Dan Rohlf

Daniel Rohlf is a Professor of Law and Of Counsel, Earthrise Law Center at the Lewis & Clark Law School.

Professor Rohlf’s areas of expertise are biodiversity conservation and management; public lands management; and the intersection of law and science in environmental law.

Professor Rohlf has over 20 years of experience as a litigator, (with the past 11 years as Director of Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center at Lewis and Clark’s domestic environmental law clinic), primarily in cases involving the federal Endangered Species Act.

Before entering academia, Professor Rohlf served as a Law Clerk for Justice Jay A. Rabinowitz, Alaska Supreme Court, and The Peregrine Fund to help reintroduce juvenile Peregrine Falcons into the Yellowstone ecosystem.  When Professor Rohlf worked with the Center for Conservation Biology, he traveled to east Africa to consult with Ugandan officials and conduct research on Uganda’s regulation of its biological resources. While working as a Legal Intern/Law Clerk at the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, Professor Rohlf coordinated a long term project involving conservation of grizzly bears in the Lower 48 states. At the U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Exploration Geochemistry, Mr. Rohlf worked as a Geologic Field Assistant and Physical Science Technician.

Among others, Professor Rohlf authored the opinion for the Court in a major Clean Water Act case, Miners’ Advocacy Council v. State of Alaska, 778 P.2d 1126 (AK 1989). Professor Rohlf wrote The Endangered Species Act of 1973: a Guide to Its Protections and Implementation (Stanford Environmental Law Society, 1989), which was the Winner of 1989 National Wildlife Federation Publication Award.

Professor Rohlf has written widely in the area of the conservation and biodiversity. Some of his more recent publications include, Avoiding the ‘Bare Record’: Safeguarding Meaningful Judicial Review of Federal Agency Actions, 35 Ohio N.U. L. Rev. 575 (2009); Conserving Endangered Species in an Era of Global Warming, 38 Environmental Law Reporter 10203 (2008) (co-authored with John Kostyack), reprinted in SR021 ALI-ABA 147 (2009), Can Federal Courts Save the Environment?, Forest Magazine (Winter 2007), Lessons from the Columbia River Basin: Follow the Blueprint but Avoid the Barriers, 19 Global Business Development Law Journal 195 (2006); and Key International and U.S. Laws Governing Management and Conservation of Biodiversity, Contributed essay in Principles of Conservation Biology, Third Edition (2006).