JD, Harvard Law School
AB, Political Science, Brown University

Professor Sean Lyness joined New England Law in 2019, first as an Instructor of Legal Writing and then as a Faculty Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Law.

Following law school, he clerked for the Presiding Justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court and worked as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General. During his time at the Office of the Attorney General, he prosecuted environmental cases, defended the state in tort, employment, and constitutional actions, and adjudicated public records and open meetings disputes.
 
Professor Lyness’s research interests are in environmental law at the state and local levels, and he has written widely on the subject.

Managing the Groundwater Governance Gap, New England Law Review Faculty Blog (2024)

Chevron Deference's Demise Suggests Auer Won't Last Much Longer, Bloomberg Law (2024)

Revitalizing the State Environmental Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine, Boston College Law Review (2023)

Oil Giants Inch Closer to Discovery in State Climate Cases, Bloomberg Law (2023)

A Primer on Rhode Island's Shoreline Access Rights, 72 Rhode Island Bar Journal (2023)

The Rhode Island Senate must act to preserve the shoreline, The Boston Globe (2022)

State and Local Climate Lawsuits are 4-1 at the Federal Circuit Courts, NULR OF NOTE (2022)

The Local Public Trust Doctrine (2022), Georgetown Environmental Law Review (GELR) (2021)

A Doctrine Untethered: 'Passage Along the Shore' Under the Rhode Island Public Trust Doctrine, Roger Williams University Law Review (2021)

Justice Kagan and Judicial Conversationalism, New England Law Review | Forum (2021)

CLIMATE CRUELTY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, TheEnvironmentalBlog.org (2021)

Tangled Up in Procedure: The State and Local Climate Cases After Baltimore and Ford, Harvard Environmental Law Review (2021)

Expert suggests Rhode Islanders might need to rethink the law on shoreline rights, The Boston Globe (Commentary) (2021)

Why Narragansett Town Beach can charge a $12 entry fee just to walk on, Providence Journal (Commentary) (2021)