Alison Gocke

Alison Gocke’s research lies primarily in the fields of energy law, environmental law and administrative law, with a particular focus on the intellectual framework behind our environmental regulations. She is interested in the legal institutions and doctrines that play a central role in regulating our environmental problems, including their historical origins, what they were originally designed to address, and how they may (or may not) be changing in the face of modern environmental problems like climate change. She is also interested in how our historical and present approaches to environmental and energy regulation influence our ideas of governance more broadly. Her work is published or forthcoming in the Yale Law Journal, Harvard Environmental Law Review, Michigan Law Review, U.C. Davis Law Review, and Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum. She won the 2025 Morrison Prize from Arizona State University for the “most impactful sustainability-related legal academic paper published in North America” for her article “Public Utility’s Potential,” published in the Yale Law Journal. 

Gocke graduated with highest distinction from Princeton University with an A.B. in intellectual history and a minor in environmental studies. She holds a law degree from Stanford Law School and a Master of Science in environment and natural resources from the Stanford School of Earth Sciences. Before joining the faculty, she was a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. Previously, Gocke was the co-director of the Environmental Protection Clinic at the Yale Law School, a legal fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a law clerk to Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.