Areas of Expertise:

Richard Webster is the Legal Program Director for Riverkeeper. He was formerly a staff attorney in the Environmental Enforcement Project at Public Justice, the Legal Director of the Eastern Environmental Law center, formerly the Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic, and an attorney with the environmental group at Arnold & Porter in New York. Richard has had considerable experience representing environmental groups on water and other issues. Most recently, he pioneered the use of litigation regarding coal ash and fracking to both clean up water and reduce climate change impacts. He also litigated the relicensing of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant and an environmental justice issue regarding the Indian Point relicensing. In addition, he has much experience litigating regarding state permit issuance and renewal in both New York and New Jersey. Before becoming an attorney, Richard was an expert hydrologist and environmental scientist. He established and ran Environmental Development Consultants, providing expert advice and litigation support to, among others, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club and the World Bank. Earlier, he was the Associate Director of Consultants in Environmental Sciences in Hong Kong and a Senior Environmental Scientist with Consultants in Environmental Sciences, Ltd., in London. Richard received his JD in 2002 from Columbia University Law School, where he was the Articles Editor of the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, a Kent Scholar, and a Harlan Fisk Stone Scholar. He earned a master’s degree in 1989 from London University in engineering hydrology and a BA in physics from Oxford University in England.