ROBERT WYMAN

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FIRM: Latham & Watkins LLP

LAW SCHOOL: University of Virginia

CLIENTS: E-Solar Energy Innovations, United Solar Guide, Sempra

For Robert Wyman, a partner at Latham & Watkins, it was either science or law, and law won.

The decision was driven by his desire for involvement in public policy.

“Legal training and legal practice is probably an effective way to be involved in public dialogue,” he said.

Public policy is a family tradition.

“Going back to about 100 years, I had ancestors that included a governor, a minister and a school superintendent,” he said. “Those histories have gone down through my family and shape our values and interests.”

His great-great-great grandfather’s cousin was William Slade, who was governor of Vermont in the 1840s.

Had he not pursued law, Wyman said he probably would have become a college professor.

He has spent most of his career in California, but Wyman has clients throughout the United States, and in other countries such as France, the United Kingdom and Japan, advising foreign clients on the design of emission trading markets.

Wyman said that his best career moment was his role in the development of the Regional Clean Incentives Market. The state program was launched in 1994 and gives polluters the right to buy credits when they exceed limits or sell them when they meet them. The goal is to provide an incentive to reduce toxic emissions.

“It was one of the highlights of my career,” he said. “It was an opportunity to be creative and to marry the environmental and economic interests for Southern California.”

As for the green elements of his lifestyle, he is researching a renewable energy supply for his home.

He’s also recently tuned up his spare time by learning the piano and guitar.

“I like folk music and popular songs and rock,” he said. “This week I’m learning Creedence Clearwater Revival, but I really want to play like James Taylor.”

When he’s not practicing music, Wyman spends time with his family or reads for his reading group. The current book is “What Is the What?” a fictionalized memoir of a “lost boy” of Sudan, by Dave Eggers.

Alexandra Hinojosa