Professor Gregg Macey, who focuses on environmental law, climate change, natural and human-made disasters, and organization theory, was recently granted tenure. Macey has an extensive background in these areas. He holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School and a Ph.D. in urban planning from MIT and has taught environmental planning at the graduate level.
Macey is currently writing a book on the science of energy production and infrastructure risks. His recent work includes “Boundary Work in Environmental Law” in the Houston Law Review (2015), and chapters on natural hazards that trigger technological disasters (in Risk Analysis of Natural Hazards, 2016) and green energy transitions in the industrial sector (in Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization, forthcoming). His work has appeared in a number of journals, including the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Georgetown Law Journal, Environmental Management, Cornell Law Review, Brigham Young University Law Review, Utah Law Review, Virginia Environmental Law Journal, Environmental Law, and MIT Journal of Planning.
In 2016, Macey organized the David G. Trager Public Policy Symposium, “The Post-Carbon World: Advances in Legal and Social Theory,” which drew a dozen legal scholars and social theorists from around the country. His work has garnered significant media attention. He was first author of a two-year study, “Air Concentrations of Volatile Compounds Near Oil and Gas Production,” which was published in Environmental Health in 2014. The study examined air pollution near unconventional oil and natural gas production sites in five states. It was covered in National Geographic, Inside Climate News, U.S. News, Scientific American, and other media outlets.
Macey praised the Brooklyn Law School faculty for the impact of their scholarship and teaching. “I marvel at the depth of my colleagues’ expertise and concern for matters of importance, which they show in the classroom and in their writing,” Macey said. “Brooklyn Law School has, for many years, succeeded in fostering an engaged community of scholars.”
Macey joined the faculty in 2010 from Fordham Law School, where he was a visiting assistant professor. His background includes work as an associate with Kirkland & Ellis, a senior associate with E2 Inc., an environmental consulting firm, and a senior associate with the Consensus Building Institute, which specializes in public dispute resolution. He was editor-in-chief of the MIT Journal of Planning and the Virginia Environmental Law Journal and taught courses in environmental economics, land use policy, and environmental justice at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. He also was a Dillard Fellow at the University of Virginia School of Law, a Voorhees Instructor at MIT, and a Research Fellow at Harvard Law School.