Barton H. “Buzz” Thompson, Jr.

- Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law
- Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment
- Professor, Doerr School of Sustainability
- Room N343, Neukom Building
Expertise
- Climate Change Law & Policy
- Conservation Law & Policy
- Environment & the Law
- International Environment Law
- Land Use Law & Policy
- Natural Resources Law & Policy
- Nonprofit Organizations
- Property & Real Estate Law
- Regulatory Policy
- Supreme Court
- Sustainable Development Law & Policy
- Takings
- Water Law & Policy
Biography
A global expert on water and natural resources, Barton “Buzz” Thompson, JD/MBA ’76 (BA ’72) focuses on how to improve resource management through legal, institutional, and technological innovation. He was the founding Perry L. McCarty Director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, where he remains a Senior Fellow and directs the Water in the West program. He also has been a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) at Stanford’s Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies, and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. He founded the law school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Program. He also is a faculty member in Stanford’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER).
Professor Thompson served as Special Master for the United States Supreme Court in Montana v. Wyoming, an interstate water dispute involving the Yellowstone River system. He also is a former member of the Science Advisory Board of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. He chairs the boards of the Resources Legacy Fund and the Stanford Habitat Conservation Board, is a California trustee of The Nature Conservancy, and is a board member of the American Farmland Trust, the Sonoran Institute, and the Santa Lucia Conservancy.
Professor Thompson is of counsel to the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, where he specializes in water resources and was a partner prior to joining Stanford Law School. He also serves as an advisor to a major impact investment fund. He was a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist ’52 (BA ’48, MA ’48) of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Joseph T. Sneed of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Education
- BA Stanford University 1972
- JD/MBA Stanford Law School/Stanford Graduate School of Business 1976
Related Organizations
Courses
Affiliations & Honors
- Chair, Science Advisory Board Committee on Valuation of Ecological Systems and Services, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Chair, Board of Directors, Natural Heritage Institute
- Perry L. McCarty Director, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University
- Senior Fellow (by courtesy), Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
- Member, Science Advisory Board, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Member, Board of Trustees, California Chapter, The Nature Conservancy of California
- Member, Board of Directors, Resources Legacy Fund
- Member, Board of Directors, Resources Legacy Fund Foundation
- Member, Board of Directors, American Farmland Trust
- Recipient, John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford, 1993
Professor Buzz Thompson on the Need for Policy Changes to Foster New Water Tech and Combat Drought
Podcast
Key Works
News
Mandates or Markets for Environmental Policy?
Palo Alto Online
When someone in the audience asked about Stanford’s Natural Capital Project, which aims to put a price on nature so that it can be objectively valued in transactions, Stanford law professor Buzz Thompson was not very enthusiastic. He replied that, in his experience, pricing that relies on voluntary markets just…
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