Michael H. Dworkin

Vermont Law School

Professor Michael Dworkin is a nationally recognized leader in energy and environmental law. He has been a utility regulator, an environmental litigator, and a successful small businessman.  Professor Dworkin heads the Institute for Energy and the Environment, which offers an advanced curriculum on energy and regulatory law, provides forums and conferences for professional education and issue development, and serves as a center for graduate research and publication on environmental and energy issues.

Michael Dworkin earned his B.A. degree in history from Middlebury College, summa cum laude, in 1975 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude, in 1978.  Dworkin began his legal career as a law clerk for Judge Catherine Kelly of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. After his clerkship, he spent five years in the U.S. EPA’s Office of General Counsel, where he focused on the development and appellate defense of standards that reduced air and water pollution.  In 1984 he became communications counsel for the Vermont Public Service Board, representing the board in litigation before the Federal Communications Commission and as a hearing officer.  From 1988 to 1995 Mr. Dworkin was general counsel of the Vermont Public Service Board, and in 1995 he became senior vice president and managing partner in Riser Management Systems, LP, an engineering and consulting firm. He returned to public service in 1999 as the chair of the Vermont Public Service Board and remained in that post until March 2005, when he joined the faculty at Vermont Law School and launched the Institute for Energy and the Environment.  Michael Dworkin is a director of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy and an 'outside' director of the Electric Power Research Institute.

From:  Vermont Law School Faculty Profile