Faculty Spotlight: Prof. Mark Davis

When Tulane Law School launched a new Center for Environmental Law in 2018, it tapped one of the leading experts in coastal environmental law to lead it: Prof. Mark Davis.

Davis, the longtime Director of the Tulane Institute for Water Resources Law and Policy, and until recently, of Tulane University’s ByWater Institute, sees his role in expanding environmental law education as crucial to aiding those in leadership to make sound decisions where the environment is concerned.

“Tulane has always been a place that people look to for ideas when there are challenges and opportunities.  Our knowledge in the law and our public service efforts have played a critical role in positioning Tulane as a leader in environmental law,” Davis said.

In the Master of Jurisprudence in Environmental Law, Davis will teach Introduction to Envrionmental Law. He sees opportunity in reaching a new kind of student – one that is expert in the field but is not a lawyer, who needs legal expertise but does not want a JD.

“There is so much more to environmental law than law firms and court rooms.  Envrionmental law is fundamental to managing natural resources, running businesses and planning for a future in which factors such as climate change and water availability are going become more and more important.  In short, environmental law isn’t just for lawyers anymore.”

A widely consulted and quoted authority on water law and management, Davis joined Tulane Law School in 2007 as a senior research fellow and founding director of the Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy. In 2017 he also became the first director of the Tulane Center for Environmental Law.

He is widely sought after on issues of water resource management, is directly involved in helping Louisiana overhaul its long-term water planning and has testified frequently before Congress on the need for a focused and effective commitment to the viability of coastal Louisiana and other vital natural treasures.

Davis is routinely quoted in local, national and international media. 

Before joining Tulane Law, Davis spent 14 years as executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, where he helped shape programs and policies at the state and federal level to improve the stewardship of the wetlands and waters of coastal Louisiana.

He has practiced law in Indianapolis, the District of Columbia and Chicago and has taught at the Indiana University (Indianapolis) School of Business and the IIT-Chicago Kent School of Law in Chicago. He received his JD from Indiana University and has a MLT from Georgetown Law.