Richard Revesz
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Richard L. Revesz (born May 9, 1958) is an American lawyer and academic. He is the director of the American Law Institute and the Lawrence King Professor of Law at the
New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in N ...
. He served as the Dean of the New York University School of Law from 2002 to 2013. He is one of the nation's leading experts on environmental law,
regulatory law Regulatory law refers to secondary legislation, including regulations, promulgated by an executive branch agency under a delegation from a legislature. It contrasts with statutory law promulgated by the legislative branch, and common law or case l ...
, and policy. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a regulatory division within the
Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...
, on December 21, 2022.


Early life and education

Born in
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
,
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, Richard Revesz graduated summa cum laude with a B.S.E. in
civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...
from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 1979 after completing a 140-page long senior thesis titled "Energy or Environment? The Tradeoff between Automobile Emissions and Fuel Economy." He then received an M.S. in civil engineering from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
. He continued his studies at
Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
, where he was editor-in-chief of '' Yale Law Journal'', and received a J.D. in 1983. Upon graduation, he clerked first for chief judge
Wilfred Feinberg Wilfred Feinberg (June 22, 1920 – July 31, 2014) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and previously was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southe ...
of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate juri ...
and then clerked for
U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
Justice
Thurgood Marshall Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-A ...
, where he met his wife,
Vicki Been Vicki L. Been is an American lawyer, public servant, and professor who served as the Deputy Mayor of New York City for Housing and Economic Development from April 2019 to December 2021. She previously served as commissioner of the New York City D ...
"Vicki L. Been Wed to Richard Revesz"
''The New York Times'' 11/6/1989.
who was also clerking at the Supreme Court, for Justice Harry Blackmun.


Career


Early career

Revesz began his academic career in 1985, joining the faculty of
NYU Law School New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in New ...
as an assistant professor. By 1990, he was a full professor of law, teaching environmental and
administrative law Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regulations"), ad ...
. In 2001, he was named Lawrence King professor of law and, a year later, he succeeded
John Sexton John Edward Sexton (born September 29, 1942) is an American lawyer, academic, and author. He is the Benjamin F. Butler Professor of Law at New York University where he teaches at the law school and NYU's undergraduate colleges. Sexton served as t ...
as dean. He stepped down as dean after 11 years in May 2013. Revesz also has been a
visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...
at Princeton's
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...
, Harvard Law School,
Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
, and the
Graduate Institute of International Studies Graduate may refer to: Education * The subject of a graduation, i.e. someone awarded an academic degree ** Alumnus, a former student who has either attended or graduated from an institution * High school graduate, someone who has completed high ...
in Geneva, Switzerland.


NYU School of Law Dean

Revesz served as dean at
NYU Law School New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in New ...
between 2002 and 2013. Under his tenure, NYU raised over $500 million and attracted 46 new faculty members, including fellow Argentine-American academic Samuel Issacharoff. While dean, Revesz presided over various free-speech controversies: His actions included criticizing but not disciplining a student who asked Justice Antonin Scalia about his private sex life and defending the right of Singaporean jurist Thio Li-ann to express controversial views about criminalizing consensual sexual acts between men.


American Law Institute Director

In 2014, Revesz was appointed to serve as the Director of the American Law Institute. He oversees the institute's publication of
Restatements of the Law In American jurisprudence, the ''Restatements of the Law'' are a set of treatises on legal subjects that seek to inform judges and lawyers about general principles of common law. There are now four series of ''Restatements'', all published by the ...
, Principles of the Law, model acts, and other proposals for law reform.


Institute for Policy Integrity Director

In 2008, Revesz and Michael Livermore co-founded the Institute for Policy Integrity, a NYU Law-affiliated
think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
and advocacy organization dedicated to improving the quality of governmental decision-making. Revesz directs the institute, which contributes original research in the fields of
economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
,
administrative law Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regulations"), ad ...
, and
public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...
, and advocates for reform before courts, legislatures, and executive agencies. The institute’s work focuses primarily on energy and
climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...
issues, consumer protection, and
public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
.


Scholarship

Revesz has published numerous books and articles in major law reviews and journals, focusing on federalism and
environmental regulation Environmental law is a collective term encompassing aspects of the law that provide protection to the environment. A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the manage ...
, the design of liability rules for
environmental protection Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair dam ...
and the role of cost-benefit analysis in shaping administrative and environmental regulation. His most recent book, ''Reviving Rationality: Saving Cost-Benefit Analysis for the Sake of the Environment and Our Health'', which he co-authored with Livermore, argues that the Trump administration has destabilized the bipartisan consensus that federal agencies must base their decisions on evidence, expertise, and analysis, and explores how future administrations can restore cost-benefit analysis. He has served as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
, and a member of the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board, among other organizations. In 1994 and 2007, he received the
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
award for best article or book on
administrative law Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regulations"), ad ...
and regulatory practice.


Biden administration

On September 2, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Revesz to be administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a regulatory division within the
Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...
. He was confirmed in a voice vote on December 21, 2022.https://twitter.com/SenatePPG/status/1605676765195690005?cxt=HHwWqoCz2degwcgsAAAA


Personal life

Richard Revesz lives with his wife,
Vicki Been Vicki L. Been is an American lawyer, public servant, and professor who served as the Deputy Mayor of New York City for Housing and Economic Development from April 2019 to December 2021. She previously served as commissioner of the New York City D ...
, and their two children in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.


Select bibliography

*''Reviving Rationality: Saving Cost-Benefit Analysis for the Sake of the Environment and Our Health'' with Michael Livermore. (2020). *''Retaking Rationality: How Cost-Benefit Analysis Can Better Protect the Environment and Our Health'' with Michael Livermore. (2008). *''Environmental Law and Policy''. (2008). *''Grandfathering and Environmental Regulation: The Law and Economics of New Source Review'' with Jonathan Nash. 101 ''Northwestern University Law Review'' 1677 (2007). *''Centralized Oversight of the Regulatory State,'' with Nicholas Bagley. 106 ''Columbia Law Review'' 1260 (2006). *''Anti-Regulation Under the Guise of Rational Regulation: The Bush Administration's Approaches to Valuing Human Lives in Environmental Cost-Benefit Analyses,'' with Laura Lowenstein. 34 ''Environmental Law Reporter'' 10,954 (2004). *''Foundations of Environmental Law and Policy''. 2nd Ed.(2000). *''Federalism and Interstate Environmental Externalities'', 144 U. Pa. L. Rev. 2341 (1996) cited by the Supreme Court in '' EPA v. EME Homer City Generation'', 572 U. S. ____ (2014).


See also

*
List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 10) Law clerks have assisted the justices of the United States Supreme Court in various capacities since the first one was hired by Justice Horace Gray in 1882. Each justice is permitted to have between three and four law clerks per Court term. Mos ...


References


External links


NYU School of Law Faculty PageInstitute for Policy Integrity Home PageEnvironmental Law and Policy - Foundation Press
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Revesz, Richard 1958 births American lawyers Argentine emigrants to the United States Deans of New York University School of Law Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Deans of law schools in the United States Living people People from Buenos Aires Place of birth missing (living people) Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni Yale Law School alumni