Key Staff

Michael D. Fiorentino

Michael D. Fiorentino is the Executive Director of MAELC, and has served in this capacity since 2004. He is also Vice-Chair of the Air Quality Technical Advisory Committee for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Formerly, he served as Senior Attorney and Air Program Manager for Clean Air Council, an environmental non-profit with offices in Pennsylvania and Delaware and over 7,000 members, as well as a tour of duty as its Harrisburg Director. Mr. Fiorentino has served on the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s Energy Task Force, on the Pennsylvania DEP’s Ozone Stakeholders Group, and on the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s New Source Review Workgroup. He has litigated environmental matters before federal and state courts, as well as administrative agencies, and has testified on energy issues before the Pennsylvania state legislature.  Mr. Fiorentino has presented on the subject of Electronic Research for a Pennsylvania Bar Institute continuing legal education seminar. He has authored “The Small Business Compliance Guide for Key Federal Air Regulations” and co-authored “Title V: A Citizens’ Guide to the Stationary Source Permitting Process.” He speaks publicly on  Renewable Energy, Superfund, Global Warming, Incinerators, and other issues. Mr. Fiorentino has also been a guest on the "Radio Times" program on WHYY-FM 90.9, on the "Michael Smerconish Morning Show" on WPHT-1210AM, and on the Delaware Tonight Legal Lessons news broadcast on WHYY-TV 12. Mr. Fiorentino holds a J.D. from Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh, PA, where he chaired the Environmental Law Society, receiving an award for this service, and also made written contributions to the Law School’s Juris publication. His B.A. in Communications is also from Duquesne University.

James R. May

James R. May is a Professor of Law at Widener University, Delaware Campus, teaching a broad array of environmental law courses, as well as constitutional law and civil procedure. Professor May is the founder and former executive director of Mid-Atlantic Environmental Law Center, and also directed the law school's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic from 1992-2004, during which time the clinic successfully litigated more than 200 cases for 50 non-profit environmental groups in a dozen federal and state courts across the country.  He currently serves as Of Counsel to the Center and is a member of its Board.

Professor May is the former director of Widener University's Summer Institute at the MacQuarie University Environmental Law Centre in Sydney, Australia, Visiting Associate Director of the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown Law Center, Visiting Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and summer faculty at Vermont Law School.  Among his leadership roles with the national Bar, Professor May is past Chair of the ABA's Section on Environment and Energy Resources' Inaugural Task Force on Constitutional Law and a past Vice-Chair for its Water Quality and Wetlands Committee.  He frequently presents on Environmental and Constitutional Law subjects at continuing legal education conferences sponsored by the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association, the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute, and other bodies.  Professor May has published extensively, most recently A Jurisprudence of Ideology, 24 Envtl. Forum 22 (2007), and Justice Rehnquist and the Dismantling of Environmental Law, 36 Envtl. L. Rptr 10585 (2006)(both with Rob Glicksman); Constituting Fundamental Environmental Rights Worldwide, 23 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. (2006); Discharges from Historic Mining Properties: Asserting and Defending Citizen Suits Under the Clean Water Act,  50 Rocky Mt. Min. L. Inst. 23-1 (2004);  and The Availability of State Environmental Citizen Suits 18 Nat'l Res. &  Env. 53 (2004).  He earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, where he won the Bowman Award, his J.D. from the University of Kansas, where he was a national champion in the National Environmental Moot Court Competition, and his LL.M. from Pace University School of Law, where he was the Feldshuh Environmental Fellow and graduated first in his class.