The Marine Affairs Department welcomes new Assistant Professor, Jesse Reiblich, JD, LLM. Jesse is an attorney and expert in coastal and marine law and policy. He has published on many topics, including coastal access and equity, climate change policy, the public trust doctrine, water law, coastal adaptation, the California Coastal Act, and surf break protection. His upcoming research will focus on environmental justice concerns in the U.S. Territories, coastal access and recreation, and the efficacy of statutory coastal laws.

Jesse has held several varied legal and academic positions. Most recently he served as a law fellow at William and Mary Law School’s Coastal Policy Center. In this position Jesse worked on offshore wind policy and the state’s first ocean planning process, identified abandoned and derelict vessel policies and funding sources, wrote guidance to increase resilience in the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, and contributed to Virginia’s first Coastal Master Plan. He previously completed a fellowship at Stanford University’s Center of Ocean Solutions, where he was chosen as a Woods Institute Rising Environmental Leader. Jesse also completed judicial clerkships with a Justice of the Supreme Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands and a judge on the Territory’s Superior Court, both on the Caribbean Island of St. Croix. Finally, he worked at law firms, and interned at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a state coastal and wildlife conservation agency. To fund his college studies Jesse worked as a protected species monitor on U.S. Army Corps construction projects.

Jesse earned his LLM in environmental and land use law from the University of Florida Levin College of Law through a fellowship funded by the Florida Climate Institute. He also earned his JD there, where he earned a certificate in environmental law and was an editor of the Journal of Technology Law and Policy. As an undergraduate, Jesse majored in Philosophy and English, and minored in environmental studies, also at the University of Florida. During college he was chosen as a University Scholars Program scholar, which funded a research project with one of his Philosophy professors on bioethics.

Jesse is excited to move to Rhode Island and take advantage of all the Ocean State has to offer. He is an avid surfer, SCUBA diver, and sailor. He also holds dual Canadian citizenship and studied abroad in South Africa, Costa Rica, Australia, and Belize. Jesse enjoys travel, reading, and writing when he is not doing research or on the water.