Kevin Leske

Professor Kevin Leske joined the University of Dayton School of Law faculty in August 2019. Prior to his appointment Professor Leske held academic positions in schools such as Vermont Law School, Harvard Law School, and Barry University School of Law. His principal expertise is in environmental law (including air and water pollution, climate change, and land use), civil procedure, administrative law, constitutional law, Supreme Court Practice, and appellate advocacy.

His published works and presentations cover areas such as the Clean Air Act, climate change regulation and litigation, agency deference, preemption, federalism, and U.S. Supreme Court practice. Professor Leske’s scholarship has been published in journals such as Berkeley’s Ecology Law Quarterly, Lewis & Clark’s Environmental Law, NYU Environmental Law Journal, William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review, Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law, Connecticut Law Review, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Administrative Law Review, and the Vermont Law Review. In June 2019, one of his administrative law articles on the Seminole Rock deference doctrine was quoted and cited in a Supreme Court opinion in Kisor v. Wilkie, No. 18-15, 588 U.S. ___ (2019).

Prior to entering academia, Professor Leske served as an Assistant Attorney General of Vermont, where he focused primarily on national air pollution and global warming cases. His work also included arguing Vermont Supreme Court appeals in land-use cases and environmental enforcement actions. In addition, he served as a U.S. Supreme Court Fellow for the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington, D.C., where he helped prepare state attorneys for their upcoming oral arguments, edited Supreme Court briefs, and prepared an Amicus Brief in a pending case.

Before joining the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, Professor Leske worked in Washington, D.C., for a small environmental law office where he litigated Clean Water Act citizen suits for environmental groups, such as Friends of the Earth and Sierra Club. He also represented the Province of Ontario, Canada, in Clean Air Act cases in federal courts of appeals and before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Professor Leske is admitted to practice law in the State of Vermont (inactive), as well as before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Fourth, Ninth, and D.C. Circuits.