About Justin Robert
Justin Robert Pidot is a Professor of Law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law in Tucson, Arizona. He holds the Ashby Lohse Chair in Water & Natural Resources and co-directs the Environmental Law, Science and Policy Program. His teaching and research focus on environmental and natural resources law, administrative law, and related fields. He is a co-author of "Practicing Environmental Law," the first environmental law casebook to use a problems-based approach. His scholarship has appeared in leading law reviews, including the Stanford Law Review and the Harvard Environmental Law Review.
Before joining the University of Arizona in 2019, Professor Pidot taught at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He also served as Deputy Solicitor for Land Resources at the U.S. Department of the Interior from 2016 to 2017, providing legal and policy advice to the Secretary of the Interior and other senior officials. Prior to that, he was an appellate lawyer in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2008 to 2011. He began his legal career as a law clerk for Judge Judith W.
Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2007 to 2008. In 2021, during the Biden Administration, Professor Pidot was appointed General Counsel for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, a position he held until 2024. In this role, he led the Office of General Counsel for the component of the Executive Office of the President coordinating environmental and natural resources policy across the federal government. Professor Pidot earned his Juris Doctor with distinction from Stanford Law School in 2006, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal. He received his Bachelor of Arts with high honors in Government from Wesleyan University in 1999.
He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar (active) and the State Bar of California (inactive). At the University of Arizona, Professor Pidot teaches courses in Property, Sustainability and Environmental Policy, and Federal Public Land and Natural Resources Law. He has been recognized for his contributions to environmental law and policy, including serving as a Member Scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform. Professor Pidot's diverse experience in academia, government service, and legal practice informs his teaching and scholarship, providing students with a knowledge of environmental and natural resources law.
