LAW OF THE LAND

Patricia E. Salkin is the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost of the Graduate and Professional Divisions of Touro University.  She most recently served as Dean and Professor of Law of the Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center.  She previously served as Associate Dean, Raymond & Ella Smith Distinguished Professor of Law, and Director of the Government Law Center of Albany Law School.  

Salkin is a nationally recognized expert on land use law and zoning.  Her land use publications include: The 4-volume 4th edition of New York Zoning Law & Practice; the 5-volume 5^th edition of American Law of Zoning; Land Use & Community Development, 8th ed. (Thomson West) (with Nolon)  (2012); Land Use in a Nutshell (Thomson West) (with Nolon) (2007); Current Trends and Practical Strategies in Land Use Law and Zoning, ed., American Bar Association Press (2004); Trends in Land Use Law from A to Z: Adult Uses to Zoning, ed., American Bar Association Press (2001); the annual Zoning and Planning Law Handbook, ed. (West Group); contributing editor of the national monthly Zoning and Planning Law Report, and editor of the bi-monthly New York Zoning Law and Practice Report. She is a frequent lecturer for statewide and national land use programs.  Many of her dozens of law review articles, book chapters and columns can be accessed at www.governmentlaw.org or on SSRN at http://ssrn.com/author=83276. Salkin served as an appointed member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.  She has served on the Board of Directors of the New York Planning Federation, and has been active in land use reform efforts in New York including: membership on the Land Use Advisory Committee of the Legislative Commission on Rural Resources; serving as a consultant to the State Commission on the Capital Region and its land use committee; consulting for the American Planning Association’s Growing Smart initiative; and serving on a working advisory group for the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Council. She served as a reporter for the American Planning Association’s Planning & Environmental Law (the publication was discontinued) and she is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for The Urban Lawyer. Salkin served for more than a decade as chair of the American Planning Association’s Amicus Curiae Committee.  

A member of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, Dean Salkin holds and has held many leadership positions within both the ABA and the New York State Bar Association including: Past Chair of the ABA State and Local Government Section and current member of the Standing Committee on Governmental Affairs (ABA); Past Chair of the NYSBA Municipal Law Section and Founding Member and Past Chair of the NYSBA Committee on Attorneys in Public Service; and she has chaired numerous NYSBA task forces including one focusing on: government ethics, eminent domain, and town and village justice courts.

Salkin has served as a consultant to a number of local governments across New York on zoning law reform and watershed planning issues, and for state agencies including the Governor’s Office of Regulatory Reform, assisting in the development of model zoning ordinances for economic growth for the Build Now-NY program and the New York State Department of State on the shared municipal services initiative. She served as a consultant to the American Institute of Certified Planners conducting an ethics assessment for the organization. Dean Salkin has also served as a consultant several times for the National Governor’s Association, and recently served as a senior consultant to the National Academy for Public Administration on the intersection of environmental justice and land use planning and zoning.

In 2017 and 2018, Matthew Loeser, Esq. contributed a number of postings to Law of the Land. In 2018 Patricia Salkin welcomes Amy Lavine, Esq. as a regular contributor.