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

buzzt@stanford.edu

650 723.2518

Assistant(s):

Nikola Garcia Tebar

Room N343, Neukom Building

Download Curriculum Vitae

Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program

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 is a Professor of Environmental Behavioral Sciences in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He 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.

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 and is a California trustee of The Nature 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

Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program

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