Mary L. Lyndon

Professor of Law
B.A., Manhattanville CollegeJ.D., Northeastern UniversityLL.M., J.S.D., Columbia University/School of Law

Professor Lyndon received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law (1974) and her LL.M. and J.S.D. from Columbia University, where she was the Julius Silver Fellow in Law, Science & Technology (1985).

Professor Lyndon’s main area of expertise is Environmental Law.  She was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York from 1979-1985, in the New York Law Department’s Environmental Protection Bureau.  In that capacity she headed the group of attorneys working on air pollution problems, including acid rain, toxic air pollution and New York’s Clean Air Act compliance. She also worked on a wide range of other environmental problems. Professor Lyndon litigated at all levels of the state and federal courts.  Among other matters, she developed and pursued an interstate enforcement action against a large industrial smelter immediately upwind of Staten Island.  The plant eventually closed down, leaving a substantial legacy of hazardous waste.  Professor Lyndon also represented New York and the National Association of Attorneys General, developing legislative reform proposals and presenting testimony on them to state and federal legislative bodies.

Professor Lyndon’s scholarship spans a wide range of environmental law topics, including the interaction of science and the law and the relationship between intellectual property, information economics and environmental law.  She has also written on the development of ecological, public health and human rights perspectives in the law.

Professor Lyndon has been active in the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the New York State Bar Association.  She is a past Chair of the NYC Bar Association’s Committee on International Environmental Law and is a current member of that Committee and Co-Chair of the Subcommittee on the Human Right to a Healthy Environment.  She is a member of the NYSBA’s Task Force on Environmental Aspects of the New York State Constitution.  She also is a member of the IUCN’s World Commission on Environmental Law and a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform.

Professor Lyndon practiced Communications Law from 1974 until 1979, as General Counsel of the New Jersey Coalition for Fair Broadcasting and later as Corporate Counsel for New Jersey Bell Telephone Company and AT&T.  In the first position, she conducted litigation before the Federal Communications Commission, challenging the VHF TV channel allocations for the Northeastern U.S.  She developed a federal legislative initiative to move a channel to New Jersey and negotiated agreements on coverage of New Jersey by New York City and Philadelphia broadcasters.  For the Bell System she represented the New Jersey 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 defenses to charges of predatory innovation in the development and use of long distance microwave technology.

Report and Recommendations Concerning Environmental Aspects of the New York State Constitution, New York State Bar Association Task Force on Environmental Aspects of the New York State Constitution, 38 Pace L. Rev. 182 (2017)

The Toxicity of Low-Dose Chemical Exposures: A Status Report and a Proposal, Reviewing Carl Cranor, Legally Poisoned: How the Law Puts US at Risk from Toxicants, 52 Jurimetrics 457 (2012) 

The Environment on the Internet: The Case of the BP Oil Spill, 3 Elon L. Review 211 (2012)

Trade Secrets and Information Access in Environmental Law, in The Law and Theory of Trade Secrecy, A Handbook of Contemporary Research, Ed. Rochelle C. Dreyfuss and Katherine J. Strandburg. (2011)    

“Secrecy and Access in an Innovation Intensive Economy: Reordering Information Privileges in Environmental, Health and Safety Law,”  78 University of Colorado Law Review 465 (2007)    

‘Information Disclosure and Access,’ with Robert F. Blomquist, in Environmental Law Practice Guide, Ed. Michael B. Gerrard (2005 Matthew Bender).

'Climate Change, Opinions and Imagination: Toward a New Ethic of Curiosity,’ in Moral Imperialism: A Critical Anthology, ed. B. Hernandez (NYU Press 2002).

'Characterizing the Regulatory and Judicial Setting', in Tools to Aid Environmental Decision Making, ed. V. Dale and M. English (Springer 1999).

Tort Law, Preemption and Risk Management, 2 Widener L .Symp. J.69 (1997).

Technology and the Law: Articulating a Women's Rights Perspective, 69 St. John's L. Rev. 191 (1996).

Tort Law and Technology, 12 Yale J. on Reg. 137 (1995).

Industry and Social Responsibility (Panel Introduction), 9 St. John's J. Legal Comment. 509 (1994).

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. 1795 (1989).

Risk Assessment, Risk Communication and Legitimacy: Introduction to the Symposium on Health Risk Assessment, 14 Col. J. Env. L. 289 (1989).

Health Risk Assessments and Toxic Chemicals, Report of the Environmental Law Committee, Record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, May 1989.

Acid Rain and the Clean Air Act: A New York State Perspective, 4 N.Y.L.S.J. of Int. & Comp. L. 503 (1983).