John Leshy

Emeritus Harry D. Sunderland Distinguished Professor of Real Property Law UC Hastings College of the Law

  • San Francisco CA

Contacts: leshyj@uchastings.edu / 415-565-4726 / Office 382-200

Contact

UC Hastings College of the Law

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Biography

Professor John Leshy came to UC Hastings 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).

Areas of Expertise

Real Property Law
State and Federal Constitutional Law
Natural Resources Law
Public Land Law
Water Law
Federal Indian Law

Accomplishments

Defenders of Wildlife Legacy Award

2013-01-01

Awarded to recognize lifetime achievement in wildlife conservation.

Best Environmental Stewards

2004-12-01

Recognized as one of the nations best environmental stewards by Vanity Fair magazine.

Education

Harvard Law School

J.D. magna cum laude

Law

1969

Harvard College

A.B. cum laude

Undergraduate Studies

1966

Affiliations

  • Grand Canyon Trust : Member, Board of Directors
  • The Wyss Foundation : Member and Vice-Chair of the Board

Media Appearances

Napolitano: Washington lacks constitutional right to own land in Western states

Tampa Bay Times: Pundit Fact  online

2014-04-28

John Leshy is a professor of real property law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. Leshy served in the Interior Department in the Carter and Clinton administrations and was part of the transition team when President Barack Obama first took office. "Napolitano’s statement is absurd," Leshy said. "The constitutional basis of federal land ownership is not subject to any serious debate among scholars, and hasn’t been for a very long time."...

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A Soft Spot for Public Lands

The New York Times  online

2010-10-06

John D. Leshy, a former Interior Department solicitor, likes to say, “There’s no square yard of public land that somebody doesn’t love.” Indeed, the era when the word “swamp” was accompanied by the adjective “pestilential,” or the word “desert” by the word “barren,” is long past. Biologists and lovers of the land have ensured that wetlands (no longer “swamps) are productive cradles of both aquatic and terrestrial life and that deserts are far from barren, nurturing everything from Dr. Seussian Joshua trees to big-horned sheep and flat-tailed horned lizards...

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Drier, Tainted Nevada May Be Legacy of Gold Rush

The New York Times  online

2005-12-30

"If you look at the gold industry today, most of it is Nevada, and Nevada is mostly not prized by environmentalists," said John D. Leshy, who was the top lawyer for the Department of the Interior in the Clinton administration. "Nevada is being written off as a sacrifice area for gold." In an ever-more urban West, the day of reckoning is fast approaching, people like Mr. Leshy say. The new West, embodied by postindustrial Las Vegas, will inherit the landscape that gold leaves behind...

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Selected Articles

Legal Wilderness: Its Past and Some Speculations on Its Future

Environmental Law

2014-06-15

This article considers the past and possible future of the effort to provide legal protection for tracts of federal lands under the umbrella of the Wilderness Act of 1964. It focuses on the politics of wilderness designation and how it fits into the larger landscape of federal land management.

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Reflections on Social Change and Law Reform

University of Colorado Law Review

2013-01-01

David Getche's career provides rich material for reflecting about law and social change. In particular, how we -- and particularly rising generations -- might deal with the challenges that lie before us. This brief essay offers some thoughts along that line.

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Federal Lands in the Twenty-First Century

Natural Resources Journal

2010-01-01

This paper explores the effects of a destabilizing climate on federal lands and policies for their management. It looks at both the mitigation side - using federal lands for renewable energy production to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - and the adaptation side, and advocates that policymakers link the two. In the long run, it predicts that measures to deal with a changing climate will blur many traditional boundaries, including the one between public and private land.

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