Clive Strong

B.S., University of Idaho ‘74; J.D., University of Idaho ‘78; LL.M., University of Michigan ‘83

Clive Strong received his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Forest Business Management in 1974 and his Juris Doctorate in 1978 from the University of Idaho. From 1978 to 1979, he was an associate in the Law Office of Lynn Farnsworth in Moscow, Idaho. From 1979 to 1981 he taught at the University of Puget Sound Law School in Tacoma, Washington. In 1981, he enrolled in the University of Michigan Law School obtaining his LLM in 1983.

In 1983, Clive joined the Office of the Idaho Attorney General as a deputy attorney general in the Natural Resources Division. In January 1985, he was appointed Chief of the Natural Resources Division in the Office of the Idaho Attorney General. Clive retired from the Office of the Idaho Attorney General in 2017.

During his thirty-four tenure with the Office of the Idaho Attorney General, Clive was responsible for coordinating all natural resource and environmental litigation for the State of Idaho. Upon his appointment as a deputy attorney general, Clive was assigned as the lead attorney in the Idaho Power v. State of Idaho case, also known as the Swan Falls controversy. He was also the lead attorney for the State of Idaho in the Snake River Basin Adjudication (SRBA) from its commencement in 1987 to its completion in 2014. The SRBA was the largest civil case in the history of the State of Idaho, adjudicating more than 158,000 water rights. Clive also served as legal counsel for the Idaho Board of Land Commissioners.

Clive is a nationally recognized expert in natural resource and environmental law. He argued the United States v. Idaho, and Coeur d’Alene Tribe v. Idaho cases in the United States Supreme Court and has argued numerous cases before the Idaho Supreme Court.

Clive is now the Legal Director of the Natural Resources and Environment for the Conference and Western Attorneys General and a natural resource and environmental law consultant.