K W James Rochow

K. W. James Rochow is an international environmental consultant and advocate headquartered in Washington, DC. He has had over thirty-five years of experience in environmental law and policy at all levels, from the local to the international: as agency counsel, assistant attorney-general (Pennsylvania), advocate, and NGO representative. Rochow has handled landmark environmental cases in state and federal courts, including the US Supreme Court. Internationally, he has helped orchestrate the global phase-out of leaded gasoline and initiate integrated approaches to toxics pollution as president of the Trust for Lead Poisoning Prevention (TLPP). Most recently, he has worked on natural resource sector reform in Liberia and West Africa and post-conflict restoration in partnership with international organizations and international and local NGOs. Rochow has served as staff environmental expert for UN ESCAP and has helped train developing country environmental personnel for US AID and the Environmental Law Institute.

Rochow has worked to advance sustainable development initiatives through partnering with NGO networks, such as the Global Lead Network and the Citizens’ Network for Sustainable Development, and through participating in international and regional fora, such as the CSD, Habitat II, the WSSD, the Summit of the Americas, as well as in specially convened regional meetings in Africa (Dakar), Asia (Bangkok), the Caribbean (Havana), and Latin America (Santiago). Rochow through the TLPP also is a partner in the global Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles and the Global Alliance to eliminate lead in paint.

Rochow has published many articles on environmental law and sustainable development policy and taught those subjects at numerous universities in the US and abroad, including the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs of the University of Pittsburgh, the National Law Center of George Washington University, and Hitotsubashi and Ritsumeikan universities in Japan. He has been a Japan Foundation Fellow and an East Asia Studies Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. Rochow is a graduate of Cornell University and received his JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.