Biography
David Bookbinder is Chief Counsel at the Niskanen Center, a Washington, DC think tank and advocacy organization, where he focuses on federal transmission policy, eminent domain abuse by oil and gas pipeline companies, and climate nuisance litigation.
Mr. Bookbinder has overseen Niskanen’s legal work and representation of landowners in connection with the Atlantic Coast, Atlantic Sunrise, Bayou Bridge, Dakota Access, Midship, Mountain Valley, Nexus, Pacific Connector, PennEast, Permian Highway, Regional Access, and Spire pipelines. He also represents Boulder County, San Miguel County, and the City of Boulder in their climate nuisance case against ExxonMobil and Suncor.
Mr. Bookbinder began practicing law at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, handling securities, mergers and acquisitions, product liability, white-collar criminal, intellectual property and other matters. In the public interest sphere, Mr. Bookbinder has litigated dozens of cases under all the major environmental statutes including, as Sierra Club's Chief Climate Counsel, initiating and managing Massachusetts v. EPA, and was counsel in In re Cheney. Dealing with Congress and federal agencies, Mr. Bookbinder helped lead efforts on both global warming legislation and greenhouse gas regulation under the Clean Air Act, and has testified in front of House and Senate committees on these issues (and may be the only person ever invited by both Barbara Boxer and James Inhofe). He has also advised states as to their greenhouse gas regulatory authority.
Mr. Bookbinder was trained at Princeton University (summa cum laude) and the University of Chicago Law School. He has designed and taught courses on "Environmental Litigation" at Georgetown University Law Center and "Environmental Law and Science" at the William and Mary Law School/Virginia Institute of Marine Science.