In this episode, I speak with Professor John Nolon, Elisabeth Haub School of Law,  nationally recognized as the Director of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law Land Use Law Center. Prof. Nolon discusses mortgages. After an astute explanation of the levels of analysis necessary to understand mortgages, Prof. Nolon and I discuss how this topic, and property class in general, fits into the broader picture of educating first-year law students.


John R. Nolon is Distinguished Professor of Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University where he teaches property, land use, dispute resolution, and sustainable development law courses and is Counsel to the Law School's Land Use Law Center which he founded in 1993.  He served as Adjunct Professor of land use law and policy at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies from 2001-2016.

Professor Nolon was named one of two Distinguished Professors in 2014 by Pace University. Previously, he served as the James D. Hopkins Professor from 2009-2011 and the Charles A. Frueauff Research Professor of Law during the 1991-92, 1997-98, 1999-2000, and 2000-01 academic years. He received the Richard L. Ottinger Faculty Achievement Award in 1999 and won the Goettel Prize for faculty scholarship in 2006, and was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 2016-2017.  In 2009, he was awarded the National Leadership Award for a Planning Advocate by the American Planning Association.  The International City/County Management Association presented its Honorary Membership Award to Professor Nolon in 2014, its highest award to a person outside the city management profession for exemplary service to local government. The NY Planning Federation presented him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.  He is on the advisory boards of the Sustainable Development Code, the NY Planning Federation, and the Westchester/Fairfield chapter of the Urban Land Institute.

Professor Nolon received his J.D. degree from the University of Michigan Law School where he was a member of the Barrister's Academic Honor Society. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Nebraska, where he was President of the Senior Honor Society.  He has served as a consultant to President Carter's Council on Development Choices for the 1980's, President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development, New York Governor George Pataki's Transition Team, and Governor Elliot Spitzer’s Transition Team.  He is a member of the Editorial Board of The Land Use and Environmental Law Review, published by Thomson-West and of the State and Local Government eJournal of the American Bar Association. Professor Nolon received a Fulbright Scholarship to study sustainable development law in Argentina in 1994-1995.


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In this episode, Professor Karl Coplan, Elisabeth Haub School of Law, explains Marbury v. Madison. Prof. Koplan has a particular insight into the workings of the Supreme Court having clerked for Justice Warren Berger. And, true to his commitment to environmental law, Prof. Koplan is working hard to leave a zero carbon footprint, kayaking to school. Look for an easter egg around 16:45!


Professor Karl S. Coplan has been a Professor and Associate Professor of Law at Pace Law School and director of Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic since 1994. Prior to joining the Pace faculty, he practiced land use and environmental litigation for eight years with the New York City firm of Berle, Kass & Case. As the principal outside counsel for Riverkeeper, Inc., Professor Coplan and the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic have brought numerous lawsuits enforcing the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws.  These cases include Catskill Mountains Chapter, Trout Unlimited v. City of New York, in which the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that the transfer of polluted, silt-laden water from one watershed to another required a permit pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act.  Professor Coplan has also participated in litigation and Clean Water Act permitting proceedings involving several Hudson River power plants, including the proposed Bowline 3 power plant, and the Lovett, Roseton, Danskammer, and Athens plants.

In addition to directing the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, Professor Coplan teaches courses in Environmental Law and Constitutional Law.  He is recently the author of the chapter on Citizen Suits in Environmental Litigation, Law and Strategy (ABA, Cary Perlman, Ed.)  and the chapter on Takings Law in Handbook on Constitutional Environmental Law (ABA, James May, Ed., forthcoming 2010).

Before entering private practice, Professor Coplan clerked for The Honorable Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States, and The Honorable Leonard I. Garth, Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.   Professor Coplan received his J.D. degree from Columbia Law School in 1984 and his B.A. degree from Middlebury College in 1980.

As always, if you have any suggestions for an episode topic, please let us know! You can email us at [email protected] or tweet to @lawtofact. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@lawtofact) and to like us on Facebook! And finally, your ratings and reviews matter! Please leave us a review on iTunes.

Want to stay updated on all things Law to Fact? Join our mailing list by visiting us at www.lawtofact.com. 

This episode provides an overview of the parol evidence rule and extrinsic evidence. The Parol Evidence rule is a substantive rule that regulates the introduction of evidence in a lawsuit challenging the existence of a particular term in a contract. it prevents parties from introducing evidence of prior oral or written agreements or contemporaneous oral agreements that contradict a term in a written contract. The purpose of this rule is to prevent fraud at trial. The episode also discusses extrinsic evidence, which is outside evidence used to explain a term.


As always, if you have any suggestions for an episode topic, please let us know! You can email us at [email protected] or tweet to @lawtofact. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@lawtofact) and to like us on Facebook! And finally, your ratings and reviews matter! Please leave us a review on iTunes.

Want to stay updated on all things Law to Fact? Join our mailing list by visiting us at www.lawtofact.com.