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Marc Mihaly
Faculty

Marc Mihaly

Professor of Law Emeritus
Environmental Law Center

JD, University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, 1975

BA, Harvard College, 1969

802-831-1237

Curriculum Vitae

Marc Mihaly

Biography

Marc Mihaly is a professor emeritus at Vermont Law School where he served as the  School’s eighth president and dean from 2012 to 2017. He previously as associate dean for VLS's Environmental Programs and director of its Environmental Law Center where he initiated the VLS Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, the Institute for Energy and the Environment, and VLS on-line Masters degrees. He also serves as chair of the board of the Vermont Land Trust, and is a member of the board of directors of Stone Environmental, a national consulting firm based in Montpelier.

Mihaly received his BA degree from Harvard College and his JD degree from the University of California, Berkeley. After service in the U.S. Peace Corps in Central America, he served with the San Mateo County Legal Aid Society and the environmental unit of the California Attorney General's Office. In 1980, he co-founded Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger in San Francisco, one of the nation's leading and largest public interest environmental law firms, served as its managing partner for 17 years, and oversaw its growth to 25 attorneys and planners. There he represented farmers, environmental community groups, progressive cities, environmental state, regional and local agencies, and Native American tribes. He is an expert in the areas of land use, land conservation, urban planning and development, and energy law and policy.

Publications

Articles

​Kelo's Trail: A Survey of State and Federal Legislative and Judicial Activity Five Years Later,​ 38 Ecology Law Quarterly 3 (2011).
Recovery of a Lost Decade (or is it Three?): Developing the Capacity in Government Necessary to Reduce Carbon Emissions and Administer Energy Markets, 88 Oregon Law Review 407 (2010).​​
Citizen Participation in the Making of Environmental Decisions: Evolving Obstacles and Potential Solutions through Partnership with Experts and Agents, 27 Pace Environmental Law Review 151 (2009).​
Living in the Past: The Kelo Court and Public-Private Economic Development, 34 Ecology Law Quarterly 1 (2007). ​

Awards & Accomplishments

Service Work

​Three decades of trial and appellate litigation practice on behalf of governments and community based organizations on environmental issues.

In Land Use Law, represented of the California Attorney General in several of the first cases enforcing the statutory obligations of local jurisdictions to complete and adopt legally adequate general plans and ensure zoning consistency with the adopted plan.

Drafted some of the earliest agricultural protection initiatives in California in the early 1980s on behalf of coalition of farmers and environmentalists.

Created transferable development rights ordinances, including the TDR scheme that preserves downtown San Francisco.

Represented cities in securing large and complex public-private projects. Professor Mihaly has served as lead outside counsel to the following: the City of Sacramento, CA, as it addressed proposals by Southern Pacific to redevelop the 240-acre Southern Pacific Rail Yards; lead outside counsel to the City of Alameda, CA, with redevelopment of both the Fleet Industrial Supply Center (FISC) and the Naval Air Station.

Affiliations

​Co-founding partner; managing partner, Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger, San Francisco, CA, 1980–2004.

Visiting distinguished professor of environmental law from public interest practice 2004–05.

A member of the regular Vermont Law School faculty since 2005.

Served as acting associate dean of environmental programs and acting director of the Environmental Law Center in 2005–06.

Has served as Associate Dean of the Environmental Law Programs and Director of the Environmental Law Center since August 2007.

​Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, 1976–77.

Other Accomplishments or Activities

​Editor in Chief, Ecology Law Quarterly, 1973–74.

​United States Peace Corps, El Salvador, 1969–71.

​Deputy attorney general, Environmental Unit, California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, 1976–80.