Contact Information………………………………………………………………………………2 CLE Credits Offered……………………………………………………………………………...2 Schedule………………………………………………………………………………………......2 Biographies of Moderators………………………………………………………………………15 Biographies of Panelists Urban Design……………………………………………………………………………...3 Agricultural Policy………………………………………………………………………..6 Water Quality……………………………………………………………………………..8 Litigation & Regulation………………………………………………………………….11 Keynote…………………………………………………………………………………..14
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Contact Information Suzanne Lewis, Executive Co-Chair, stim@uga.edu Brian Easley, Co-Chair, easlebt0@uga.edu Mark Grafton, Co-Chair, mgrafton03@gmail.com Hunter Jones, Co-Chair, hunterleighjones@gmail.com
CLE Credits 5.0 CLE Regular Hours for Georgia Attorneys
Schedule 9:00 a.m. – 9:20 a.m.
Breakfast
9:30 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.
Urban Design
10:30 a.m. – 11:20 a.m.
Agricultural Policy
11:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
Water Quality
12:30 p.m. – 1:20 p.m.
Lunch
1:30 p.m. – 2:20 p.m.
Litigation & Regulation
2:20 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Keynote Address
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Overview of the Conference The Red Clay Conference is an annual student run conference at the University of Georgia School of Law. This event was established to increase public awareness of environmental issues on a regional, national, and international level through a series of educational presentations and open forum discussions. The Conference attracts attorneys as well as students and interested members of the Athens community. This year’s Conference will focus on the intersection of human health and environmental law. Specifically, it consists of one keynote speaker and four panels, which will address the following topics: Urban Design, Agricultural Policy, Water Quality, and Litigation & Regulation.
Urban Design A healthy environment focuses on both the physical and social needs of the people who live in the community. In 2002, the American Planning Association included in its definition of smart growth the goal “to promote public health and healthy communities.”1 Urban planners look at the needs of the people in a given area to help shape “the conditions in which people live and work, their access to facilities and services, their lifestyles, and their ability to develop strong social networks.”2 Each of these factors plays into the overall well-being of the people, so as to prevent such harms as obesity, asthma, physical injuries, depression, and suicide.3 These ideas go hand in hand with sustainability. Planners consider what ways land should be used and consider transportation, air and water quality, land conservation, physical structures, and allocation of resources.
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http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/about.htm http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/environment-and-health/urban-health/activities/healthy-urban-design 3 http://www.designandhealth.com/uploaded/documents/Awards-andevents/WCDH2011/Presentations/Saturday/Session-10/MarkJohnson.pdf 2
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Beth Blalock Beth Blalock is the general counsel at the Georgia Conservancy. Ms. Blalock is responsible for supporting the Conservancy’s program areas – advocacy, land conservation, coastal Georgia and sustainable growth – in reviewing and providing technical expertise on important legislation, notices, contracts, and agreements. She also serves as the staff liaison to the legal committee of the Board of Trustees. Before becoming the general counsel, Ms. Blalock worked at the Conservancy as a manager of the Coastal Georgia Land Conservation Initiative (CGLCI), a partnership between the Georgia Conservancy, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia. She worked on a three-year grant to create detailed maps that show the location of globally imperiled species and habitats in the eleven coastal counties. The maps were then made available to county and city planning agencies to help guide development away from biologically sensitive areas. Prior to her work with the Conservancy, Ms. Blalock practiced environmental and land-use law with King & Spalding, Mahaffey Pickens Tucker, and the Southern Environmental Law Center. She graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law in 2003.
Jack Crowley Jack Crowley is currently the Program Coordinator for the new professional graduate degree program in Environmental Planning and Design at UGA and consults nationally and internationally. His career has been very diverse, with urban planning, design, and development at its center. Dr. Crowley received his Doctorate
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in Urban Geography and a Master’s Degree in Regional and City Planning from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Crowley has worked as a planner for an Urban Renewal Authority, Director of a small city planning commission, and as Chief Planner for Oklahoma’s State Parks and Lodges. In 1974, he moved to Athens to teach landscape architecture at the University of Georgia, followed in 1978 with a move to Tulsa to become the Executive Director of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission. In the 1980’s, Dr. Crowley served as Vice President for Development with Williams Realty Corporation, which built the Williams Center, The Tabor Center in Denver, parts of the Crowne Center in Kansas City, Independence Center in Charlotte, N.C., and Rivercenter in San Antonio. In the early 1990’s, Dr. Crowley directed Oklahoma’s Department of Transportation and then returned to the University of Georgia as the founding Dean of the College of Environment and Design.
Brian Gist Brian Gist is a Senior Attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Gist specializes in transportation, air quality, and land use issues. He has represented local, state, and national environmental groups under most of the major environmental laws. He advocates at meetings of local and state agencies for environmentally and fiscally sound decisions on transportation policies and projects. Prior to joining SELC in 2004, Mr. Gist was in private practice in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Gist received his Law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Cincinnati.
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Patrise Perkins-Hooker Patrise Perkins-Hooker is Vice President and General Counsel for the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc., as well as the State Bar President-Elect. The Atlanta Belt Line, Inc. is the entity responsible for overseeing the planning and execution of the Atlanta BeltLine, which is a sustainable redevelopment project that will provide a network of public parks, multi-use trails, and transit along a historic 22-mile railroad corridor circling downtown. Prior to joining Atlanta BeltLine, Inc., Ms. Perkins-Hooker was a partner at the law firm of Hollowell, Foster, and Gepp P.C. Ms. Perkins-Hooker is actively engaged in the Atlanta community. She is currently the Immediate Past Chair of the Real Property Law Section, the Secretary of the State Bar of Georgia, the Parliamentarian for the Atlanta Planning and Advisory Board, and the founding chair of Neighborhood Planning Unit-Q. She is also the Chair of Hosea Feed the Hungry’s Board of Directors. Ms. Perkins-Hooker earned a Bachelor’s degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Law and Business degrees from Emory University.
Agricultural Policy The practice of agriculture dates back thousands of years. Agriculture consists of the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms for food, fiber, biofuel, drugs, and other products that are used to sustain and enrich human life. 4 The systems and polices by which agriculture operates has evolved over time based on technological innovations, scientific discoveries, and social preferences. Specifically, Western governments have invested heavily in agricultural research and infrastructure over the past century in order to provide sufficient, affordable animal products as well as basic cash crops. However, the recent realization that a healthy diet requires 4
Safety and health in agriculture. International Labour Organization (1999).
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less animal consumption and more vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains has led to a push for a shift in agricultural investment, policy, and social preferences.5 The obesity epidemic sweeping across developed and developing nations is at the forefront of recent changes in agricultural policy, especially since the current agricultural system is based on past goals of consuming animal products as well as sugar, fats, and oils.6 The type and amount of foods that human beings consume has a significant impact on human health, and the agricultural policies adopted are of utmost importance to the worldwide human population.
JoHannah Biang JoHannah Biang is the Farm Manager at the University of Georgia’s UGarden, a student run farm whose mission is to build a community of students centered on a sustainable food system. Ms. Biang graduated from the University of Georgia in 2012 with a Master of Science in Horticulture. Her thesis explored substrate evaluation and irrigation scheduling for green wall systems. While obtaining her degree, Ms. Biang received a Campus Sustainability Grant in 2012, with which she constructed a living wall planted with seasonal herbs and vegetables to research and demonstrate the effectiveness of vertical gardening.
Mindy Goldstein Mindy Goldstein is the Director of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law, in which she supervises law students on all of the Clinic’s litigation, transactional, and policy matters. Prior to joining 5
Barry M. Popkin. Agricultural policies, food and public health. EMBO Rep. (Jan. 2011). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3024136/ 6 Id.
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the Clinic in 2008, Ms. Goldstein was an associate at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, where she represented clients in real estate and land use transactions. Ms. Goldstein graduated magna cum laude from the University of Maryland School of Law, where she worked in the environmental law clinic and earned a Concentration in Environmental Law. Ms. Goldstein earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Joel McKie Joel McKie is the group leader for the Agriculture Practice Group at Hall Booth Smith, P.C. in Atlanta, Georgia. The Agriculture Practice Group represents farmers and agribusinesses on such matters as seed and product warranty disputes, livestock damage cases, and farm partitions. Additionally, Mr. McKie has represented farm supply companies, transporters of agricultural products, produce distributors, poultry processors, and pecan brokers. Mr. McKie has served on the Agricultural Education Advisory Commission, the Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness task force for the Georgia Department of Agriculture, and is currently a member of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Alumni Association Committee for Public Affairs. Mr. McKie graduated cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law. Mr. McKie earned a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and Agribusiness from the University of Georgia.
Water Quality Drinking water is critically important to human, animal, and plant life. However, drinking water sources are increasingly under threat from pollution.7 Drought also endangers water quality by
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Drinking Water & Human Health in Georgia, Southern Regional Water Program, http://srwqis.tamu.edu/georgia/program-information/georgia-target-themes/drinking-water-and-human-health/.
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reducing quantity and concentrating pollutants.8 Since 1972, the Clean Water Act has provided the statutory basis for the regulation of point source pollution in the United States.9 The regulation is largely accomplished through the §402 NPDES Permit Program, which requires that point source polluters obtain a permit to legally discharge pollutants into the waters of the United States.10 The provisions of the Clean Water Act have created a framework in which attorneys play a critical role alongside scientists, administrative regulators, and politicians in protecting water quality. Through litigation, judges and attorneys have defined – though sometimes not so clearly – much of the statutory text of the Clean Water Act. Today, environmental attorneys represent a wide range of entities interested in water quality, such as companies seeking to comply and citizen’s groups protecting specific water bodies. These attorneys will continue to shape the meaning of the Clean Water Act and water quality issues in the United States.
Juliet Cohen Juliet Cohen has served as General Counsel for the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper since 2008. The Chattahoochee Riverkeeper is dedicated to the protection and preservation of the Chattahoochee River and its lakes and tributaries. Ms. Cohen has also worked as a Staff Attorney for the Eleventh Circuit United States Court of Appeals. Ms. Cohen graduated magna cum laude from American University Washington College of Law. Prior to studying law, Ms. Cohen worked on coastal protection programs in Charleston, South Carolina.
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Id. Clean Water Act, United States Environmental Protection Division, http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/cwa.cfm?program_id=45. 10 Id. 9
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Katie Sheehan Katie Sheehan is the Senior Legal Fellow at the River Basin Center in Athens, Georgia. Ms. Sheehan has focused on developing legal and policy solutions to water quality and quantity issues at the local government level. Her work has included developing model ordinances for wetlands protection, conducting community code reviews and revisions to promote low impact development, and cataloging green building practices in southeastern communities. She is currently a member of the Athens-Clarke County Oconee Rivers Greenway Commission, serves on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Land Conservation Center, and is the At-Large Member of the State Bar of Georgia's Environmental Law Section. Ms. Sheehan earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida, and she graduated cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law.
Don Stack Don Stack founded Stack and Associates, P.C. in 1993. The firm was founded to serve small businesses and individuals seeking to comply with environmental regulations. Over the past fifteen years, the firm has expanded as the need for specialized environmental legal services has grown. Mr. Stack has served as legal counsel for a variety of citizens’ groups, and Stack and Associates provides legal counsel to groups such as the Sierra Club, Altamaha Riverkeeper, and Satilla Riverkeeper. In 2006, Mr. Stack was honored with the Ogden Doremus Award for
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Excellence in Environmental Law. Mr. Stack graduated cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law.
Litigation & Regulation In the United States, we use a combination of two basic approaches to control market failures.11 One approach involves administrative agencies adopting and enforcing specific rules that are used to monitor private parties. This approach often involves input from the public and can be subject to political oversight. These characteristics define what is commonly known as regulation. The other approach is referred to as litigation. It involves the enforcement of legal standards by courts. This often involves one party suing the other and then a court deciding the rights and responsibilities between the parties. Each technique has its own pros and cons but both play an important role in protecting the environment and public health.
Patricia Barmeyer Patricia Barmeyer is a partner in King & Spalding’s Atlanta office and the head of the firm’s environmental practice. She joined the firm in 1990 after working on environmental and natural resource cases for seventeen years in the office of the Attorney General of the State of Georgia. At King & Spalding, Ms. Barmeyer has concentrated her practice in environmental litigation in the areas of water, waste, and air. Ms. Barmeyer has received many accolades. For instance, Chambers 2013 described her as “the dean of the Georgia environmental Bar,” with extensive knowledge of state and federal regulations. Ms. Barmeyer’s expertise combines a
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See, e.g., DANIEL P. KESSLER, REGULATION VS. LITIGATION: PERSPECTIVES FROM ECONOMICS AND LAW (Daniel P. Kessler eds., 2010).
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detailed knowledge of environmental law with courtroom experience in environmental cases. The environmental practice group won the “Law 360 Practice Group of the Year” award for 2010 and for 2012. Ms. Barmeyer earned her Bachelor’s degree from Hollins University and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law.
Stephanie Stuckey Benfield Stephanie Stuckey Benfield is the Executive Director of GreenLaw, a Georgia-based nonprofit law firm serving environmental and community organizations that have been adversely impacted by pollution. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and graduated cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1992. After law school, she served as a public defender and then went into private practice before being elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1999. Ms. Benfield served as a State Representative from the Decatur area for fourteen years, during which time she was a member of the Judiciary and Natural Resources Committees. Ms. Benfield’s legal expertise was recognized in 2011 when she was given the Outstanding Lawyer in Public Service Award by the Atlanta Bar Association. Ms. Benfield serves on the Boards for the Green Chamber of the South, EarthShare of Georgia, and the Olmsted Linear Parks Association. She is a member of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership Class of 2013.
Stephen O’Day Stephen O’Day is a partner at the law firm of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, where he leads the Environmental Law and Sustainability Practice
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Groups. He studied Civil Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and graduated summa cum laude from Furman University in 1976. In 1979, he graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1979. While at Harvard, Mr. O'Day served as Chairman of the Harvard Environmental Law Society. Mr. O'Day has handled environmental litigation, consultation and negotiations for over thirtythree years. He advises clients and represents them in litigation across the country in connection with the full range of environmental issues, including National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits and Clean Water Act compliance; Clean Air Act permits and compliance; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permitting and compliance; Superfund cleanups; toxic tort claims; Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act permitting and compliance; Toxic Substances Control Act compliance; right to know legislation under the Occupational Safety and Health Act; the Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act; water law; and other environmental matters. Mr. O'Day currently serves on the Executive Advisory Council for Greenprint Midtown, the sustainability imitative for Midtown Atlanta being implemented by the Midtown Alliance. He also chairs the Board of Trustees for the Southern Environmental Law Center, serves on the Board of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, and is a member of Leadership Atlanta. He also teaches environmental law as a part-time instructor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Kasey Sturm Kasey Sturm is an Associate at the law firm of Stack & Associates, P.C. in Atlanta. She joined Stack & Associates, P.C. in 2004, bringing with her a strong track record of environmental advocacy. She has
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successfully represented individuals, community groups, homeowners associations, businesses, and non-profit organizations in connection with various environmental and land use matters in state, federal, and administrative courts and before planning commissions, boards of commissioners, and other regulatory bodies. Ms. Sturm earned her Law degree and Master of Studies in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School in 2000. During law school, she worked with several environmental organizations, including The Wilderness Society and The Nature Conservancy. A native of Georgia, Ms. Sturm returned to Georgia in 2000 where she started her legal career working with the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper helping to protect water quality in the Upper Chattachoochee River watershed. She later joined the Georgia Center for Law in the Public Interest (now Green Law) as a Staff Attorney, where she continued her environmental career. Her work included grass-roots and community organizing, lobbying, and administrative appeals as well as litigation in state, federal, and administrative courts. Ms. Sturm also helped create the resource A Citizen's Guide to Fighting Water Pollution in Georgia.
Keynote Speaker Rena Steinzor Rena Steinzor is a professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law where she teaches a variety of courses, including Health, Safety and Environmental Regulation; Counseling and Negotiation; and Administrative Law. Ms. Steinzor has written extensively on efforts to reinvent environmental regulation in the United States, the use and misuse of science in environmental policy making, and the devolution of legal and administrative
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authority to the states. In addition to her faculty position, Ms. Steinzor is the President of the Center for Progressive Reform, which aims to preserve the fundamental value of the life and health of human beings and the natural environment. Ms. Steinzor edited the book A New Progressive Agenda for Public Health and the Environment, with Professor Christopher Schroeder of Duke Law School. Published in 2005, the book introduces an alternative set of values and principles to guide efforts to reform environmental law. In 2007, the University of Texas Press published Ms. Steinzor’s book, Mother Earth and Uncle Sam: How Pollution and Hollow Government Hurt Our Kids. Prior to joining the law school faculty at the University of Maryland, Ms. Steinzor led the environmental practice at Spiegel & McDiarmid, a Washington D.C. law firm that specializes in the representation of state and local government entities in the energy and environmental areas. Before joining Spiegel & McDiarmid, Ms. Steinzor served as counsel to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Transportation & Tourism of the House Energy & Commerce Committee. Specifically, Ms. Steinzor advised the Subcommittee during its consideration of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 and the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act of 1986. Ms. Steinzor is a 1976 graduate of Columbia Law School and a 1971 graduate of the University of Wisconsin.
Moderators: Christian Turner, Urban Design Christian Turner is an Associate Professor at the University of Georgia School of Law where he teaches courses on property law, natural resources law, land use, and the regulation of knowledge
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and information. He previously taught at the Fordham University School of Law. Before entering academia, he worked as an associate at the Wiggin and Dana law firm in Connecticut and as a judicial clerk for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Professor Turner also interned at the White House Council on Environmental Quality in 2000. His scholarship focuses on the regulation of information, the regulation of natural resources, and applying his mathematical training to legal theory. Professor Turner graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and was named Mathematics Undergraduate of the Year. He earned his Doctorate from Texas A&M University in 1999 before graduating from Stanford Law School in 2002. At Stanford, Professor Turner served as president of the Stanford Law Review and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.
Peter Appel, Agricultural Policy Peter Appel is the Alex W. Smith Professor of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law where he teaches environmental law, natural resources law, and property. Professor Appel’s research spans the use of law to promote sustainable commerce, wilderness preservation and the courts, and more traditional doctrinal scholarship in environmental and natural resources law and property. In addition to teaching at Georgia Law, Professor Appel has served as an instructor to senior members of federal agencies. He has trained federal wilderness managers at the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center – a facility in Missoula, MT, run jointly by all federal agencies responsible for wilderness management – both in person and by webinar. He also taught environmental laws and regulations to employees of the United
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States Army Corps of Engineers. Professor Appel developed a practical understanding of environmental issues through his six years of service as an attorney with the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Prior to holding that position, he served as a judicial clerk for Chief Judge Gilbert S. Merritt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Professor Appel earned his Bachelor and Law degrees from Yale University, where he served on the notes editing committee of the Yale Law Journal and was a member of the Yale Law and Policy Review.
Laurie Fowler, Water Quality Laurie Fowler is Associate Dean of Administrative Affairs at the University of Georgia’s Odom School of Ecology and holds adjunct status at the University of Georgia School of Law. She is also the Director for Policy and Managing Director of the River Basin Center in Athens, Georgia. At the law school, she teaches the Environmental Practicum. Through the Environmental Practicum and placements with the clinical extern program, Professor Fowler directs clinical students in law, ecology, environmental design, economics, and other disciplines in service learning projects to protect critical natural resources. Professor Fowler and her students work with elected officials, planners, developers, and residents in watersheds throughout the state to devise sustainable environmental policies. They developed the framework for a regional watershed protection organization that has been adopted in the Etowah watershed, drafted conservation subdivision and transferable development rights legislation - signed into law - at the state and local levels, drafted conservation easements to protect riverfront land, and led a team of scientists and lawyers in helping a consortium of local
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government in north Georgia develop the Southeast's first aquatic habitat conservation plan under the Endangered Species Act. Professor Fowler has been honored on numerous occasions for her work to protect the environment and better the quality of life for local and state residents. Before joining Georgia Law, Professor Fowler served as co-director and attorney for The Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation of Georgia, had her own environmental law practice, and served as executive director of the Georgia Environmental Policy Institute. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of the South, her Law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law and her Master of Laws from the University of Washington School of Law.
Timothy Meyer, Litigation & Regulation Timothy Meyer is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law where he teaches courses on international business transactions, constitutional law, international environmental law, and international trade. His research interests focus on questions of institutional design in both public and private international law. Professor Meyer’s current research examines the design of international legislative institutions; the fragmentation of international energy governance and the relationship between international energy institutions and climate change institutions; why states choose to codify customary international law; and why states create non-binding "soft law" obligations, rather than binding treaty obligations. Before coming to Athens, he practiced law for several years at the U.S. Department of State Office of the Legal Adviser, where he represented the United States in commercial arbitrations and real property transactions all over the world. In
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addition, Professor Meyer represented the United States in negotiations with a number of foreign governments on diplomatic law issues. Before joining the State Department, he served as a judicial clerk to Judge Neil M. Gorsuch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. Professor Meyer earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in history from Stanford University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his Law degree and Doctorate in jurisprudence and social policy from the University of California, Berkeley. While at Berkeley, he held a Public Policy and Nuclear Threats Fellowship from the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.
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