Joseph A. Siegel

  • Adjunct Professor

Education

B.A., Wesleyan University
J.D., Hofstra University School of Law

Joseph A. Siegel joined Pace Law School in 2001 as an Adjunct Professor and currently teaches Climate Adaptation and the Law.  His expertise and areas of focus are at the intersection of climate change law, dispute resolution and prevention, and multi-stakeholder collaboration. Prior to joining Pace, Joe taught environmental law and justice at CUNY Law School and he currently teaches Environmental Dispute Resolution at Hofstra Law School where he has been teaching since 2014.

Joe is also a Senior Attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2, Office of Regional Counsel in New York, where he has worked for over 37 years.  In addition to practicing as a Clean Air Act attorney at EPA, Joe Co-Chairs Region 2’s Climate Change Workgroup and manages the Region’s Environmental Collaboration and Conflict Resolution program. In his work at EPA as a neutral mediator and facilitator, Joe seeks to build bridges between diverse stakeholders and arrive at collaborative solutions.  He has applied these approaches to a wide variety of environmental matters, including climate change. 

In addition, Joe chairs the Education Subcommittee of Mediators Beyond Borders’ Climate Change Project with which he regularly attends meetings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to promote the use of conflict management related to climate change.  He also supports the work of Adaptation Without Borders, a global partnership working to strengthen resilience to transboundary climate impacts and is an Advisor to the Better Climate Governance project, which seeks to improve the effectiveness of international climate change negotiations and climate governance. In addition, Joe was a founding advisor to the Kheel Center on the Resolution of Environmental Interest Disputes and was a member of the Advisory Group to the United Nations Environment Programme and Permanent Court of Arbitration on Environmental Dispute Resolution and Dispute Avoidance. 

Joe served as Chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Committee on Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Ecosystems and as Chair of the ABA’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee.  He also served as Vice-Chair of the ABA Renewable Energy Resources Committee and editor of the Energy Committees Newsletter.  Joe is a certified mediator in Westchester County and a former community mediation volunteer for the Westchester Mediation Center.  He is a frequent lecturer, writer and consultant on climate change as well as Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Contact: jsiegel@law.pace.edu