How Does A Right Wing Lawyer Who Directed NJ Gov. Whitman's "Open For Business" Anti-Environmental Regulatory Program Become A Professor At "Liberal" Vermont Law School?
The Curious Case Of Michael J. Hogan
The Judge Who Approved Notorious Exxon Pennies On The Dollar Settlement
I'm simply dumbfounded.
According to the (undated) Advisory Board of Vermont College Of Fine Art profile of Michael J. Hogan:
For the last several years Hogan has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Vermont Law School.
Say what? Hogan is a law professor?
So, just who is Michael J. Hogan and why does it matter?
A decade ago, I wrote about Mr. Hogan, explained who he was, and why it was wildly inappropriate that he was assigned as the Judge to hear the DEP lawsuit against Exxon - which sought to recover $8.9 billion in damages to natural resources - given his prior service as Chief Legal Counsel at the Whitman DEP and what I personally knew about his ideological agenda, see:
If you don't want to take my word for why Hogan's approval of the corrupt Exxon Settlement was outrageous, read The NY Times Op-Ed by former DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell:
THE decision by the administration of Gov. Chris Christie to settle an environmental lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corporation for roughly three cents on the dollar after more than a decade of litigation is an embarrassment to law enforcement and good government.
Even more troubling are the circumstances surrounding the decision, which recently came to light. As a judge deliberated whether to assess the $8.9 billion in damages New Jersey sought, the administration stepped in and agreed to take about $250 million and settle the case.
I let that sleeping dog lie until today, when I inadvertently learned that Mr. Hogan was and perhaps still is an adjunct Professor at Vermont Law School.
Let me establish some context.
Hogan served as the Whitman DEP Chief Legal Counsel. Whitman announced an agenda that NJ was "Open For Business" and issued Executive Orders to roll back DEP regulations (see Ex. Order #27)
In Hogan's powerful role at DEP implementing Whitman's deregulatory agenda, he directed DEP's regulatory, enforcement and litigation agenda. This included filing - or not filing - litigation involving "Natural Resource Damages" (NRD) like those litigated in the Exxon case. He also had major policy influence on DEP Commissioner Bob Shinn as a close advisor, who he knew from prior work in Burlington County.
Prior to becoming Whitman's DEP Commissioner, Shinn was a Burlington County legislator and Chairman of the Assembly Solid Waste Committee.
I appeared before and testified to Chairman Shinn many times as a "hostile witness" as the DEP Legislative analyst for solid waste issues, particularly to explain and defend the Florio DEP's controversial Solid Waste Management Plan, which Shinn strenuously opposed.
The primary disagreements involved Florio's opposition to incineration and DEP's over-ride of County solid waste planning powers. Shinn supported incineration and viewed County powers as primary and sacrosanct.
Shinn sponsored a Legislative Resolution to veto the Florio DEP solid waste plan and his first action as Whitman's DEP Commissioner was to kill the Florio DEP plan (which I had worked on and defended for 4 years).
When Shinn was appointed DEP Commissioner - my new boss - I knew my goose was cooked.
The first conflict involved DEP's position on proposed legislation - which Shinn previously had supported as a Legislator - to extend the life of the Cape May landfill, in violation of a legal settlement agreement between the federal Department of Interior and the DEP and NJ Pinelands Commission.
Since I was responsible for preparing DEP's policy position on that bill and testifying to the Legislature, this brought immediate conflict.
In an early 1994 meeting with Mr. Hogan and Commissioner Shinn, I explained that DEP's long-standing position on this bill was that it violated the settlement agreement and therefore DEP opposed the bill.
Hogan went ballistic. He said no federal agency could dictate NJ State policy. He asked if I was a lawyer and when I said no mockingly dismissed me.
When I responded to Hogan that there was not only a legally binding settlement agreement that DEP should recognize but a supremacy clause in the US Constitution, he ranted about State's rights. Wow.
Just weeks later, Hogan directed the DEP's extremely vindictive retaliation against me as a whistleblower for leaking DEP memos from Commissioner Shinn to Governor Whitman which revealed a cynical coverup of the controversial issues regarding public health risks of mercury in the environment. This retaliation included bad faith threats of criminal prosecution by the Attorney General's Office. Hogan also directed incredibly hostile tactics in the legal process regarding my whistleblower defense.
Hogan's ruse was exposed in sworn testimony by DEP Assistant Commissioner Sinding during my Administrative Hearing on DEP's attempt to fire me. Sinding's testimony validated all my claims and exposed the Shinn lies (testimony provided upon request).
Given Hogan's right wing idealogical views, his direction of the Whitman "Open For Business" regulatory rollbacks at DEP, and his bad faith hostile tactics in my whistleblower case, Hogan should not be in a leadership position at a law school.
His unethical ruling in the Exxon case highlights that. And I made the Vermont Law School aware of all that.
---------- Original Message ----------
From: Bill WOLFE <>
To: "dcelone@vermontlaw.edu" <dcelone@vermontlaw.edu>
Date: 06/05/2025 7:40 PM EDT
Subject: Adjunct Faculty complaint
Greetings Dave - Firstly, my apologies if this inquiry is misdirected to you. I was unable to discern an appropriate contact from your website. If so, please forward it to the appropriate individual or Office.
My name is Bill Wolfe. I am a retired environmental professional who worked in NJ - 13 years for the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP); 7 years as Acting and then Policy Director of NJ Chapter of Sierra Club; and 10 years as Director of NJ PEER (DC based national group Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility:
https://peer.org/
I received a Bachelor's degree from SUNY Binghamton in environmental science and public policy (1982) and did 2 years of graduate work at Cornell University Graduate School towards the Master Of Regional Planning (MRP) - all but thesis (1983 - 1985).
I write with deep disappointment to learn that a NJ lawyer and retired Superior Court Judge named Michael J. Hogan apparently was or still is an adjunct faculty at Vermont Law School.
For your information, Mr. Hogan served as the Chief Counsel to NJ Governor Whitman (R)'s NJ DEP Commissioner Robert Shinn.
In that capacity, he was involved in and directed highly inappropriate behavior and unethical retaliatory legal actions in my personal case as a whistleblower. This includes bad faith attempted criminal prosecution. I have personal experience and sworn testimony by former DEP Assistant Commissioner Richard Sinding to support these assertions and am willing to provide a transcript to back that up if you are interested.
Prior to my activities as a whistleblower, as a NJ DEP policy analyst (civil service position) in early 1994, I had personal conversations with Mr. Hogan regarding a settlement agreement between the US government (Department of Interior) and the NJ State government (Pinelands Commission) regarding closure of the Cape May sanitary landfill. A bill then pending in the NJ legislature sought to violate that settlement agreement and extend the life of the landfill. In my personal discussion of this bill with Mr. Hogan, he dismissed the settlement agreement as unenforceable and supported the legislation, based on a radical legal theory regarding State's rights.
Subsequent to his DEP service, Mr. Hogan was assigned as Special Judge in the notorious Exxon Natural Resource Damage (NRD) litigation, where he upheld a paltry NJ DEP settlement of $225 million on an $8.9 BILLION claim and dismissed environmental litigants, despite a huge conflict of interest, given his prior DEP service where he rendered legal and policy opinions on these same issues.
Mr. Hogan is not the kind of lawyer that should be influencing the young minds at Vermont Law School.
I urge your reconsideration of him as an adjunct in light of this history.
I am available to expand and support these claims.
Respectfully,
Bill Wolfe
Way to go.