Neil Thomas Proto's public service and private practice in law includes thirty years of experience in
land use, environmental and federal litigation, teaching at Yale and Georgetown University and writing
and speaking on a broad range of cultural and legal matters. He is a partner in the Washington, D.C.
firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis.
Since 1972, both as an appellate attorney with the United States Department of Justice (Environment and
Natural Resources Division, 1972 to 1979) and in private practice, Mr. Proto has been involved in numerous
legal, cultural and political challenges, including his representation, pro bono, of Protect Historic
America (authors and historians such as David McCullough and James McPherson), in its effort to stop Disney
from locating in the Virginia Piedmont. In 1993, Mr. Proto drafted a unique statutory scheme at the behest
of the State of Hawaii that resulted in the conveyance of Kaho'olawe Island from the United States to Hawaii
for the special use of Native Hawaiians. He continued to represent Hawaii as counsel in its dealings with
the United States through 2003.
Mr. Proto is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute (1990 to the present),
where he has taught on environmental values and energy choices and urban policy and sprawl. As a Visiting
Lecturer at Yale College (1988, 1989), he taught the history and law of commercial nuclear power. Earlier
in his career, he served as General Counsel to the President's Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee, chaired
by then Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt.
He has written many articles, including:
- "The Opinion Clause and Presidential Decision Making",
(44 Missouri Law Review 185 (1978)) - "Preservation of Baseball Tradition Is at Stake in Rose Debate,"
New Haven Register (1989)) - "Three Mile Island: A Breach of Faith Not Yet Repaired," Chicago Tribune (1989)
- "Drifting in Space: Values and a Policy Vacuum," Chicago Tribune (1987)
- "The 'Crimson Horde' captured the soul of New Haven", New Haven Register (2008)
- "To A High Court: The SCRAP Experience" (University of Seattle School of Law, November 2006)
- (as moderator) "Student Activism and the Environment"(Annual NAELS Conference, The George Washington University (March 2007))
- "PERSPECTIVE: Roberts Took Narrow View of Court's Power to Decide" (New York Law Journal, September, 2005)
- The compilation of his work on Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco
(2007) (www.SaccoVanzettiExperience.com).
Mr. Proto was elected in July 2007 to the Board of Directors of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (Hyde Park, New York), continues to serve as a member of the National Advisory Board of the Roosevelt Institution (Washington, D.C.), and chairs the American Friends of Wilton Park, a British-American educational organization with origins in World War II. He sat on the Board of Directors of the Shubert and Long Wharf Theatres in New Haven, Connecticut and recently served as chair of the City of New Haven's Committee for the Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Execution of Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco. He also co-adapted from the original Dutch (with director Tony Giordano) the musical drama, The American Dream, The Story of Sacco and Vanzetti (performed at the Shubert in April 2002). He was a recipient of the Department of Justice Special Commendation Award for Outstanding Service and the Environment and Natural Resources Division Award for Meritorious Service. Mr. Proto also received the Distinguished Alumnus Awards from Southern Connecticut State University in 1981. He is a member of the United States Supreme Court, District of Columbia and Connecticut bars.
