Faculty Directory

Michael Tierney

Visiting Professor

Profile

Mike Tierney is the Director of the Environmental Law Teaching Program at Boston College Law School, where he leads students from law schools in the Boston area to develop and teach their own undergraduate courses in environmental law.

The Environmental Law Teaching Programaffords selected law students the invaluable and memorable opportunity to develop skills essential to effective advocacy, including public speaking, time and matter management, legal research, flexibility/adaptability, empathy, and interpersonal skills. Law student teachers selected for the Program are given faculty status as “Instructors-at-Law”. The courses are typically elected/attended by undergraduates from environmental, biology, chemistry, public health, business, and engineering majors, from all class years.

Selected law student teachers prepare during the Fall semester in a series of training meetings, focusing on teaching methods and the structures and doctrines of the modern legal process and environmental law. They meet together weekly during the Spring semester, in an experiential seminar with the sponsoring law professor (Mike), studying the art and challenges of pedagogy. Their own varied teaching styles and classroom experiences are examined, encouraged, and developed. They prepare journaling observations for weekly seminar meetings, and by the end of Spring semester have compiled a substantial Legacy Document for the benefit of future teachers to come.

Tierney is a lawyer in Boston. He earned his B.A. from Middlebury College and J.D. from Boston College Law School, where he served as Managing Editor of the Environmental Affairs Law Review and President of the Environmental Law Society.