Mihir A. Desai is Counsel in the Firm’s Environmental Law Group. He provides legal counsel on complex regulatory and transactional matters, with a focus on environmental litigation.
Prior to joining Riker, Mihir served as Assistant Attorney General for the Environmental Protection Bureau of the Attorney General for the State of New York, where he counseled and represented New York and its agencies in affirmative and defensive litigation under federal and state environmental laws, including RCRA, CERCLA, CWA, ESA, SEQRA, and the New York State Environmental Conservation Law.
Mihir’s litigation experience spans a broad range of complex environmental matters. Notably, he defended New York in the first lawsuit brought under the environmental rights amendment to the New York Constitution, and represented the State in federal and state court litigation challenging congestion pricing. Mihir played a significant role in multidistrict litigation to recover New York’s costs and natural resource damages arising from PFAS contamination by fire-fighting foam. His litigation experience also extends to land use issues, encompassing agricultural districting, watershed regulations, submerged lands licensing, parkland alienation, landfill decommissioning, pine barrens conservation, and construction and demolition waste disposal.
Mihir has led and participated in multistate federal policymaking initiatives, including advocacy before the U.S. Congress and U.S. EPA to advance legislative action regarding PFAS, as well as a rulemaking petition and comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation concerning the rail transportation of crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Mihir earned his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, where he served as a staff member for the Fordham International Law Journal. He received his B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Maryland.
