Success Stories

Jason J. Czarnezki is the Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law and the Associate Dean of Environmental Law Programs and Strategic Initiatives. Professor Czarnezki joined Haub Law in 2013, and teaches Natural Resources Law, Sustainable Business and the Environment, Property, and the Environmental Law Seminar: Current Challenges. Since he joined Haub Law, the environmental law program has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as number one in environmental law for the last two years in a row and for three times in the last four years. A generational environmentalist, learn about Professor Czarnezki’s recent research interests, his family full of outdoor enthusiasts, and more in this Q&A.

Let’s start with discussing your recent work – both in and out of academia.

Recently, I’ve been working on researching eco-labeling, sustainable procurement, and the evolution of sustainable business law. I’m looking at challenges that individual consumers face when buying products. There are many issues in this category: consumers are overwhelmed by labels, there is a lot of greenwashing, consumers do not understand what product labels mean, whether or not the burden should be on consumers, and how to make labels more accessible.

I have also been looking at retailers, wholesalers, and public institutions (schools, government agencies, etc.) in the context of sustainable procurement. How do we measure non-price characteristics such as environmental footprints (for example, carbon, land use, and water), social welfare and economic welfare? For example, EU law allows public purchasers to employ life cycle costing – they don’t have to buy the good with cheapest price. 

Outside of academia, I work with cleanteach and sustaintech startups that are harnessing sustainability data to improve and green the supply chain and their products. 

Additionally, we have over 300 students involved in our environmental law program in some way. Part of my role in administration is to organize and create intellectual projects for the program (Garrison and Kerlin Lecture, NELMCC). We always ask what can we improve and how can we innovate? Through this culture, we have created the Food Law Initiative, the Environmental Law & Policy Hack, and the new Sustainable Business Law Hub. 

Can you tell me a bit about the new Sustainable Business Law Hub?

More and more law firms are adding ESG groups to work with clients on disclosures, climate risks, and drafting environmental policy statements for their companies. The Hub will serve as an incubator space, student-training program, research endeavor, and think tank devoted to addressing global sustainability challenges through policy and research projects, relationships with the business community, and capacity building in private environmental governance. Students will be able to work closely with faculty experts and receive practical training and experience. We hope that more students will pursue the JD/MBA and participate in ESG corporate externships. Students involved in the Hub will jump into their first job after graduating understanding how they can help their employers foster sustainable business practices.

How did you become interested in environmental law? And what keeps you interested in environmental law? 

It’s the family business! My grandfather graduated from the first graduating class of what is now the College of Natural Resources in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. My relatives are park rangers, foresters, and lumberjacks. I grew up in a family that went camping, hunting, and fishing. My grandfather worked as a supervisor in the Milwaukee County Parks System, pioneering at-the-time novel ideas like mulching grass back into the lawn rather than bagging it in plastic.  My father served in the Wisconsin State Legislature, sponsoring significant environmental legislation. I decided to go to law school to work in environmental law. 

Two things keep me interested in environmental law. First, I enjoy my administrative role as vehicle to create opportunities for students that lead to careers of impact and meaning in the field of environmental law. For example, we have increased funding for the DC externship, created the Haub Scholar program, created more student scholarships—all things that can be transformational student experiences. We have also diversified our curriculum, which now includes environmental justice, climate law, and food law, as well as add significant diversity to our environmental law faculty and staff.

Second, I enjoy nature and value conservation, and exploring how law shapes our environmental values. What brings me the most joy, though, is teaching my students and facilitating their exploration of nature. I love taking my students on “natural resources tours” of NYC and can’t wait for my natural resources law field course in Grand Teton National Park to return. 

Do you have any advice for students interested in environmental law? 

My advice to an environmental student isn’t different than to a non-environmental student. Work hard. Look a few years past graduation. You’re not going to graduate from law school and be EPA Administrator. Many graduate have to do other things first. They might do real estate law or big law for a few years before switching to environmental law. Two alumni come to mind. One does legal sustainability for a major company. The other is General Counsel for a large environmental non-profit. Both were in non-enviro jobs initially. While you’re in school, think about what skills you need to have to do that job down the line. Look at the resumes of people with your dream jobs and see what they did. Finally, do not rob from your future self, as my spouse likes to say. There’s so much you don’t know. You might be interested in a job you didn’t think you would like. Be open-minded. All law contains environmental issues. 

As we reflect on Earth Day, what advice can you give students to make a difference in saving our planet and promoting conservation and sustainability?

I wrote a whole book about this called "Everyday Environmentalism.” There are so many actions, big and small, that each of us can take. “The low-hanging fruit include, to name a few: try to eat organic and local, eat less meat and shift away from red meat, live close to where you work and play, see if your household can get along with only one car (and try to make it a fuel efficient one), walk and take public transit, compost as much as possible, stop engine idling, buy compact fluorescent light bulbs, adjust down the thermostat, decrease household water temperature, keep proper tire pressure, and work to educate yourself about the ecological and economic costs of your actions in the long term. Engine idling, for example, accounts for a substantial portion of carbon emissions and fuel consumption, measured at 1.6% of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions and 10.6 billion gallons of fuel per year. Attempts to address idling through public education campaigns have proven successful in Canada, and similar success in the United States would prevent 7 to 26 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year and reduce fuel consumption by 660 million to 2.3 billion gallons each year. Recall that generating public awareness is a tool always to consider when seeking change in individual decision-making. “

Jumping to your non-academic interests – what are some of them?

I like playing music, but haven’t played at all during the pandemic because I want to be outside. I enjoy swimming in lakes, kayaking, cooking, exploring the NFT market, and splitting wood.

Learn more about Professor Czarnezki.

Fred Mauhs spent 32 years in the banking industry before deciding to shift his focus to environmental law and completing his LLM at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Fred’s concern about climate change coupled with his love for the outdoors ultimately helped him come to the realization that he desired to use his legal skills to help avert the climate crisis. A day after quitting his banking law position, Fred applied to Haub Law’s LLM program. Learn more about Fred’s career before becoming an environmental lawyer and since becoming one, how many mountain peaks he has climbed, and what he feels is the most pressing concern of environmental law for the next few years, and also for the foreseeable future in this Q&A.

What was your background prior to enrolling at Haub Law School?

Well, I spent 32 years in the banking industry. I served as General Counsel for the US branches of two foreign banks and their affiliated broker-dealers—24 years with a German bank and then 8 years with the Spanish Bank BBVA.   

Interesting. Why did you get into banking law?

After graduating law school, I got a job out in Oregon. I was a young associate at a large law firm and it was grueling work. I had to work most weekends. I spent what free weekends I had mountain climbing, particularly Mount Hood, near Portland. I discovered that virtually every time I climbed Mt. Hood I would run into a lawyer who seemed to never have to work on weekends.  I learned he was inhouse counsel for a bank in Portland.  I later left Oregon to study law in Germany on a scholarship program, the last segment of which was an internship.  While all the other scholarship recipients applied to law firms for their internship, I decided instead to apply to the legal department of an international bank headquartered in Düsseldorf—mainly because of that in-house bank lawyer in Portland who spent all of his weekends mountain climbing. 

After finishing the internship it happened that the bank was looking to hire its first lawyer for its New York branch.  They chose me for the position, which worked out  swimmingly well for me, in that it was fun and challenging work--and I was able to spend most weekends rock climbing in the Shawangunks near New Paltz.

So how did you end up doing an LLM?

In 2019, I decided to quit banking law partly because, after 32 years, it wasn’t intellectually challenging anymore, but mainly out of my concern about climate change. I realized that I should be using my law license and my legal skills to help avert the looming crisis. So I gave notice, and on the return home that evening on the commuter train along the Hudson River, I was thinking okay, now what am I going to do? How do I fight climate change when I'm not even an environmental lawyer. And I suppose looking out at the river helped me recollect that Pace has had a famous role advising the organization Riverkeeper. And so I figured they must have good environmental law classes there.  I googled the law school and discovered that they offered an LLM in environmental law, with a specialty and energy and climate law. I thought, wow, this is precisely what I need to do right now to kick start an environmental law career, so the next day I applied.

And what was your experience like once you got to Haub Law? Any particularly memorable moments there?

Well, I arrived at Haub with high hopes and high expectations, and I have to say that all of my expectations were exceeded many times over. I also ended up having far more fun than I thought you were supposed to have at law school.

The most memorable moment for me was actually before classes started, at the LLM orientation. I went there with more than a little trepidation at the thought of probably studying with people that were half my age.  But when I arrived I discovered that nearly all my future classmates were accomplished lawyers and committed environmentalists from every continent of the world. And just hanging out with these classmates was like a course in environmental law unto itself. It was a great group, and we developed some very deep and lasting friendships.

Talk to me about some of the professors you had while you were here?

Haub Law attracts very high caliber professors, and I had the good fortune of taking classes from a bunch of them.  

Professor Kuh, for example, brought to her Environmental Survey and Climate Law classes not just a wealth of knowledge but also her experience from private practice at a large law firm. Similarly, Prof. Brown brought his terrific transactional law experience to bear in the Food and Beverage Law Clinic.  Professor Robinson, who taught me Environmental Impact Assessments, and Professor Nolon who taught me Land Use law—there are simply no other professors with their breadth and depth of knowledge in their respective fields.  Professor Narula is perhaps the most inspiring professor I’ve ever had. Professor Valova and the team at the Pace Energy and Climate Center under Craig Hart’s leadership gave me a terrific grounding in one area I now practice in, which is energy law.   And Haub Law’s externship at UN missions, then under the leadership of Prof. Tafur, is an experience that is simply unmatched elsewhere.

Do you have any advice for lawyers who may want to switch their area of practice?

Yes!  For other Wall Street lawyers out there and experienced lawyers in any practice, who are interested in or concerned about the environment – my message to them would be:  quitting a comfortable business law position on Wall Street to become an environmental lawyer should not be viewed as a strange or quirky thing to do--although I admit I myself initially had doubts about making the jump. But, in retrospect, it was the most natural and important decision I could have made in my entire legal career. For any lawyer who is concerned about the looming environmental catastrophe, which is climate change, switching your practice to environmental law should be the easiest career decision you could make. And I'm not the only Wall Street lawyer out there to have made that change. But there should be more. And you can do what I did, which is wait until you're 60 to make the move, but you can also do it in your 40s and your 50s, which is in retrospect what I should have done myself.

Did anything else about your experience at Haub help shape, or influence what you're doing now?

With the exception of my work on conservation easements for land trusts and land owners, which began before I enrolled at Haub, everything I do now has been shaped by Haub and by its professors. I use what I learned there in both my practice and my advocacy.  More broadly, though, Haub has sharpened my understanding of our environmental threats and the ability—and oftentimes the failure—of our current laws and international institutions to address them.

So what are some of your passions besides environmental law? You mentioned mountain climbing.

I got into mountain climbing in a big way both during and after my JD program at GWU, and climbing was the primary reason I moved to Oregon after graduation. Now I'm an “Aspiring Adirondack 46er”—thus far I’ve climbed 28 of the 46 peaks there since I turned 60.

But I have enjoyed just about any activity that's outdoors:--bicycling, hiking, backpacking, climbing—whether rock, ice or snow--and water sports like swimming, canoeing, and kayaking.  During migration season I’m nuts about birdwatching, and in winter I love cross-country and backcountry telemark skiing. I love it all, like so many others students and professors at Pace.

What do you feel is the most pressing concern of environmental law for the next few years, and also for the foreseeable future?

Well, I think that is an easy one. Climate change is the most pressing environmental problem. It defines our Anthropocene Era in which we now live and in which we could perish relatively soon in geologic time.  And the most pressing environmental law issue is the astounding total absence of effective climate change law in the United States in light of that existential problem.

Professor Shelby Green is the Susan Taxin Baer ’85 Faculty Scholar at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. She joined Haub Law in 1991 and teaches Property, Real Estate Transactions and Finance, Advanced Real Property, Historic Preservation, and Housing Development and Discrimination. In this edition of Faculty Focus, she talks about the many facets of property law and gives advice on staying positive in a polarized world.

Can you tell me about your recent work?

I’m preparing for a few symposia. I’m preparing for the 2022 Arkansas Law Review Symposium – Construction Law In The Legal Academy on March 12th. I’ll be on the Design Liability: Professional Responsibility, Safety, and Social Justice panel. On that panel, I will talk about the effect of new construction inventions on the cost and supply of housing construction.

I’m also preparing for the Seton Hall Law Review Symposium – American Cities Struggling with Economic Justice Reform on February 25th. I’ll be on the Reinventing Cities to Create Opportunities for Affordable Housing panel. I plan to talk about rethinking zoning, adaptive rezoning to promote greater affordability and availability of housing. Adaptive rezoning means moving away from Euclidean zoning. Euclidean zoning makes sense on the fringe, keeping factories away from where people live, but it doesn't make sense to keep a school out of a place where people live. Adaptive rezoning means allowing for infill, all kinds of housing – like tiny houses, adaptive reuse, and changing height, space, and parking requirements. And it means being adaptive towards creative design with issues like climate change. For example, how we orientate houses. 

I am also the Editor of Keeping Current Property column in Probate & Property Magazine. It’s a bi-monthly magazine and the column summarizes cases of note from all across the country, new legislation, and what academics in the field are writing about.    I am also working on an article with Bailey Andree, a 2L and research assistant to Professor Emeritus John Nolon and a Land Use Law Center Scholar, on state control of land use policy, which we hope will be published by the magazine.

I am the Chair for the Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section of the American Bar Association’s Legal Education Group, which among other things offers the  “Professors’ Corner”, a monthly webinar on current topics. The hour long discussions recently covered a book called “Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives” that talks about how we may think we own something, but there are all kinds of limitations. For example, you see people lined up for the Supreme Court and they look like regular people, who want to see the actions, be there for the discussions, but they’re just paid to stand there and are replaced by people in business suits who had them hold the spots. Do those people own the line space? Next month we’ll talk about purpose trusts, which are just trusts set up for a particular purpose, and how to draft them so they’re properly carried out. We’ll be discussing monuments in April. The statue of Teddy Roosevelt was just removed from the Museum of Natural History; next to the image of Roosevelt, stood one of an Indigenous person and a shirtless black man, implying subservience from both. What do these silent monuments say in these public spaces? 

​​I’m also co-counsel at the Land Use Law Center with Professor John Nolon. We’re working on a project to help small commercial tenants navigate the effects of the pandemic. The eviction moratorium applied to them as well, but many had to close. We’ve been working on a recovery lease for small businesses that keeps tenants in and helps the landlords avoid vacancy. 

How do you find teaching in today’s climate? 

Teaching is always challenging, all the issues happening that you have to think through. The polarized nature of society is disturbing. People are too mean and not reticent to express that meanness. I have hope in your generation, though - I hope you will be calm, gentle, and caring because my generation certainly hasn’t always been. I try to engage in discussion in class that isn’t too political, but it’s hard because everything is polarized. I see a lot of students that care about society and the world, despite the media being so overwhelming with negativity. 

How did you become interested in law?

I’m not sure, in undergrad I studied sociology. There are a lot of political and social issues raised and pondered. Research is fundamental, but law allows you to be out there making direct and immediate impact. I think back to the Brown v. Board of Education strategy, where they had sociologists talking about the impact of segregation on the intellectual development of young minds. It was really interesting. I don’t discount sociology at all, but lawyers make so much impact. They get the courts to say those things are wrong. 

What keeps you interested in property law? 

Property is the world. It involves everything – where we can go, housing, assets, including intangible assets, access to water. What happens when the Colorado river drops another 10ft? Even criminal law has origins in property; trespass was a crime. . All about jockeying for control, it interests me. 

A current issue that interests me is allocating the burden of tenants that can’t be evicted because they can’t pay their rent. Mega landlords can’t evict a handful temporarily, and although the landlords probably can't ever collect the rent, it's a risk they may have to take to enter the business. However, most landlords are small and need food for their families. I think the government should provide financial assistance to tenants to pay, which has happened. 

With the 2019 tenant landlord law, they were worried about small landlords going into bankruptcy and the big ones waiting to take those buildings. Buildings were already under rent control, so the law just added more procedural protections, rights to more notice prior to eviction proceedings and limited the use of self-help – which I think is wise. Tenants can also seek stay against eviction in case of hardship. 

What advice do you have for students interested in real estate and property law?

Just to keep being curious, keep reading and thinking about the larger issues and what it means for society – like ensuring housing is available and accessible, rethinking what homeowners and property owners can do, how we further limit rights, as we have done from the beginning of time, how governments need to think about what communities should look like. 

Pay attention to stories. I heard one about a tenant that toured an apartment and the broker asked him if he noticed anything in the bathroom missing. He said no, but there was no toilet, you had to use a shared one down the hall. Does that meet the building code? Who alerts the inspectors? Someone rented it eventually. Pay attention to stories like this. 

At Haub Law, we have a path to practice in Real Estate and Land Use. There’s an externship as well. Students are placed in firms, title companies, etc. where they get guidance and experience. The Land Use Law Center is also a great resource and place to gain experience. 

Can you tell me about a non-academic interest or hobby you have? 

I love hiking. My husband and I go to Colorado often in the summer. Connecticut has nice places as well. Recently, we braved the frigid temperatures and set out on an icy trail. My husband wore cleats, I only had normal hiking shoes on, so at a certain point we had to turn around. We want to go to Glastonbury State Forest next. Sometimes I play the piano. I keep buying leisure books, but don’t have time to read them, so they keep piling up!

Learn more about Professor Green.

Gabriella Mickel, a 2023 JD Candidate at Haub Law, authored this faculty Q&A. Gabriella is a Land Use & Haub Scholar, the President of the Environmental Law Society, a Junior Associate on Pace Environmental Law Review, and on the E-Board for NLG, Lambda, and ACS. Outside of school, she owns three sports supplement stores and is the co-editor of the Law Student Corner section of the NYSBA EELS Journal.

Alumnus Eric Paulk is making strides in the fight for equality in his own home state of Georgia and making headlines, too, as one of the state’s Top 40 Leaders Under 40. In 2020, Eric was awarded a prestigious Soros Justice Fellowship, with the goal of building a nationwide network of Black HIV movement lawyers to protect, defend, and support people living with HIV. A true agent of change, Eric points to his law school experience at Pace for playing a critical role in his journey towards equality and advancing change.

Eric Paulk graduated from Morehouse College in 2003. From there, though he was pretty sure he ultimately wanted to attend law school, he spent time in the private sector to gain experience in the business world and build upon his undergraduate training. “I knew that law school was a big commitment in every sense of the word. I wanted to make sure that I was ready to commit so I spent some time working in a variety of positions. Then in my last role before I went to law school, I was Managing Director of a performing arts center and in that position I oversaw every aspect of the center – which included contract negotiations and the legal department. It reignited my desire to attend law school.”

Eric started at Pace in 2013. “I really immersed myself in law school. I joined student groups. I participated in clinics. I spoke with professors outside of class. I took advantage of a wonderful learning experience.” While at Pace, Eric was involved in the Black Law Students Association, LAMBDA Law Student Association, and participated with moot court.  “One of the most practical learning experiences that I had was as a civil rights extern working through the law firm Newman Ferrara with Professors Cohen and McLaughlin. This provided me with experience in research, writing, discovery, trial preparation, and client contact. I also learned how to prepare legal documents and petitions. It was an invaluable experience.”

After graduating from law school, Eric was the Tyron Garner Fellow at Lambda Legal in Atlanta. “In the fellowship role, I worked on policy issues, I worked to move along local and regional legislative efforts, I was an advocate, I spoke at forums, panels, meetings, and events, and I also did legal research. I became an expert on LGBTQ issues and HIV criminal justice reform which allowed me the opportunity to engage in real grassroots efforts for equality. Additionally, this role allowed me to really be a leader both regionally and nationally around HIV-related legal issues. It was an amazing experience.” From there, Eric moved on to the Equality Foundation of Georgia as an HIV Policy Organizer and then was promoted in April 2019 to Deputy Executive Director of the Organization. “In the role as Deputy Executive Director, I oversee all day-to-day operations and develop and manage our advocacy activities. I also work with the executive director and the board to develop and implement the organization’s strategic plan. I help to drive up support and also build relationships in the community.”

In recent years, Eric was selected as one of Georgia's Top 40 Leaders Under 40. In the article about Eric’s selection it was noted that Eric has dedicated his career to fighting for equality for all Georgians. Eric himself notes that “It is an important time in our state and our country to protect LGBTQ people, immigrants, and people of color. I am part of a movement creating equality for these communities. My law school experience and Pace in particular has played such a critical role in my leadership development and also in helping to carve out the work that I'm doing. I am definitely a proud alumnus.”

In late 2020, Eric was awarded a prestigious 2020 Soros Justice Fellowship. His goal through the Fellowship was to build a nationwide network of Black HIV movement lawyers to protect, defend, and support people living with HIV. As a part of this work, Eric is co-authoring a first-of-its-kind report with the Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA Law dedicated to conducting rigorous, independent research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy, on the impact of HIV criminal laws on Black communities. When Eric was awarded the Fellowship, he noted that “[m]ost of us go to law school with the desire to be agents of change. However, over time, that goal gets diminished. This fellowship lets me fulfill the promise for which I decided to attend law school - to use my legal training to empower, protect and defend marginalized Black communities. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve others, and excited to stand with my fellowship cohort and previous cohorts to advance change.”