Richard Horsch

Richard Horsch recently retired as a partner at the international law firm of White & Case LLP.

While at White & Case, Mr. Horsch concentrated his practice on domestic and international environmental matters. He has addressed environmental issues arising in such countries as Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, India, China, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea. He frequently advised clients on international conventions and treaties, multilateral development bank standards (e.g., World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, IFC), and evolving international environmental and sustainable development standards and norms, including the Equator Principles. He served as legal advisor to a sovereign nation in its establishment and start-up of a Designated National Authority to review and approve proposed projects developed under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. He was an advisor to a group of developing countries on climate change matters, including in connection with the negotiation of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and the subsequent implementation of its provisions, and in connection with the negotiation of the phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons (potent greenhouse gases) under the 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.

Mr. Horsch is currently coordinating the Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization Pro Bono Implementation Project -- an undertaking by lawyers working pro bono on behalf of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School to turn into model legislation at the federal, state, county and local levels, nearly 1500 recommendations to address climate change.

Mr. Horsch is a Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School, where he teaches International Environmental Law. From 2007 to 2013, he was an Adjunct Professor of Environmental Law and International Environmental Law at Seton Hall Law School.

Mr. Horsch was Co-Chair of the International Environmental Law Committee of the American Bar Association Section of International Law in 2008 and Vice Chair from 2005-2007. He is Director Emeritus of the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, a non-profit public interest law organization. He is on the Board of Advisors to New York University School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity.

Prior to joining White & Case, Mr. Horsch clerked for the Hon. Frederick B. Lacey, U.S. District Judge, District of New Jersey; Judge, Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals.