Todd Aagaard

Professor of Law

Biography

Todd Aagaard joined the Villanova Law School faculty in 2008. He served as vice dean of the Law School from 2015 to 2019.  His scholarship focuses on environmental law, energy law, and administrative law.  His publications include Energy-Environment Policy Alignments, 90 Wash. L. Rev. 1517 (2015); Environmental Law Outside the Canon, 89 Ind. L.J. 1239 (2014); Environmental Harms, Use Conflicts, and Neutral Baselines in Environmental Law, 60 Duke L.J. 1505 (2011); Environmental Law as a Legal Field: An Inquiry in Legal Taxonomy, 95 Cornell L. Rev. 221 (2010); and Factual Premises of Statutory Interpretation in Agency Review Cases, 77 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. (2009). In addition, he is a co-author of Practicing Environmental Law, a practice-based environmental law casebook published in 2017 by Foundation Press.

Aagaard received his BA with honors from Pomona College, his MS from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and the Environment, and his JD magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School.  While at Michigan, he was the editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review and an executive editor of the Michigan Journal of Race & Law.  Following completion of his JD and MS degrees, he clerked for Second Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi, before joining the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as an attorney in the Appellate Section.  At the Justice Department, he briefed and argued civil and criminal cases in federal courts of appeals in the areas of environmental law, natural resources law, Indian law and administrative law.

Practice Experience

• Judicial Clerk for Judge Guido Calabresi of the Second Circuit
  
• Appellate Attorney, U.S. Dep't of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division
• Joined the faculty in 2008