Michael Burger

Executive Director @ Sabin Center for Climate Change Law; Of Counsel @ Sher Edling LLP | JD, Environmental Law

New York, New York, United States

About

I am an environmental lawyer, writer, teacher and scholar who has worked on climate change issues from the hyper-local to the international level for 20 years. As the Executive Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, and a senior research scholar and lecturer at Columbia Law School, I provide strategic vision, oversee research and publication efforts, lead advocacy projects, engage with Earth Institute and external partners, and run operations at one of the nation's premier climate law centers. I also teach and work with a cohort of outstanding law students. In my role as Of Counsel at Sher Edling, I work on some of the nation's most high-profile and high-impact climate cases. We are at a critical inflection point, and all of my professional efforts are turned towards developing new understandings of the nature of climate change and new approaches to solving the twinned problems of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to current and projected climate impacts.

Experience

  • Of Counsel at Sher Edling LLP
    Jan 2020 - Present · 6 yrs 6 mos

    At Sher Edling, I combine my experience as both a litigator and a legal scholar to help state and local governments litigate cases against fossil fuel companies for climate change related damages.

  • Regent, Fellow at American College of Environmental Lawyers (ACOEL)
    2020 - Present · 6 yrs 6 mos

  • Executive Director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School
    Aug 2014 - Present · 11 yrs 11 mos

    As the first Executive Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law I focus my research and advocacy on domestic and international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote climate change adaptation through pollution control, resource management, land use planning and green finance.

  • Member at World Economic Forum; Community of Climate Governance Experts
    2023 - 2025 · 2 yrs

  • Associate Professor at Roger Williams University
    Jun 2010 - Dec 2013 · 3 yrs 7 mos

    Taught upper-level courses in Environmental Law, Administrative Law, and Law & Literature. Director of Environmental and Land Use Law Clinical Externship program.