Esty began his legal career as a corporate, trade, administrative, and environmental law attorney at
Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C. from 1986 to 1989. From 1989 to 1993, he served in senior leadership positions at the
United States Environmental Protection Agency, beginning as Special Assistant to EPA Administrator William Reilly, then as Deputy Chief of Staff, and finally as Deputy Assistant Administrator for Policy. In these roles, he helped to lead EPA’s regulatory review process and participated in key international negotiations including those leading to the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement and 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change. In 1993 and 1994, Esty was a Senior Fellow at the
Peterson Institute for International Economics, where he wrote
Greening the GATT, a highly regarded critique of the international trade system. Esty joined Yale University in 1994, becoming the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy in 2002. Esty has held visiting professorships at INSEAD (France), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), EGADE Business School (Mexico), and University of Aix-Marseille (France). == Advisory and board service ==