Mary Lyndon

Mary L. Lyndon is a Professor of Law at St. John’s University School of Law.

Professor Lyndon’s areas of interest include science, economics and the law, and their influence on regulation and liability. Her scholarship has concentrated on the interplay of law and the economics of information and innovation and the ways these dynamics shape social learning about technology. Professor Lyndon teaches Environmental Law, International Environmental Law, Torts and Toxic Torts.

In 1979 Professor Lyndon became an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York. In that capacity she headed a group of attorneys working on acid rain toxic air pollution, and a wide range of other environmental problems. She litigated at all levels of the state and federal courts, and presented testimony before state and federal legislative committees on behalf of New York and the National Association of the Attorneys General. In 1985-86 she was the Silver Fellow in Law, Science and Technology at Columbia University and she joined the law faculty at St. John’s in 1986. Professor Lyndon received a J.D. from Northeastern University in 1974 and the J.S.D. degree from Columbia University in 1995.

Professor Lyndon practiced communications law from 1974 until 1979. First, as General Counsel to the New Jersey Coalition for Fair Broadcasting, she conducted litigation before the Federal Communications Commission, challenging the VHF TV channel allocations for the Northeast; she also developed a federal legislative initiative to move a channel allocation to New Jersey and negotiated agreements on coverage of New Jersey by New York and Philadelphia broadcasters. Later she was corporate counsel to New Jersey Bell Telephone Company and AT&T. She represented the operating company in rate cases before the state utility commission; in the federal antitrust challenge to the structure of the Bell System, she worked on AT&T’s defense to the charge of predatory innovation in the development of the long distance microwave system.

During law school Professor Lyndon worked at the Citizen’s Communications Center and the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, both in Washington, D.C. Before law school she worked as a program officer in the Courts Division of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, USDOJ, and on the program evaluation staff of the Secretary for Health, Education and Welfare. Professor Lyndon is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia and is an active member of the Environmental Law Section, New York State Bar Association. She is also a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the ABA, the AALS, the AALS, and Law and Society.

Professor Lyndon’s law review articles include: “Secrecy and Access in an Innovation Intensive Economy: Reordering Information Privileges in Environmental, Health, and safety Law”, 78 U. Colo. L. Rev. 465 (2007),  ;; “Tort Law, Preemption and Risk Management,” 2 Widener L. Symp. J. 69 St. John’s L. Rev. 191 (1996); “Tort Law and Technology”, 12 Yale J. on Reg. 137 (1995), “Secrecy and Innovation in Tort Law and Regulation,” 23 N.M. L. Rev. 1 (1993);), “Information Economics and Chemical Toxicity: Designing Laws to Produce and Use Data,” 87 Mich. L. Rev. 401 (1989), “Risk Assessment, Risk Communication and Legitimacy: Introduction to the Symposium on Health Risk Assessment,” 14 Col. J. Env. L. 289 (1989). She also has contributed chapters to two books: “Characterizing the Regulatory and Judicial Setting,” in Tools to Aid Environmental Decision Making, ed. V. Dale and M. English (Springer 1999) and “Dialogue in Environmental Politics: Toward an Ethic of Curiosity,” in Moral Imperialism: A Critical Anthology, ed. B. Hernandez (2002 NYU Press).