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Biographies

Jon Binder

Jon Binder is the Executive Director of the Model Climate Laws Initiative and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.

The Model Climate Laws Initiative is a joint project of the Sabin Center and Environmental Advocates NY. As Executive Director, Jon leads the Initiative as it seeks to enhance legal capacity for climate action by state and local governments across the country. The Model Climate Laws Initiative aims to advance state-level climate policy nationwide by providing draft legislation, legal analysis, implementation support, and other legal tools to facilitate further progress. At a critical time, given the actions of the federal government, Jon works to demonstrate the value of additional state-level action while preserving the climate progress already made by states.

Prior to becoming Executive Director, Jon was the Deputy Commissioner for Climate Change, Air Resources, and Energy at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). In that role, Jon oversaw NYSDEC’s Division of Air Resources and Office of Climate Change, and led NYSDEC’s implementation of the State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. He was responsible for the development and execution of a wide range of policies, regulations, and other efforts to reduce air pollutant emissions and address the changing climate.

Before being appointed Deputy Commissioner, Jon served as an NYSDEC attorney for 15 years, most recently as the Chief of the Bureau of Climate, Air, and Energy. In that role, he served as NYSDEC’s lead attorney regarding climate issues, providing drafting and legal support for the promulgation of regulations, permitting decisions for major energy projects, and other clean air and energy actions.

Jon received his B.S. from Cornell University and his J.D. from Tulane University Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif with a Certificate in Environmental Law and was an editor on the Tulane Law Review.

Rick Horsch

Rick Horsch recently retired as a Partner at White & Case LLP, a global law firm, where his practice focused on U.S. environmental law and international environmental law. He was Chair of the Firm’s Global Environmental Practice for more than 25 years.

Mr. Horsch has extensive experience in the area of climate change law, including international climate change treaties. Significant representations have included:

  • Advisor to consortium of developing countries in connection with the negotiation of the Paris Climate Accord signed in 2015 and the subsequent implementation of the Paris Accord provisions;
  • Advisor to Party to Montreal Protocol in connection with 2016 negotiation of phase-down of HFCs under the Kigali Amendment to the Protocol;
  • Legal advisor to sovereign nation on the establishment and start-up of a Designated National Authority to review and approve proposed projects developed under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol; and
  • Advisor to multinational company in identifying and implementing projects to reduce the company's carbon footprint.

Mr. Horsch has successfully litigated complex environmental matters. Significant representations have included:

  • Lead counsel in lawsuit against New York City Department of Education, requiring removal of PCB lighting fixtures from classrooms in more than 700 public schools, New York Communities for Change v. NYC Department of Education (11-CV-3494, EDNY);
  • Lead counsel to class of more than 1,000 homeowners surrounding a solid waste landfill, recovering damages against one of the nation's largest waste haulers for its unlawful operation of the landfill; and
  • Lead counsel in lawsuit asserting CERCLA claims against the City of New York and against its environmental consultant arising from the presence of contaminated soils on client’s property in the Bronx, New York.

Mr. Horsch has also advised on environmental issues in mergers and acquisitions, and in project financings, domestically and internationally. He has represented parties in scores of transactions in the United States and around the world. He has handled environmental matters in such countries as South Korea, Japan, China, the Philippines, India, Chile and Mexico and many countries in Western Europe and Scandinavia.

He is an Adjunct with Columbia Law School, teaching International Environmental Law, and an Adjunct with Columbia University School of Professional Studies and Columbia’s Earth Institute, teaching U.S. Environmental law and International Environmental law.  He is on the Board of Advisors to the NYU School of Law Institute for Policy Integrity, and is Director Emeritus with the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

Joseph DiMona

Joe DiMona is a music industry attorney who was in house counsel to Broadcast Music, Inc., (BMI) the performing rights licensing organization, until leaving BMI as Vice President, Legal Affairs, after 27 years in December 2019 to pursue his interest in environmental issues, including climate change. Prior to joining BMI in 1992 Joe worked for six years as an associate at the law firm Reid & Priest in Washington, DC, where he did regulatory work for electric and gas utilities before the FERC as well as represented BMI in copyright royalty proceedings. Throughout his legal career Joe has worked on public policy issues, including legislative and regulatory matters in the copyright and music licensing areas, as well as state legislative work. Joe is experienced in digital media, and was involved in creating BMI’s first digital music licensing for Internet websites in 1995, a groundbreaking development at that time.

Joe has been a frequent speaker at legal and music industry conferences and seminars on behalf of BMI on a wide variety of music business and copyright developments. Joe received his J.D. degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1986, and graduated magna cum laude from Duke University in 1981 with a major in political science. Joe also spent a year while an undergrad at Duke living in Paris, France, studying at Sciences Po on the NYU in France program. Joe is a member of the Recording Academy, the Copyright Society of the USA, the Association of Independent Music Publishers, the American Bar Association’s Entertainment and Sports Forum and the New York City Bar Association. He is a board member of ALAI-US, the US branch of the Association Litteraire et Artistique Internationale, an international organization that protects the rights of authors and creators. Joe lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY with his wife Lisa, a literary agent with Writers House. They have two children Alessandra and Matt who work in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, California.

Marcy Kahn

Marcy L. Kahn recently retired after serving 32 years as a judge in the New York State Unified Court System, most recently as an Associate Justice of the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department. Prior to her judicial service, she was a litigation partner at Anderson Kill & Olick, P.C. and a litigation associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, both in New York City. Earlier, she served as a Special Assistant Attorney General in the Office of the New York State Special Prosecutor investigating corruption in the New York City Criminal Justice System.

In addition to hundreds of judicial opinions, she has authored five law review articles. She has developed and presented continuing education programs for the bench and bar for more than 35 years in New York and around the country on topics including environmental toxic exposures, capital punishment, domestic violence, judicial selection and human rights, including justice issues for Native Americans and LGBTQ persons. In 2019, she was one of twelve U.S. judges invited to speak by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the First Pan-American Judges’ Summit on Social Rights, the Environment and Social Justice held at the Vatican. She has participated in programming for the United Nations ECOSOC Commission on the Status of Women, including co-leading a group of international women judges at the United Nations, She has lectured for the National Judicial College, the National Tribal Law and Policy Institute, the National Center for State Courts and the United States Department of Justice, as well as for the New York Judicial Institute and various bar associations and law schools.

Justice Kahn’s leadership roles within the New York Court System and in the community have included serving as founding board chair of the New York LGBT Community Center, convener of the New York Federal-State-Tribal Courts and Indian Nations Justice Forum, co-chair of the New York Capital Cases Judicial Resource Committee, and inaugural co-chair of the Richard C. Failla LGBTQ Commission for the New York Courts. She retired from the Appellate Division in 2019 in order to do policy advocacy in the areas of climate change, human rights and the rule of law.

Karla Perri

Karla Perri is an attorney and senior executive with experience in federal and state environmental, energy, and sustainability issues. As a Member of the Spectrum Group LLC, a government affairs firm located in Alexandria, Virginia, she primarily provides strategic advice and support to corporate clients who market their products and services to the federal government. For the past several years she has focused on policy, legislative and regulatory issues in the defense energy sector. Ms. Perri is a former Presidential appointee to the Senior Executive Service at the Department of Defense, where she served as an Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense in the Office of Environmental Security. Previous federal service also includes working at the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Global Change, on issues related to the Montreal Protocol and the phase out of chlorinated solvents, and numerous other regulatory issues in both the Office of Air and Radiation, and the Office of Toxics Substances.

In addition to federal service, Ms. Perri practiced environmental litigation, was a senior lobbyist with a major trade association and worked on Capitol Hill as staff on the Joint Economic Committee, and at the Congressional Research Service. Ms. Perri is also an Assistant Adjunct Professor at UMGC and teaches graduate classes in cybersecurity governance, management, and policy.

For MCLI, she coordinates political outreach with Joe DiMona. She  is a graduate of George Washington Law School and also holds an M. A. in political science from Colorado State University.