Clay Samford

Clay Samford is Special Counsel in the Biodiversity Defense Program at Earthjustice, a nonprofit public interest environmental law organization. Prior to joining Earthjustice, Mr. Samford worked for nearly 25 years in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, serving as trial attorney, senior trial attorney, and Assistant Section Chief. He has deep expertise in wide range of public land, natural resources, and environmental law litigation.

Mr. Samford graduated with honors from Cornell University and with distinction from Stanford Law School. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, he served as law clerk to Judge John C. Porfilio of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and for Justice Raymond Austin of the Supreme Court of the Navajo Nation.

Mr. Samford teaches Natural Resources and Administrative Law as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and has taught courses at the National Advocacy Center and the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law, and has taught as a guest lecturer at Harvard Law School and the University of Wyoming College of Law.