Richard Revesz
Richard L. Revesz (born May 9, 1958) is the director of the American Law Institute and the Lawrence King Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law. 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, and policy. Early life and education. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Richard Revesz graduated summa cum laude with a B.S.E. in civil engineering from Princeton University 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. He continued his studies at Yale Law School, 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 of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, where he met his wife, Vicki Been 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 as an assistant professor. By 1990, he was a full professor of law, teaching environmental and administrative law. In 2001, he was named Lawrence King professor of law and, a year later, he succeeded John Sexton as dean. He stepped down as dean after 11 years in May 2013. Revesz also has been a visiting professor at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, and the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. NYU School of  Law Dean. Revesz served as dean at NYU Law School 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, 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 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, administrative law, and public policy, and advocates for reform before courts, legislatures, and executive agencies. The institute’s work focuses primarily on energy and  climate issues, consumer protection, and public health. Scholarship. Revesz has published numerous books and articles in major law reviews and journals, focusing on federalism and environmental regulation, the design of liability rules for environmental protection 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, 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 award for best article or book on administrative law and regulatory practice. Personal life. Richard Revesz lives with his wife, Vicki Been, and their two children in New York City.