Nina Mendelson

Nina Mendelson serves as the Joseph L. Sax Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School.

Area of Professor Mendelson teaches environmental and administrative law, as well as legislation and statutory interpretation. Her scholarship focuses on administrative process, especially in the environmental regulatory setting.

Prior to teaching, Professor Mendelson served for several years as an attorney in the Department of Justice Environment & Natural Resources Division, litigating and negotiating environmental legislative issues. Professor Mendelson also practiced environmental law with a private firm in Seattle, where she did extensive pro bono litigation, including on behalf of community and environmental groups. She was a law clerk to Judges Pierre Leval and John Walker, Jr., now both of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Her recent publications include: “Six Simple Steps to Increase Contractor Accountability,” in Government by Contract: Outsourcing and American Democracy, Harvard University Press, 2009; “Preemption and Theories of Federalism,” in Preemption Choice: The Theory, Law, and Reality of Federalism’s Core Question, with Robert R.M. Verchick; Quick Off the Mark? In Favor of Empowering the President- Elect, 103 Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy 464 (2009); A Presumption Against Agency Preemption, 102 Nw. U. L. Rev 695 (2008); among many others.

Professor Mendelson graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and received her JD from the Yale Law School, where she was articles editor of the Law Journal.