Rate My Professor Rachael Salcido

Professor Rachael E. Salcido is the inaugural Stephen C. McCaffrey Endowed Professor of Law and Director of the Water and Environmental Certificate of Concentration at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law. She earned a BA and JD from the University of California, Davis. She is an insightful scholar of domestic, comparative, and international environmental and natural resources law, with particular expertise in ocean and coastal law, ecosystem restoration, environmental justice, climate change law and policy, natural resources law, and property law. As the founding director of McGeorge’s Water and Environmental Law Concentration, she teaches courses including Environmental Law, Natural Resources, Ocean and Coastal Law, Climate Change Law and Policy, and Property. Her scholarship explores how law can more effectively conserve and restore natural environments that support all life on Earth, covering topics such as banning plastic, plastic activism and the Clean Water Act, retooling environmental justice, climate justice, racial capitalism, just transitions in Latin America, international environmental law, ocean governance, offshore development, and ecosystem restoration.

Salcido has published articles in leading law journals, including the Utah Law Review, Environmental Law, UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy, Tulane Law Review, and Ecology Law Quarterly. Recent works include “Banning Plastic” (2024), “Plastic Activism and the Clean Water Act” (2022), and “Retooling Environmental Justice” (2021). She co-authored Property: A Contemporary Approach (6th ed., 2024) and The Law of Hazardous Wastes and Toxic Substances in a Nutshell (3rd ed., 2018). In professional leadership, she served as President of the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law from 2022 to 2023, having previously been Treasurer and Vice President, and currently serves on the Foundation’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee (2023–2026) and the Board of Directors of the Putah Creek Council. She has presented at the American Society of Comparative Law (2024), the California Lawyers Association Environmental Law Conference (2023), and the LatCrit Biennial Conference (2023). Salcido mentors students and connects them with careers in environmental, energy, and natural resources law.