water, and State Sovereignty in the West: A Reassessment and Celebration 2019

    41 Public Land & Resources L.Rev. 1

  7. Debunking Creation Myths About America's Public Lands, 2018

    Published version of the Wallace Stegner Lecture, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law

  8. Are U.S. Public Lands Unconstitutional? 2018

    UC Law SF Journal

  9. Legal Wilderness: Its Past and Some Speculations on its Future 2014

    Environmental Law

  10. Federal Lands in the Twenty-First Century 2010

    Natural Resources Journal

  11. Shaping the Modern West: The Role of the Executive Branch 2001

    University of Colorado Law Review

Links

  1. Publications

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