Fall 2010 Loquitur—The Alumni Magazine for Vermont Law School by Vermont Law School

fall 2010

Law for the Future of Our Oceans

Contents 3 4

The calamity of the April 20th explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico has energized the Vermont Law School community.

Left and cover: Jonathan Knowles/Getty Images

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Letter from Dean Jeff Shields Discovery The iEE launches smart-grid research, our Land use Clinic furthers creative work with students and Vermont organizations, a new EPA program reaches out to minority and low-income communities, and VLS unveils plans to build a Center for Legal Services.

Leviathan in the aftermath of the BP oil spill in the Gulf, many at Vermont Law School have learned more about who they are, what work engages them, and how law and policy can serve to prevent such environmental and economic calamities in the future.

Reunion 2010 Faculty Highlights Professor rebecca Purdom envisions the benefits of distance learning, the u.S.-China Partnership flourishes under Professor Siu tip Lam’s leadership, Fulbright Scholar David Mears travels to Sun Yat-sen university, and the school bids farewell to Professor Paul Ferber, who started the General Practice Program.

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Class Notes

In Memoriam

Report of Giving Catch up on news from your classmates, including profiles of Colleen Connor ’85 and Helena WoodenAguilar ’02.

fall 2010

Loquitur Fall 2010 Volume 24, Number 1 President and Dean Jeff Shields Executive Director of Institutional Advancement Matt Rizzo Editor Carol Westberg Production Editor Jennie Clarke Contributing Editor Kimberly Evans Contributing Writers John Cramer Meg Lundstrom Mark McCrackin Special Thanks To Milo Cutler Susan Davidson Jennifer Hayslett Dorothy Behlen Heinrichs Mary Lou Lorenz Design Glenn Suokko, Inc. Printing Capital Offset Company, Inc. Published by Vermont Law School 164 Chelsea Street, PO Box 96 South Royalton, VT 05068 www.vermontlaw.edu

Printed with soy-based inks on recycled paper ÂŠ 2010 Vermont Law School

Laura DeCapua

Send address changes to alumni@vermontlaw.edu or call 802-831-1313

Letter from Dean Jeff Shields Dear Alumni and Friends, Many of our alumni are working to deal with the horrible damage the BP oil spill has done to the Gulf Coast. others are helping enact or enforce regulations and processes that will decrease the chance of further catastrophes. At the law school, our students are studying issues such as international law and government regulation of deep sea drilling, corporate exposure to and limits on tort litigation, effective ways to speedily compensate victims of environmental pollution, and other areas of the law that relate to this crisis. The magnitude of the catastrophe and the effects it will have for decades to come on the well-being of citizens and ecosystems along the gulf support the relevance of our environmental programs and the importance of well-trained environmental leaders. We continue to attract very strong students to our Master of Environmental Law and Policy program, taken alone or in conjunction with the JD degree. We also continue to attract many of the best scholars and faculty activists in the environmental area. of course, we could not be successful in this critical environmental work and in educating advocates in all areas of the law without the financial assistance we receive from our alumni and friends. Thank you for the continuing support reflected in this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s report of Giving. Warm regards.

Geoffrey B. Shields President, Dean, and Professor of Law

fall 2010

Discovery VLS Launches Land Use Clinic

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Land Use Clinic Associate Director Peg Elmer

Current project partners include the Vermont Land use Education & training Collaborative, the Connecticut river Watershed Council, Smart Growth Vermont, and the Vermont Planners Association.

VLS Starts Smart-Grid Research Project in April, u.S. representative Peter Welch announced a $450,000 federal grant to VLS’s institute for Energy and the Environment (iEE) to conduct smart-grid research and analysis aimed at updating the u.S. power grid. The iEE was selected to lead the smart-grid project in recognition of their leadership, reputation, and national acclaim on energy law and policy issues. The Department of Energy grant will enable the iEE to work toward two goals: • to assess the u.S. power grid’s legal and regulatory structures in an effort to improve load management and system efficiency. • to create legal and regulatory standards that address privacy, confidentiality, and liability issues.

Mark Washburn

The new Land use Clinic (LuC) is providing six VLS students the opportunity to work on projects this fall (and maybe more next spring) that address pivotal land use issues locally, regionally, and nationally. The goal of the clinic is to train students for the interdisciplinary and multifaceted practice of land use law while providing a much-needed public service. Vermont is a leader in the field of land use, using multiple strategies to encourage thriving downtowns, creative local economies, stewardship of working landscapes, and natural resource systems. teresa Clemmer is serving as acting director of the LuC until Professor David Mears returns from his Fulbright, and Peg Elmer is associate director. Elmer, the former associate director of the Land use institute at VLS, is a professional planner who has worked on local, state, and national land use policy issues for more than 30 years. Katherine Garvey LLM’10 is the staff attorney for the clinic. “Without trying, we’re finding ourselves working with VLS alums on almost every project and with every new partner we meet,” says Elmer. “They’re the leaders out there in the field!” The clinic includes weekly seminars on land use issues and skills, as well as weekly meetings to discuss projects, research strategies, client relations, and professional and ethical considerations. The Land use Clinic gives specific attention to projects that meet one of the following priorities: to encourage compact settlement in rural villages; to maintain the vitality of historic downtowns; to maintain a viable working landscape, such as supporting sustainable agriculture and forestry operations; to mitigate negative human impacts; to plan for healthy natural resource systems; and to improve the capacity of volunteer rural land use decision makers.

Project Leader Kevin Jones and Smart Grid Fellow Christopher Cooper will look for ways to improve the reliability, cost, and environmental impacts of the nation’s energy policy. Jones has been at the center of the transformation of the electric power industry in the Northeast as the director of power market policy for the Long island Power Authority (LiPA) and as the former director of energy policy for the City of New York. LiPA is one of the largest municipal utilities in the nation and is a leader in energy conservation and alternative energy technologies. Cooper founded the Network for New Energy Choices, where he wrote “Freeing the Grid,” the first ranking of state net metering policies. He also cowrote “renewing America,” an analysis of federal renewable portfolio standards that was used as a briefing book during the u.S. Senate debate over renewable portfolio standard legislation in 2007.

U.S. Rep. Peter Welch announced a grant to support smart-grid research.

Vermont Law School has formally unveiled its plan to convert the historic building at 190 Chelsea Street into a vibrant new Center for Legal Services. The renovated structure will house the South royalton Legal Clinic (SrLC), the Environmental and Natural resources Law Clinic (ENrLC), and the VLS Barrister’s Bookshop. The SrLC and ENrLC have outgrown their quarters elsewhere on campus. Both clinics train law students and provide free legal services to the community. “our new Center for Legal Services,”

says Dean Jeff Shields, “will allow VLS to expand our ability to represent people and communities in dire need.” The site’s 14,700 square feet will give the clinics ample space for the faculty, staff, and student clinicians, who often work late at night to meet case deadlines. The book shop will have an increased product line as well as indoor and outdoor seating for students, faculty, staff, and the community. A formal fund-raising campaign kicked off in September for the $3.5 million renovation of the building, which VLS bought in 2009. Final architectural plans for the interior configuration were unveiled to VLS faculty and staff at a kickoff event in November and can be seen at www.ver montlaw.edu/CenterForLegalServices. renovation is slated to start in June 2011 and to be completed by September 2012. The two-story building overlooking the South royalton town green will be historically preserved and upgraded to the highest standards of energy efficiency using best green building practices. The work will be partially funded by a $250,000 energy efficiency grant from the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund. For more information, contact Jennifer Hayslett, Senior Director for Capital and Major Giving, at 802-831-1318 or email her at jhayslett@vermontlaw.edu.

The future home of the Center for Legal Services

The former Freck’s Department Store is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Leslie Staudinger was honored for 25 years at Vermont Law School.

A Fond Farewell to Leslie Staudinger

Mark Washburn

A New Center for Legal Services

Josh Larkin

“This project will provide the much needed legal and policy foundation to protect customer information, while increasing the efficiency of managing the transmission system, which will greatly reduce financial costs, environmental emissions, and reliability concerns,” the institute’s director, Michael Dworkin, said. “improvements to load management and system efficiency, including upgrades to the network cables, transformers, and power stations, will require a detailed assessment of legal and regulatory structures on the national, regional, and state levels.”

VERMONT LAW SCHOOL 190 Chelsea street

on June 30, staff, faculty, and friends gathered for a tea party at the outdoor classroom to wish Special Projects Coordinator Leslie Staudinger farewell and good luck in her future endeavors. Participants celebrated Staudinger’s wide-ranging contributions to the law school in her 25 years of service, and many took turns with the “talking stick” to tell about their experiences working with Staudinger. “Leslie loves Vermont Law School and its community,” said Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Diversity Shirley Jefferson. “Her commitment to enhance student life on this campus will resonate for years to come. We wish Leslie the best as she embarks on her new journey in life.” in 1985 Staudinger joined the VLS team in the Environmental Law Center and through the years served in many capacities, including director of alumni affairs, staff assistant and program coordinator to Legal Writing, housing officer, and Special Assistant to the Dean of Student Affairs and Diversity. She leaves a legacy at VLS, from her vision to transform the Debevoise Hall Belfry room into a meditation space, to her guidance and nurturing as an advisor to the National Lawyer’s Guild and other student groups, to the spirit in the hearts of many Vermont Law School contra dancers.

fall 2010

Discovery

From Commencement 2010: Abel Russ ’10 Looks a Crisis in the Eye It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work. — From “The Real Work” by Wendell Berry

John Douglas/Flying Squirrel Graphics

From Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes, the great minds behind our model of economic development have advocated for the promotion of competition and greed because they imagined that these would generate material prosperity. But they saw it as a temporary, transitional stage. They looked forward to a time when we would move into a steady-state economy based on more noble values.

Abel Russ spoke at the VLS commencement on May 22, 2010.

That time is here. Free market capitalism has ignored the natural limits to growth. The old way of doing things is physically unsustainable. Our first big challenge is to look this crisis in the eye and be honest about what we see. The best kind of legal training is informed by ecological values—sustainability, diversity, community. We all know that the law moves slowly. And yet at this point, we can’t settle for marginal adjustments. We have to look for ways to achieve a better standard of living with a steady-state economy. We have to work

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toward what E.F. Schumacher called the “economics of permanence.” And to do this we have to mix our legal training with our common sense and whatever other resources we find, and get creative. There’s no lack of leadership. It’s all around us right here in the network of small farms and local economies that Vermont is famous for. Our economic system has historically focused on increasing labor productivity, but if we’re serious about conserving energy and giving people jobs, we’re going to have to throw that into reverse. Around here we know how to prioritize cooperation over competition. Give people work that fulfills them. Look around, find promise in existing arrangements, and help these ideas grow. As we go out into the world, we’ll carry the spirit of our community with us. Be kind and be honest; be critical in assessing our problems; and be creative in finding solutions. This is how we can help create a new society in the shell of the old. To hear Abel Russ’s full speech, as well as the address by Howard Dean, go to www. vermontlaw.edu/News_and_Events /News/ Dean_Urges_VLS_Graduates_ to_ be_ Active_Citizens.htm

Fine-Tuning Advancement and Careers Times are changing, our student body is growing more diverse, and Vermont Law School continues to fine-tune the ways it coordinates the efforts of our talented staff in institutional advancement and career services. We have reorganized the Office for Institutional Advancement to address our upcoming capital campaign. Dorothy Heinrichs will coordinate the campaign under the direction of new Executive Director of Institutional Advancement Matt Rizzo. Rizzo joined VLS in March

after spending four years on the development team at Middlebury College. He brings over 10 years of experience in major and principal giving, board development, and capital campaigns. In his new position, he will oversee all institutional fund raising and alumni relations at VLS. As senior director for capital and major giving, Jenn Hayslett takes the lead role in fund raising for a vibrant new Center for Legal Services at 190 Chelsea Street that will house the VLS flagship clinical programs. Patrick Berry now leads our government and foundation relations, focusing on environmental programs. Susan Davidson directs the annual fund and our Leaders’ Circle, and Kim Evans manages alumni relations, focusing on regional programming and reunion efforts. A strong support staff keeps the engine running for what has already been a successful effort during the silent phase of the campaign. Look for new information on this exciting effort in the coming months on the VLS website. Career Services has been reorganized under the guidance of Vice President Dennis Stern. In recognition of the challenges presented by today’s job market, a much larger portion of Career Service’s resources will be devoted to direct interaction with employers in an effort to significantly increase the number of student interviews. Lou Helmuth ’84 and Matthew Houde are now assigned to full-time pursuit of employers. This fall and spring, they will visit 20 cities, some multiple times, to talk to employers about jobs for our students. The other members of Career Services will be focused primarily on student counseling and organization of various group meetings and presentations to prepare students for their job search. Abby Armstrong ’84 and Misae Nishikura work with current VLS students, and Susan Ross ’95 works with recent graduates. These frontline officers are backed by a terrific staff as they go about the very important jobs of guiding students toward fulfilling careers.

EPA Fellows Kick Off Minority Outreach Program The ENRLC Celebrate a Victory at Pleasant Point At a July cookout and celebration, members of the Passamaquoddy tribe thanked the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic for their help with a successful suit to block construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal on the Passamaquoddy Bay in Maine. Enjoying the campfire at Pleasant Point are ENRLC student clinicians Maximilian Merrill ’12 and Jordan Gonda ’11, Hannah Clemmer (daughter of ENRLC Acting Director Teresa Clemmer), and student clinicians Leslie Welts ’11, Jason Loh ’11, Sophia Yazykova ’11, and Elizabeth Newbold ’11.

Vermont Law Review Volume 35: Corporate Creativity and Stop the Beach’s Legacy

Mark Washburn

As part of the EPA’s first organized effort to train more lawyers to handle environmental justice issues in minority and low-income communities, which bear a disproportionate amount of health and environmental impacts from pollution, VLS brought five North Carolina Central University Law School students to our 2010 Summer Session. The NCCU students named as EPA fellows—Ilesanmi Adaramola, Justin Anderson, Wendell Fortson, Chimezie Okobi, and Jennifer Perez—said their summer experience made them realize how much environmental issues affect a community’s quality of life. Anderson, who has a background in sociology, said environmental law is broadening his concept of public service. “I’ve talked to so many students here about pollution, invasive species, water quality, agricultural practices, and land development,” he said. “Everyone’s very passionate.” VLS Professor Mark Latham said he got involved in the EPA program because minority communities haven’t been fully represented in the environmental arena. “It’s an important voice that hasn’t been heard,” he said. “I think VLS connecting with this historically black law school is an exciting opportunity to address that problem.” NCCU Professor Kevin Foy, who teaches his school’s lone environmental law class, accompanied his students to VLS for the Summer Session. Foy, a veteran of the environmental movement and a former mayor of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said the depth and breadth of environmental courses at VLS give the NCCU students a unique opportunity, especially when it comes to sustainable land use issues. He said few black lawyers have specialized in the environment

EPA fellows from NCCU Law School (front, L-R) Justin Anderson, Chimezie Okobi, Wendell Fortson, (back, L-R) Jennifer Perez, and Ilesanmi Adaramola, visited with Professor Mark Latham at VLS.

because protecting wildlife and trees is associated with “white privilege,” while low-income families typically focus on jobs, education, crime, and medical care. “I think it’s also been a sense that you can’t do anything about pollution and other forms of environmental injustice, and there’s a general lack of awareness of the health problems caused by pollution,” he said.

Vermont Law Review is pleased to announce the publication of the first two issues of Volume 35. The fall issue showcases articles and speeches from the Vermont Law Review’s 10th Annual Symposium on Corporate Creativity, the Vermont low-profit limited liability company (L3C), and other developments in social entrepreneurship. The winter issue contains a series of essays on judicial takings and states’ rights in response to last term’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, along with an exploration of Executive Orders. Both issues will be in print in December of 2010. Please contact us at Vermont Law Review, Attn: Business Manager, PO Box 96, South Royalton, Vermont 05068, to subscribe or to order a single issue, or visit our website at http://lawreview.vermontlaw.edu/subscriptions/subscriptions.htm.

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8â&#x20AC;&#x192; loquitur

Any hope of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering. He makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. Nothing on earth is his equal—a creature without fear. Leviathan, from Job 41

Ann Cutting/Getty Images

By Mark McCrackin

eating was an impossible luxury for Peter Van Tuyn JD/MSEL’89 several days this past summer. “I ate breakfast,” he says. “At least I ate breakfast.” Van Tuyn was in Washington, D.C., far from his home in Anchorage, to discuss strategy with his clients, haggle over policy with congressional staffers, and spend nights in a hotel room reviewing hundreds of pages of proposed legislation. Bills were making their way to the floors of the House and the Senate, with or without Van Tuyn and his clients. So breakfast was not only the best meal of Van Tuyn’s 18-hour working days, but often the only one. For hundreds, if not thousands, of environmental advocates, business executives, legislators, lawyers, policymakers, scientists, bureaucrats, journalists, and lobbyists, the months following the April 20th explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico have been both the materialization of a nightmare and the opportunity to affect— for better or for worse—how and to what extent the nation protects its environment as it harvests energy. No matter how miserable the circumstances of this tradeoff, says Van Tuyn, “this is what we do, and now is the time to do it.” For many at Vermont Law School, this calamity has served to illuminate who they are and what they do best. This is the work of their lives, the place where their hearts engage. fall 2010 9

“The BP disaster . . . has energized the conservation community like never before.”

At the Fo un datio n: Hu man Rights

“The most fundamental human right,” says Stephanie Farrior, “is the right to life. Every government has the obligation to protect that right; this includes making adequate provision in law and regulation for protecting human life. At the very base level, we have to ask if our government was doing this in its regulation of oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.” Farrior, professor of law and director of VLS’s International and Comparative Law Program, decided to go to law school to become a more effective human rights advocate. She has served Amnesty International in a variety of roles, most recently as its legal director and general counsel. “I bring these experiences into the classroom to share how human rights law operates in practice,” she says. Flowing from the basic right to life, says Farrior, are the right to a livelihood (diminished for those who make their living from the Gulf), the right to a remedy (the government obligation to ensure compensation if rights are violated), and the rights of indigenous people (includes protection of their cultural traditions). “One can add to this,” says Farrior, “a human right to environmental protection. Consider that shoreline contamination will kill trees and promote destruction of natural defenses against hurricanes, affecting the lives of everyone on the Gulf.” Perhaps the most egregious aspect of the disaster for her is “its disproportionate burden on poor people, who are least able to recover from its impact and achieve redress.” T he Pe o ple Can Act In the past three Summer Sessions, Michael Sutton has teamtaught the Ocean and Coastal Law course, which enrolled more students this June than ever before. He is a government official, lawyer, writer, professor, vice president of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, director of its Center for the Future of the

10 loquitur

Oceans, and a member of California’s powerful Fish and Game Commission. But when he talks about protection of oceans, he is first and foremost a strategist. “The marine environment blip is faint on the public and political radar,” he says. “But oil spills are the most prominent problem of oceans, so we can use the very small window provided by the Gulf spill to make progress on better regulation.” Sutton credits “political interference and local constituent issues” for the exceedingly slow pace of meaningful, sciencebased policy reform. “The oceans have always been a bipartisan issue: both parties are equally bad!” While he was developing ocean conservation programs at the World Wildlife Fund and then the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Sutton supported efforts to pass the California Marine Life Protection Act, enacted in 1999, requiring the state to establish a new network of marine reserves to protect waters along its coastline. In 2006, California voters approved the largest conservation bond issue in U.S. history. “The people realized that what we’ve been doing to manage our oceans hasn’t succeeded,” Sutton says. “Our experience in California might provide a preview of what will happen nationally. But it will be a tough job.” He says that Congress is looking at passing a number of laws, including the CLEAR Act, which borrows an idea from California to create an ocean-protection trust fund with revenues from drilling leases. Sutton says his students at Vermont Law School are universally engaged. “For their final exam last summer, we asked them to write testimony for the Secretary of the Interior describing the government’s immediate response to the disaster and plans for changing statutes.” He says that he expects many of these students will go into public interest law. “No one will ever say the BP disaster was a good thing, but it has energized the conservation community like never before, to the benefit of the nation.”

George Marks/Getty Images

—Michael Sutton, Vice President, Center for the Future of the Oceans, Monterey Bay Aquarium

“Canada has begun to integrate safety- and environmental-management systems into their offshore regulations, and we need to understand how and to what effect.” —Betsy Baker, Senior Fellow for Oceans and Energy, Institute for Energy and the Environment

A Lo ng an d Win ding Roa d

“What’s happened was not just a matter of what the Minerals Management Service or any other regulatory agency did wrong,” says Betsy Baker. “It is as much a problem of how our administrative law is wrong and how it needs to be changed.” Baker, visiting associate professor and senior fellow for oceans and energy in the Institute for Energy and the Environment, has a steady faith in the deliberative process and a conviction that it can also be creative, yielding new solutions to stubborn problems. So it’s no surprise that she consorts with scientists. “There’s a great sense of excitement among marine and geophysical scientists that, under the new administration, they can now bring science to bear, free of political interference,” she says. Her particular interest is the Arctic Ocean and, most recently, Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas Guidelines (AOOGG), a technical document produced by a working group of the Arctic Council, of which the United States is a member. With firsthand experience of how offshore science is done—she has sailed with scientists on the research icebreaker USCGC Healy—Baker uses the AOOGG itself as her own kind of research laboratory. Her students have compared how U.S. and Canada measure up to the guidelines in the western Arctic, with top-level implications for administrative law. The two nations are attempting to balance traditional prescriptive regulation with a systems-management approach based on goal- or performance-oriented regulation. “In the wake of BP, some are calling for tougher prescriptive regulation, but I lean the other way,” says Baker. “My interest is how we incentivize drillers and draw out the best of what industry can do. Canada has begun to integrate safety- and environmental-management systems into their offshore regulations, and we need to understand how and to what effect.” As she is actively involved in studying these issues and engaging her students in the research, Baker maintains a long and hopeful view of regulation-making. “Like every coastal

nation, in the Arctic, the United States is now revisiting its offshore drilling guidelines. So we’re particularly delighted that President Obama issued an executive order in July spelling out our national ocean policy and national aspirations for marine stewardship,” she says. “This national policy on oceans, coasts, and the Great Lakes will provide guiding principles to constituencies across our government and, I hope, lead to an ‘oceans act’ like the one that Canada created in 1996. But remember that the executive order was at least eight years in the making and took a disaster to bring it to fruition. This is not a fast or easy job.” It Takes a Co urt

Litigation may be the weapon of last resort, but sometimes it’s the weapon that works. Peter Van Tuyn, who was recently skipping meals to help make laws, served 12 years as litigation director of Trustees for Alaska, a nonprofit, public-interest environmental law firm. In 2007, as a private-practice attorney, he filed suit in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals against the Secretary of the Interior on behalf of the Native Village of Point Hope, Alaska, a remote village of 700 people on the spit of land extending into the Chukchi Sea, and two conservation

Throughout the fall 2010 semester, Professor Betsy

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Independent Research Project (IRP) Reading Group where students, faculty, and staff come

Baker is hosting a

together and discuss current oil spill legal scholarship and explore opportunities for students’ independent research projects. For a complete reading list, go to www.vermontlaw.edu/x11970.xml.

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For a time last summer, all six U.S. Coast Guard offices

the Coast Guard has served as America’s principal law-of-

responding to the BP disaster had responders, including

the-sea agency since 1790, she thinks that “if there is any

attorneys, on duty 24/7, and Heather Spurlock Kennealy

one agency that can do this job, it’s the Coast Guard. The

JD/MSEL’02 burned the midnight oil. “I’ve got to admit,”

motto is Semper Paratus—always prepared.”

she says, “it was something I’d never done in private prac-

Kennealy has found immense gratification in her work.

tice! Working long hours is a whole different matter from

“As a lawyer, you want to be challenged,” she says, “and

working 7 pm to 7 am.”

the challenges here are novel. There are not a lot of prec-

On April 26th—just days after the BP Deepwater Hori-

edents. So from a legal perspective, our work is exciting.

zon well erupted into the Gulf—Kennealy started as a civil-

But mostly I’m glad I work here because the Coast Guard

ian employee in the Coast Guard’s Claims and Litigation

accepts protecting natural resources and the environment

Division, where she and her colleagues pursue and defend

as its responsibility. That is one of our missions; no matter

against claims. Part of their work, in concert with other

how great the challenge.”

federal agencies, is to seek reimbursement for response costs, as provided by law. Speaking for herself and not the Service, Kennealy explains that the Coast Guard, as the Federal On-screen Coordinator, operates the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command to coordinate the response activities of 16 government agencies. The Unified Command is made up of 14 government agencies, state and local governments, and the Responsible Party. She makes the distinction that the Coast Guard’s oversight with deepwater drilling operations is primarily safety, not authorization of permits or leases, which rests with the Department of the Interior. What is it like to work as an environmental lawyer at the administrative epicenter of the world’s worst environmental disaster? “We’re all hands on deck and working at full power,” Kennealy says. “Some of our lawyers— especially those working ‘down range’—have gone 30–60 for personal sacrifice among all the USCG responders, active duty, reservists, and civilians alike.” Noting that

12 loquitur

Getty Images

days without seeing their families. There is a willingness

George Marks, Marc Lester/Getty Images

Coast Guard at the Epicenter

organizations. The suit challenged the “five-year plan”—the first step mandated by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) in the process of approving drilling—for the Bering, Beaufort, and Chukchi seas. Van Tuyn based his case on a lack of agency integrity in its decision-making process. In April 2009, the traditionally conservative D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of Point Hope and vacated the OCSLA leasing program for the entire nation. The settlement was negotiated down, but it effectively stopped lease sales across the U.S. Arctic region. This spring, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar preliminarily canceled future Chukchi and Beaufort Sea lease sales under the plan, and President Obama removed the Bering Sea from lease sales altogether. “The promises of the oil and gas industry have proven to be illusory, completely untrue,” says Van Tuyn. “And Department of the Interior, the Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other agencies have never held them to their word.” He says that the bills he and his client—the Alaska Wilderness League—are helping to inform will focus on the OCSLA and, if passed, would implement stricter standards and more informed decision making. Before they grant leases, regulatory agencies will force drillers “to prove on the ground that they can prevent and clean up spills and certify their resources. We’ll fill the loopholes.” But Van Tuyn cautions that “there are many cooks at work in the Capitol Hill kitchen. The bill I stayed up late reading this summer had 210 pages, and there could be unintended consequences lurking on every page.” Natio nal (In)security

Professor Stephen Dycus couldn’t ask for a better illustration of the tragic consequences of our dependence on fossil fuel. Dycus is a specialist in national security law and water rights and the author of the field’s leading casebook, National Security Law, now in its fourth edition. “Our dependence on foreign

Hot Topics: The Issues Face to Face One was stymied, one puzzled, and one was hopping mad. Together, the three speakers at the VLS Hot Topics presentation in late July captured the mood of the nation surrounding the BP disaster. A crowd of attendees at the lunchtime forum heard how Beth Daley, environmental reporter for The Boston Globe, was stymied as she tried to report on the event. She says BP and federal government officials hindered media coverage by ignoring press requests or providing incomplete information. “BP was in charge and controlled the purse strings, so information was ‘gummed up’ like the Gulf.” Lee Breckenridge, associate dean and professor at Northeastern University School of Law, has a detailed knowledge of environmental legislation and regulation, so she was puzzled that they hadn’t safeguarded the Gulf. “Why weren’t these laws enough to cause the necessary scrutiny?” And why hadn’t environmental groups pressured government regulators to do their jobs? Breckenridge is also the faculty advisor for Vermont Law School’s Master of Environmental Law and Policy/Juris Doctor dual-degree program with Northeastern’s School of Law. But it was VLS Professor Patrick Parenteau who delivered the angriest jabs, not only at BP and government regulators but also at the nation’s continuing dependence on oil. “We’re way outside the bounds of what laws can do,” he said, demanding a federal tax to raise gasoline prices to $5 a gallon. “I’m not for small tweaks anymore. That’s rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. We need to stop using oil. I’ve been doing this for 38 years. I’ve seen it. I’m tired of it.”

fall 2010 13

“The oil spill itself may have actually increased our GDP, which suggests how insane GDP is as a measure of progress. If our aim is to serve people and preserve the planet, then we have the wrong economy.”

sources for most of our oil has sent us back to war twice in the last two decades.” Dycus emphatically rejects that we should pay any price to reduce our dependence on foreign sources. “The American Petroleum Institute has waged a relentless campaign to promote domestic drilling by saying that we need to move away from foreign suppliers. And I expect that effort to be redoubled now. What they don’t say is that we would do so at immense risk and cost. But now the BP disaster makes that clear.” Through risk and incompetence, he says, we are already sacrificing the very resources—livelihoods and our nation’s environment—that we would be willing to fight and die for. “And we’ve been convinced to subsidize the companies that are doing it. All in the interest of a lavish, unsustainable lifestyle.” The present disaster, says Dycus, has provided President Obama the opportunity to propose a Manhattan Project that would make the U.S. less dependent on fossil fuel through conservation and alternative energy sources. But “the president has not yet seized the moment,” says Dycus. Dycus gave a talk on “Defense Planning for a Warmer Planet” at a conference on National Security Law in Washington, D.C., on November 4–5. “I wanted to help imagine and articulate a policy that will protect bedrock values in the best interest of the American people and future generations.” T he Future in Sha des of Gray

Professor Dycus believes that if he and his colleagues hadn’t been “hammering away on these issues for the last 30 years, things might be worse. It’s still possible to make a difference,” he says, “and that’s what keeps me going.” But he admits that the current situation is “wearying and pretty depressing,” and he sees “an existential threat to American democracy” from self-interested corporate involvement in politics. Sadly, when compared with some of his colleagues, Dycus’s dark take on the future may still be at the brighter end of a spectrum painted in shades of gray. 14 loquitur

Richard Brooks, professor emeritus of law and founding director of Vermont Law School’s Environmental Law Center in 1978, writes from a longer perspective that the failure of environmental law has been its inability to confront the destructive technologies of the past 50 years. He concurs with the late Jacques Ellul that advancing technologies change the manner of human thought to “reasoning by means and ends” and lead to a profoundly pessimistic future. Brooks, who is a planner as well as a lawyer, admits that he embraced a mindset of forecasting, cost and risk analysis, modeling, and other planning techniques in the 1970s. But he now regrets the death of the radical concerns in the 1960s over technology as the dominant social force. The 1970s created laws such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act that “do not prevent the undertaking of dangerous new technologies in the first place…. These laws and their descendants now occupy the central curriculum for environmental lawyers and guide the current responses to the Gulf disaster.” And most legal curricula do not carefully study the political economy, which neutralizes the enforcement of regulations. “Unfortunately, no one thought to explore the possibilities of directing away from dangerous technologies.” He pleads for revisions to law school curricula to cover “the dismal history” of regulatory laws, the nature of our economic system, our culture of technological progress, “and the very workings of our imperfect democratic system.” Brooks has found hope for control of technologies in the emergence of mass tort suits and some statutory forms of compensation for harmed persons. He sees some potential for mandatory liability insurance to deter risk and reward those who play safe. But he also offers five options—ranging from the possible to the unimaginable—for preventing future calamities. They include strengthening existing regulations to provide tougher risk analysis and enforcement, changing common-law rules and tort laws to facilitate recovery of damages, and reforming corporations to create legally responsible executives. He also envisions the transition to less dangerous forms of

George Marks, Arnaud Chicurel, George Marks, Steve Ogle/Getty Images

—Gus Speth, Professor of Law

technology, although he notes that we are already seeing “the watering down of President Obama’s modest effort to promote a clean energy alternative.” But Brooks’ most fervent call, which he himself characterizes as unlikely in the foreseeable future, is “a revolutionary change in the economy and culture” similar to that proposed in the 1960s. He does, however, optimistically report that some theorists are finding “a movement toward a postindustrial society, which may provide hope for the future.” Gus Speth, professor of law, believes the Gulf disaster points to basic flaws in our economic and political systems. “The oil spill itself may have actually increased our GDP,” he says, “which suggests how insane GDP is as a measure of progress. Our current system of political economy with its emphasis on endless expansion isn’t sustainable in the face of environmental ruin. If our aim is to serve people and preserve the planet, then we have the wrong economy.” For him, the nation’s political system also is failing and is largely incapable of dealing with the most severe challenges. “Our democracy has become weak, shallow, and corrupted.” He sees roots of the spill in a “terrible, carefully orchestrated— and successful—attack on the government and government regulation. The nation desperately needs a strong, effective government to protect citizens and the environment, one that leads us away from the dangers of extreme energy, for example.” Speth has served as dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, and chairman of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality. He was founder of the World Resources Institute and cofounder of the Natural Resources Defense Council. So there is real experience here when he says: “There is a lesson here about what corporations will do in pursuit of profits, their willingness to do almost anything to make money, including breaking the law. BP was reckless in its rapaciousness. Over time, we will need to change the very nature of corporations into institutions that actually are chartered for the benefit of the public.

“This is a wake-up call. The world needs a new environmentalism in America, one seeking to build a new economy. And to deliver on that, we will need a new politics. Fortunately, we are not fated to fail.” “The disaster in the Gulf may be the greatest environmental disaster ever,” says Professor Patrick Parenteau, “but it pales in relation to climate change. We’re not making the connection between what we are witnessing now and climate change. But it is there nonetheless.” Parenteau, who serves as senior counsel to the school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, warns that “if we continue to think the way we do—cap and trade, environmental assessment, and so on—we will never get out of this situation. There is so much more pain ahead, and we won’t escape it. We need a breakthrough in our way of thinking.” A breakthrough specifically regarding oil disasters in offshore waters might include “a 10- to 20-year plan to stop producing oil in the Gulf, like the national mission to the Moon in the 70s.” But first, Parenteau says, we must stop subsidizing the oil industry. “The auto industry is a case study when the government protects and indirectly subsidizes a sector: it goes down. So why do we continue to subsidize oil? Because our laws haven’t changed to meet the new realities. We need to change the norms, to embed our objective into the tax code.” As a start, he suggests taxing gasoline to make it cost $5 a gallon. Parenteau speculates on how to change corporate culture with regard to looming environmental changes. The Securities and Exchange Commission is a possible ally, he thinks. And institutional investors are trying to use their leverage to get corporations to look more deeply at themselves. But he advises his students to lead their corporate clients to new answers. “Lawyers first need to earn the trust and respect of their clients and then wait for their opportunity, wait to be asked by clients how they can do things differently.” And he wants to continue teaching to help make this happen. “I hope that some of my students will be at the forefront of change, at the leading edge of a new world.” fall 2010 15

Reunion 2010 Each year as fall colors spread across the hills of South Royalton, alumni converge on campus to renew friendships, visit former professors, and relive memories across campus. This year, on September 25 and 26, alumni from the classes of 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005 arrived from all over the country to reconnect with their classmates and friends. It was a beautiful weekend of golf, Chase Race, hiking, biking, eating, drinking, and of course, much reminiscing. Reunioners enjoyed a barbecue on the green, a wine and cheese reception on Friday night, and a Vermont microbrew tasting on Saturday along with plenty of other Vermont fare—all VLS food offerings come primarily from local farms and dairies. Several alumni joined the 1L class for a river cleanup project, pulling over 500 pounds of garbage from the banks of the White River. Professors Stephanie Willbanks, Linda Smiddy ’79, Gil Kujovich, Carl Yirka, and others visited with reunioners throughout the weekend. Kids had a great time at Camp VLS: making scarecrows, playing games, and putting on an impromptu talent show. All of us in the alumni office look forward to the end of summer of 2011 when we will again be the grateful hosts of the next reunion classes: 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2006. Mark your calendars for Tunbridge Fair Weekend, September 16–18, 2011.

Class of 2005 reunioners—front row: Maria Gomez, Carolina Curbelo, Annelisa Smith, Meg Munsey, Kate (Eddy) Hofmann; second row: Mason Chuang, Nicole Candelora-Norman, Brandi Meredith, Karen Witherell; third row: Abigail Winters, Sidney Hamilton, Ben Nogueras, Dom Pascual, Kim Reid; back row: Stephanie (Lovejoy) Hamilton, Dave Bragg, Candi Alfred, Amy Manzelli, Justin Sluka and daughter

Photos by John Douglas/Flying Squirrel Graphics

Alumni catch up with each other during the Microbrew Tasting: Jenny Carter ’00, Sarah North ’00, Alexis Levitt ’00, Antonin Robbason ’00, and Richard Levitt ’99.

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The race is on! 2010 Chase Race runners at the starting line

River cleanup volunteers pile up some of the trash removed from the banks of the White River.

Andrew Carter ’99 gets a pass around Chris Gutschenritter ’11 at the Ultimate Frisbee game.

Falko Schilling ’11 helps Camp VLSers create scarecrows.

Beth Byrne, Neil Nulty, Allison Weimer, Rob Kaler, and Cathy Pisciotta from the Class of 1990 reconnected over beers at the Microwbrew Tasting.

Carolina Curbelo ’05 and family take a break from the action.

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Faculty Highlights According to Environmental Law Center Director Marc Mihaly, “Professor Purdom will work with our world-class faculty and Compass Learning Group to create something really unique in legal education. It’s a dream team: Rebecca knows the field, our faculty are top experts on environmental law and policy, and Compass is a recognized expert in emerging distance programs.”

Fulbright Enables Mears to Pursue Environmental Solutions in China VLS Takes the Lead in Distance Learning The time is right for Vermont Law School to claim another leading role in environmental law and policy. After years of careful investigation, including successful distance learning pilot courses Professors Patrick Parenteau and Don Kreis conducted in 2009, this summer VLS warmly welcomed Rebecca Purdom ’96 as assistant dean for Environmental Programs, assistant professor, and director of Distance Learning. “With new, high-quality distance learning programs, Vermont Law School is reaching out to communities of advocates and environmental leaders who want and need VLS training and tools—but who just can’t get to South Royalton,” says Professor Purdom. “VLS has always been a leader in providing top-quality education and sending graduates out into the world to make a difference. Distance programs will allow us to reach beyond our campus and provide critical training to more students around the world.” When our distance-based MELP and LLM programs launch in May, VLS will

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be the first law school to provide online master’s degree programs. “VLS will set the standard for a new kind of distance education,” Purdom says. “We’re working with Harvard and other institutions to create a set of best practices for an industry we believe holds a lot of promise. VLS is not only providing the content of our unique programs but also creating a new model of educational outreach we want to share with other law schools.” No stranger to distance learning, Purdom helped launch a highly successful distance learning program at Green Mountain College, where she was chair of the Division of Environmental Studies and Management, director of the Environmental Studies program, and associate professor of Environmental Studies, Law, and Policy. Sierra magazine ranked Green Mountain’s environmental program #1 this year, in part on the strength of its distance learning programs. Purdom has also been a private practitioner, a federal judicial law clerk, and manager of conservation nonprofit organizations.

As a Fulbright Scholar in China for 2010–11, Associate Professor and Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic David Mears hopes to strengthen enforcement of China’s anti-pollution laws and expand universitybased environmental law clinics. “I never expected something like this, but if you’re motivated by finding solutions to green-

Kathlenn Dooher

Professor Rebecca Purdom directs the Distance Learning Program.

Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic David Mears

Faculty Highlights

For more than two decades at Vermont Law School, Professor Paul Ferber earned the respect of faculty, students, and staff for his scholarship and legal skills as well as for his kindness. Ferber, who retired in May, was widely praised at a Passages spring barbeque on the VLS campus, where Dean Jeff Shields presented him with a cherry rocking chair engraved with the VLS seal. According to Professor Susan Apel, the General Practice Program is built on a foundation Ferber created: “He leaves a

Professor Paul Ferber at 2010 Commencement

great legacy and big shoes to fill.” Professor Oliver Goodenough said Ferber was ahead of his time in terms of integrating skills and doctrine, cognitive psychology and learning theory, and entrepreneurial scholarship. Associate Professor Betsy Baker, whose office was close to Ferber’s, said students often visited him and exclaimed that his classes were “the best I ever had.” Ferber —who specialized in commercial law, professional responsibility, and professional skills—received his JD degree, cum laude, from New York University in 1966. In 1968, he joined a Beverly Hills law firm and practiced commercial litigation. From 1973 to 1979, he was managing partner at a Los Angeles firm, where he dealt with commercial and antitrust litigation. He taught at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles from 1972 to 1987, when he was drawn to VLS by the opportunity to create the General Practice Program, which he ran until 2001. “I came here purely to start this program from scratch,” he said. “I was interested in the integration of substantive learning and skills. I’ve taught for 38 years, and it’s been a joy.” Ferber retired for health reasons, but he won’t have much use for the rocking chair right away. He and his wife, Dorrie Rapp, moved to Reno, where they plan to take advantage of the mix of urban amenities and outdoor recreation.

Last May, after Professor Tseming Yang was appointed to serve as deputy general counsel for international affairs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Deputy Director Siu Tip Lam stepped up to lead the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law. Her goal is to build on Yang’s successes and strengthen VLS’s position as the premier American law school working on environmental and energy governance issues in China. “I am honored to have been chosen as the new director of the U.S.-China Partnership,” Lam said. “Vermont Law School and its partners will continue to expand our efforts to assist Chinese citizens and grassroots organizations to strengthen policies and laws that affect environmental justice. In addition, we will explore the possibility of building an on-the-ground presence in China to further our work with our partners and to develop student

Mark Washburn

Honoring Paul Ferber’s Legacy

New Leadership for the U.S.-China Partnership John Douglas/Flying Squirrel Graphics

house gas emissions and other environmental problems, then China is a critical place to work,” he said. Mears is teaching and assisting the environmental law clinics at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) and the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV) at the China University of Political Science and Law. He also is reaching out to other universities across China that are interested in establishing environmental law clinics. Mears said his Fulbright project will let him observe the severe environmental impacts from China’s economic boom. He said it’s unfair for the United States and European nations to point a finger at China because those countries have caused massive pollution during their own industrial revolutions. “That’s not an excuse for China to pollute, but it’s in the world’s interests to help the Chinese develop and enforce a new generation of laws and regulations that could be even better than those in the United States,” he said. Take a look at “Middle Earth Law” to read about his adventures in China at www.vermontlaw.edu/Our_Faculty/Fac ultyHighlights/Faculty_Blogs.htm.

Professor Siu Tip Lam

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Faculty Highlights

exchange opportunities for Vermont Law School.” Lam joined VLS in 2009 as an assistant professor of law and the deputy director of the U.S.-China Partnership. She came to VLS from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, where she was an assistant attorney general in the Environmental Protection Division for 11 years. During her tenure there, she enforced state environmental laws and litigated throughout the Massachusetts court system, including the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Before that, she practiced law with the Boston firm of Brown, Rudnick, Freed & Gesmer as a litigation associate. She graduated from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges with a BA in East Asian Studies and received her JD from Northeastern University Law School. A native of Hong Kong, she speaks Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese. Since VLS and Sun Yat-sen University launched the U.S.-China Partnership in 2006, the partnership has received more than $5 million in grants from the U.S. government, trained many individuals in environmental and energy law, fostered research, and started an exchange program for young environmental professionals. In June, the partnership received a $1.5 million federal grant to establish China’s first public-interest environmental law firm and expand a university-based legal clinic. The goal of this “green litigation” is to help ordinary citizens force polluting factories and mines and unresponsive local officials to follow the law.

Five Faculty Members Receive Tenure Vermont Law School congratulates five outstanding faculty members who were elected to tenured positions last spring, based on extraordinary accomplishments as scholars, teachers, and in service to the school and the community. John D. Echeverria joined our faculty in 2009 after serving 12 years as executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Institute at Georgetown University Law Center. He is a nationally recognized expert on takings law and has written extensively on property rights issues, land use, and natural resource management, and is an organizer of the Annual Regulatory Takings Conference. Jackie Gardina, who joined the VLS faculty in 2003, specializes in civil procedure, administrative law, bankruptcy, and issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. She serves on the Board of the Society of Law School Teachers, on the American Association of Law Schools’ Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues Section Executive Committee, and as a board member of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network Board. Mark Latham, who joined the VLS faculty in 2005, specializes in environmental law. His research focus includes the intersection of business and environmental law and issues under the Clean Water Act. In his 15 years of private practice before coming to VLS, he was defense counsel for businesses, municipalities, and individuals in state, federal, civil, and administrative enforcement actions. Michael McCann joined the VLS faculty in 2009. He specializes in sports law, torts, and consumer and corporate law. He is a legal expert for Sports Illustrated and the “Sports and the Law” columnist for CNNSI.com and is widely viewed as a leading expert on sports law issues. He is cofounder of The Project on Law and Mind Sciences at Harvard Law School. Marc Mihaly joined the VLS faculty in 2005 after a distinguished career in private practice in San Francisco, including three decades of trial and appellate litigation on behalf of governments and community-based organizations. His leadership as director of the Environmental Law Center has led to a number of major new initiatives, including the Institute for Energy and the Environment and the Land Use Clinic. For more details on these and all of our accomplished professors, see the faculty directory at www.vermontlaw.edu/faculty.

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Faculty Highlights

Faculty News Professor Susan B. Apel, who is on sabbatical for the fall 2010 and spring 2011 semesters, recently met with VLS students at the University of Cergy-Pontoise and with VLS alumni for dinner in Paris. Professor Tracy Bach, who in August returned from a Fulbright year in Dakar, Senegal, was the keynote speaker at the International Environment Day celebration in June hosted at Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) by the UCAD law faculty and the university’s Institute for Environmental Science. Professor Bach was the U.S. Embassy’s featured Earth Day speaker in Senegal. Earlier in April, she visited at the University of Paris 13, guest lecturing to master’s students on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda’s (ICTR) completion strategy and how it affects this ad hoc international court’s perception of legitimacy in Rwanda; the Copenhagen Accord and its impact on the next steps in developing international climate change law; and U.S. healthcare reform. While in Paris, Professor Bach also guest lectured on the ICTR at Cergy-Pontoise. Professor Betsy Baker spoke about Canadian-U.S. Cooperation in the Beaufort Sea as part of the opening panel “The Arctic Paradox” at a conference of the International Bar Association, Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL), in Toronto, Canada, in April. Her comments to The Canadian Press agency about Secretary Clinton’s rebuke of Canada’s foreign minister Cannon (for excluding Inuit and noncoastal Arctic states from a recent Arctic summit) were picked up by dozens of news outlets on March 31, including the CBC, NPR.org, and MSN-Canada, as well as the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. Professor Baker spoke about the international law of mapping the Arctic

Ocean at the Croft Center for International Studies, University of Mississippi, Oxford, in March. Her article “Law, Science, and the Continental Shelf: The Russian Federation and the Promise of Arctic Cooperation” was published in American University International Law Review, Washington College of Law (February 2010). Professor Teresa Clemmer served as a panelist at Lewis & Clark Law School’s conference in April, “The Clean Air Act at a Crossroads: Turning 40, Confronting Climate Change.” The panel explored the role of the Clean Air Act in addressing climate change. Her article will be published in a special edition of Lewis & Clark’s Environmental Law Journal focusing on the conference. Last spring, Professor Clemmer gave a webinar presentation to the American Planning Association– International Division, along with copresenter Michael Coté MELP’09, entitled “Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons from Copenhagen,” and they gave the Hot Topics lecture “City Planning and Climate Change” to the VLS community this summer. Professor Liz Ryan Cole authored a chapter, “Externships: A Special Focus to Help Understand and Advance Social Justice,” in The Global Clinical Movement: Educating Lawyers for Social Justice, Frank Bloch, ed. (Oxford University Press 2010). Professor Cole presented at Externships 5, the fifth international externships conference, sponsored by the University of Miami School of Law in March. Her topic was “Ethics and Externships: Models and Methods for Helping Students Develop Professional Identity and Purpose.” Professor Cole also served as a member of the Planning Committee for Externships 5. In January 2011 Professor Cole will be offering a two-day workshop designed

to help experienced supervisors improve their ability to give feedback, particularly on legal work. Scholarships (partial and full) are available to VLS alumni. To learn more, go to www.vermontlaw.edu/SiP. Professor Jason Czarnezki returned to VLS this summer after a Fulbright Scholarship year at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. While in China, Professor Czarnezki gave several presentations, including “China-U.S. Relations Roundtable” at the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies, Sun Yat-sen University; the webbased Earthcast 2010 keynote address, “Climate Change Policy and U.S.-China Relations”; U.S. Consulate weekly forum and webcast, “Everyday Environmentalism” and “Climate Change Policy and U.S.-China Relations,” in Guangzhou and Shenyang, China; and for the American Law Series at the Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China, “Everyday Environmentalism: Law, Nature, and Individual Behavior.”

Professor Jason Czarnezki with Chinese faculty and students celebrating the 30 th Anniversary of the reopening of the Sun Yat-sen University School of Law

Professor Johanna Dennis’s article “The Renaissance Road: Redesigning the Legal Writing Instructional Model” was published in the fall 2010 issue of the Southern University Law Review.

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Faculty Highlights

Professor Stephen Dycus’s recent publications include “Congress’s Role in Cyber Warfare” in the Journal of National Security & Law Policy, 4 J. Nat’l Security L. & Pol’y 155 (2010); 2010-2011 Supplement to National Security Law (4th ed.) and Counterterrorism Law (New York: Aspen 2010). In April, Professor Dycus delivered the Richard O. Brooks Scholarship Prize Lecture at Vermont Law School, entitled “The Scholar’s Role in a Dangerous World: A New Look at Military Detention of Civilians.” Professor Dycus made a presentation, “Defense Planning for a Warmer Planet,” to a conference at Duke University Law School on National Security Challenges and the Obama Administration. Professor John Echeverria’s article “The Track Record on Takings Regulation: Lessons from Democracy’s Laboratories” will be published in Volume 41 of the Land Use and Environmental Law Review (2010-2011 Edition) and the 2010 Zoning and Planning Law Handbook. His essay “Stop the Beach Renourishment: Why the Judiciary is Different,” is posted on SSRN and will appear in the Vermont Law Review. He spoke on a panel on Stop the Beach Renourishment at the annual meeting of the ABA in San Francisco in August and delivered a keynote talk on constitutional constraints on land use regulatory authority for the 2010 Development Review Volunteers’ Summer Retreat. His article, with Thekla HansenYoung, “The Track Record on Takings Legislation: Lessons from Democracy’s Laboratories,” 28 Stan. Envtl. L.J. 439 (2009), has been selected for inclusion in the 2010 Zoning and Planning Law Handbook. In April, Professor Echeverria filed a pro bono amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in the case of Casitas Municipal Water District v. United States. The Vermont Journal

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of Environmental Law published Professor Echeverria’s article “Is Water Regulation a Constitutional Taking?” in their Spring 2010 issue, available at www.vjel.org. Professor Peg Elmer coordinated and participated as a speaker at the 2010 Development Review Volunteers’ Summer Retreat at Lake Fairlee, Vermont. She provided testimony in April to the Vermont House Commerce Committee and to State Senate leadership, as well as an opinion editorial on vtdigger.org on the Challenge for Change initiative to consolidate Vermont’s 11 regional planning commissions into 9 regional service centers combined with regional economic development service providers under a performance contract with the state, and no longer statutorily creatures of member towns. Professor Elmer was reappointed by Governor Douglas to a two-year term to represent the “smart growth seat” on the Vermont Downtown Board. Professor Stephanie Farrior has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the International Law Student Association. In May she spoke on “New Challenges to the International System: An International Law Perspective” at a conference, The World and Greece in 2030, convened by the Institute for International Relations of Panteion University in Athens, Greece. In April Public Radio International’s Living on Earth aired an interview with Professor Farrior about an environmental justice case brought against the United States before the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The petition was brought on behalf of a poor, mostly African American community surrounded by 14 toxic industrial facilities, Mossville, Louisiana, whose residents are suffering high rates of serious health problems. Professor Farrior wrote about this case on IntLawGrrls, where her recent posts include “ECOSOC Consultative Status at last,”

about the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission’s three-year struggle to gain consultative status at the United Nations. Professor Farrior’s article “Human Trafficking Violates Anti-Slavery Provision: Introductory Note to Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia—European Court of Human Rights” made five SSRN Top Ten Lists. Professor Cheryl Hanna received the Vermont Women in Higher Education’s 2010 Sister Elizabeth Candon Distinguished Service Award in September. The award is presented to a woman who has shown evidence of promoting and working toward the advancement of women in higher education and involvement at the national, regional, state, and local levels in related activities. Hanna was selected for the award because of her combination of women-related activities, public service, media commentary, and professional service. Professor Hanna gave the keynote address, “Doing Ourselves Justice: (Re) Committing to a Life of the Law,” at the Vermont Justice Association’s 2010 annual meeting. Her commentary piece, “Why Women Judges Matter” appeared in Seven Days in March. She moderated the Democratic Governor’s Forum in April in Shelburne, Vermont and was a panelist on “Health Care as Human Right” at Hastings College of Law in March. Professor Hanna was part of a “Meet the Commentators Brunch” for Vermont Public Radio and read her commentary on the theme of, “If I Only Had Known.” Professor Greg Johnson’s article, “May It Please the Classroom: Using Pending United States Supreme Court Cases to Teach Appellate Advocacy and Persuasive Writing,” was published in The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, Vol. 12, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Society of Legal Writers. Professor Johnson has been appointed to the Awards

Faculty Highlights

Committee of the Legal Writing Institute. Professors Johnson and Anthony Renzo gave a presentation, “Lost in Translation: The Limits of Metaphor in Legal Writing,” at the Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference at the University of Arizona in March. Professor Martha Judy’s article “Coming Full CERCLA: Why Burlington Northern Is Not the Sword of Damocles for Joint and Several Liability” was published in the New England Law Review, Vol. 44, and appeared on the SSRN Top Ten List for environmental articles. Professor Judy’s article “Superfund at 30,” cowritten with Katherine N. Probst, senior fellow at Resources for the Future, was published in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, Vol. 11, No. 2. In March, Professor Judy presented “Potentially Socially Responsible CERCLA?” at Fordham Law School. Professor Mark Latham’s article “(Un)Restoring the Chemical, Physical, and Biological Integrity of Our Nation’s Waters: The Emerging Clean Water Act Jurisprudence of the Roberts Court” was published in the Virginia Environmental Law Journal, Vol. 28. His article examining the pivotal role of Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Supreme Court’s recent Clean Water Act cases, “The 2008–2009 Term and the Clean Water Act: Justice Kennedy Where Art Thou?” was published in the New England Law Review, Vol. 44, and his article entitled “Bush v. Obama: The Fight for the Soul of Science in Environmental Policymaking” appeared as the lead article in the spring 2010 volume of the Seattle Environmental Law Journal. Professor Latham spoke in March at a symposium on litigation and corporate social responsibility at Fordham Law School. His topic was “The Role of Litigation in Promoting Good Environmental Practice Climate Change Litiga-

tion and Corporate Social Responsibility.” Professor Reed Elizabeth Loder presented a talk and participated on a panel discussion on the topic of teaching ethics across the professions at the annual meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, of the Association of Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) in March. Professor Michael McCann’s article “The NBA and the Single Entity Defense: A Better Case?” was published in the inaugural issue of the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law (Spring 2010). In spring and summer, Professor McCann moderated panels at Yale Law School and the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, delivered the keynote address at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law symposium, and was a panelist at the 2010 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. He moderated a panel on the legality of age limits for a VLS Sports and Entertainment Law Society symposium and served as a panelist on the same topic at New York Law School and at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Professor McCann spoke about the American Needle v. NFL case at schools including Suffolk University Law School, Mississippi College School of Law, and McGill University Faculty of Law. In addition to continuing his sports law column for CNNSI.com, Professor McCann has commented on sports law cases for national and local media, including The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Slate, Fox Sports, ESPN.com, The Burlington Free Press, Durham Herald Sun, and a National Public Radio interview with Nina Totenberg. Professor Marc Mihaly’s article “Citizen Participation in the Making of Environmental Decisions: Evolving Obstacles and Potential Solutions Through Partnership with Experts and Agents” was pub-

lished by the Pace Environmental Law Review, Vol. 27, No. 1, Special Edition, “Environmental Interest Dispute Resolution: Changing Times — Changing Practice.” Professor Mihaly’s article “Recovery of a Lost Decade (or is it Three?): Developing the Capacity in Government Necessary to Reduce Carbon Emissions and Administer Energy Markets” was published in the Oregon Law Review, Vol. 88, No. 2. Professor Janet Milne’s paper on “U.S. Climate Change Policy: A Tax Expenditure Microcosm with Environmental Dimensions” has been accepted for publication in Tax Expenditure Analysis: State of the Art, a book that will be published by the Canadian Tax Foundation in early 2011. The book contains peer-reviewed papers presented at a conference organized by the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto. Professor Milne wrote a chapter on “Green Taxes” for the Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability, Volume 3—The Law and Politics of Sustainability, which was published in September. Professor Laura Murphy led a workshop on tax grieving in rural New York in May. The workshop was to help people who live near industrial animal operations receive fair property assessments that take into account the negative impacts of the nearby operations. She led the workshop with Bill Cooke of Citizens Campaign for the Environment and helped organize an additional workshop in the Finger Lakes Region. Professor Sean Nolon’s paper “The Lawyer as Process Advocate: Encouraging Collaborative Approaches to Controversial Development Decisions” was published in the Pace Environmental Law Review, Vol. 27, No. 1, and was listed on SSRN’s Top Ten downloads for two lists:

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Faculty Highlights

(1) Conflict Resolution, Prevention, and Management, and (2) Property, Citizenship, and Social Entrepreneurism. In addition, Professor Nolon’s article was posted on West’s “Land Use Prof” blog by Professor Matt Festa. Professor Nolon’s article “Advocating for Process: A Framework for Land Use Lawyers” was published this September in West’s Zoning and Planning Law Report. Professor Nolon gave a live interview on July 19 for Vermont Public Radio’s Vermont Edition on the topic of development and local opposition. Professor Nolon was asked to cochair the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution’s new Legal Education, ADR, and Problem-Solving Task Force. The task force will spend the year exploring ways to better integrate the core concepts of problem solving advocacy into legal instruction. Professor Pat Parenteau’s article “Reinvigorating the Public Trust Doctrine: Expert Opinion on the Potential of a Public Trust Mandate in U.S. and International Environmental Law,” with Mary Turnipseed, Raphael Sagarin, Peter Barnes, Michael C. Blumm, and Peter H. Sand, was published in Environment Vol. 52, No. 5. His article “Tipping Point for Mountaintop Mining?” was published in National Wetlands Newsletter September-October 2010 issue, and his “Florida Wetlands Win Stay of Execution” article appeared in the March-April 2010 issue. Professor Parenteau was a featured panelist on the Hot Topics event, “Blowout in the Gulf: The Legal Consequences of an Environmental Catastrophe, and What Needs to Happen to Prevent Another One.” Last spring, Professor Parenteau was a panelist for the Honorable Madeleine M. Kunin 25th Anniversary Symposium at the University of Vermont, presented “Clean Coal: Not” to the Upper Valley Energy Coalition in Thetford, Vermont, and gave CLE presentations for judges and environmental lawyers in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

24 loquitur

Professor Craig Pease’s most recent Science and Law columns for The Environmental Forum include “The Hazards on Your Dinner Plate,” “Outsourcing Science and Engineering,” and “Habitat Loss and Bird Extinctions.” Professor Brian Porto has signed a contract with the University of Michigan Press to publish his book, titled Unforced Errors: The Supreme Court, the Death of Amateurism, and the Denial of Due Process in College Sports. He has also written an article, titled “Improving Your Appellate Briefs: The Best Advice from Bench, Bar, and Academy,” which will appear in the winter 2011 issue of the Vermont Bar Journal. Professor Anthony Renzo’s article “Making a Burlesque of the Constitution: Military Trials of Civilians in the War Against Terrorism” made SSRN’s Top Ten List. Professor Renzo published an opinion piece in June with the American Constitution Society entitled, “States Can’t Throw Away the Key When Locking Up Juveniles Who Are Not Killers.” The comment can be found at www.acslaw. org/node/16270. Professor Betsy Schmidt’s article, “Vermont’s Social Hybrid Pioneers, Early Observations and Questions to Ponder” will be published in Vermont Law Review’s December issue. Professor Linda Smiddy published the 7th edition of her casebook, Corporations and Other Business Organizations: Cases, Materials and Problems, with Lawrence A. Cunningham, George Washington University School of Law, and the Teacher’s Manual for the 7th edition. The Third Supplement for her book Soderquist on Corporate Law and Practice, with Lawrence A. Cunningham of George Washington University School of Law, was

published in August. In March, Professor Smiddy was also a visiting professor at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, where she taught a course on U.S. business law. Professor Pamela Stephens’s article “Applying Human Rights Norms to Climate Change: The Elusive Remedy” made SSRN’s Top Ten download list for Climate Change Law and Policy eJournal, and “The Right to Reproduce and International Law” was on the Top Ten list for Reproductive Justice, Law and Policy eJoumal. Professor Pamela Vesilind will present “Enriching the 1L Experience: A Program for Taking the Terror out of Public Speaking” at AALS in January. The Vermont Journal of Environmental Law will publish her article “Continental Drift: Animal Products Trade and the Widening Gap between E.U. and U.S. Animal Welfare Laws” in early 2011. Professor Vesilind presented “Beyond a Pig in a Parlor: How Corporate Agriculture’s Speech is More Protected than Your Own” at DePaul University School of Law’s United States v. Stevens Symposium in September. She presented “The Path of Least Resistance Leads to Humane Labeling: A Proposal for Addressing Health Concerns about ‘Factory Foods’” at the South-North Exchange on Theory, Culture, and Law in Mexico City in May. Professor Vesilind’s article will be published in the University of Miami’s Inter-American Law Review in 2011. In honor of Professor Stephanie Willbanks’s contributions as a vice dean and faculty member, VLS has renamed Oakes Hall Room 012 as the “Stephanie Willbanks Classroom.” Professor Willbanks has been elected to the American Law Institute and to the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. She has been appointed as the membership review consultant to the AALS. She contributed

Faculty Highlights

a chapter, “Wealth transfer taxation,” and consulted on other chapters in The Teacher’s Manual to Dukeminier, Sitkoff, and Lindgren’s Wills, Trusts and Estates, 8th Edition (Aspen 2010). Her book Estate and Gift Taxation: Quick Review (Thomson West) will be published this fall, and her article “Law as a Crossword Puzzle” will be included in Teaching Law II, edited by Steve Friedland, Gerry Hess, Michael Schwartz, and Sophie Sparrow. Professor Willbanks helped plan the ABA Associate Dean Conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in June, where she was a panelist for “Managing Decanal transitions,” moderated the panel “Nudging towards Learning outcomes,” and led two discussion sections. She has been appointed

to the uniform Law Conference drafting committee on Premarital and Marital Agreements. She is currently teaching Estate and Gift tax online in the LLM program for the university of Alabama School of Law. Professor Kinvin Wroth presented a paper entitled “Six Flags over Champlain” at “Lake Champlain 2010: our Lake, our Future,” held in June at the university of Vermont and sponsored by the Lake Champlain Basin Program, the Lake Champlain research Consortium, and the Vermont Water resources and Lake Studies Center. Professor Wroth participated, with Professor John Echeverria, in a Hot topics panel on the recent Supreme

Court decision, “Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida DEP.” in April, Professor Wroth appeared before the Vermont Legislative Committee on Judicial rules to present recently proposed amendments to the Vermont rules of Civil, Criminal, and Appellate Procedure. Professor Wroth also drafted the Vermont rules for Electronic Filing and amendments to the Vermont rules of Civil Procedure and rules for Dissemination of Electronic Case records that were promulgated by the Vermont Supreme Court effective october 1, 2010, as emergency rules to provide a basis for the initiation of electronic filing in the Superior Court, Civil Division, for the rutland and Windsor county units on october 18, 2010.

Subscribe today The Vermont Journal of Environmental Law is a quarterly legal publication dedicated to the presentation of unbiased information on a broad range of environmental issues affecting our local, regional, and global communities. The Volume 12 Symposium Issue will focus on U.S./China comparative environmental law, with an article by keynote speaker John C. Nagle.

Vermont Journal of Environmental Law PO Box 96 South Royalton, Vermont 05068

Ben Koziol

vjel@vermontlaw.edu

$12.95 an issue VERMONT JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

www.vjel.org

fall 2010

Make a Lasting Difference When Mary Wilson makes a commitment to an organization or a cause, she gives 110 percent of her focus and energy. A national tax-exempt ﬁnance, healthcare law, and tax-exempt organization attorney, in 2006 she was named one of 40 Illinois Attorneys Under Forty to Watch by the Chicago Law Bulletin. Just two years later Nightingale’s named her one

Join Mary Wilson in providing future support for VLS students. It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

1 Choose an asset to fund your planned gift.

of the nation’s Outstanding Healthcare Transaction Lawyers. -

Vermont Law School has beneﬁted from Wilson’s passion and talent since 2006 when she became a member of the Board of Trustees. Not

only does she enthusiastically contribute her wisdom and insight at board meetings, she supports VLS in material ways. When Wilson learned that the cost of VLS tuition for three years is $120,000, and that many students graduate with $100,000 or more in debt, she decided that she wanted to help to ease their ﬁnancial burdens. In addition to giving a generous annual gift, she took a step that will allow her to continue to provide for VLS students after her lifetime. Wilson has designated Vermont Law School a beneﬁciary in

2 Do the paperwork. -

her estate plans.

“i decided to give a bequest to VLS because i have been very fortunate to enjoy and benefit from my education. i liked the idea of leaving some money to help enable future students to use a VLS education to contribute to their communities. i spend time and money each year helping organizations that i care about and responded to the idea that i could continue that through a bequest.”

For a bequest, name Vermont Law School in your will as a beneficiary of either a specific dollar amount or percentage of your estate. For a retirement plan, include Vermont Law School as a beneficiary of a qualified retirement plan. You may wish to designate the use of your gift. For an insurance policy, add Vermont Law School to the beneficiaries of your private or company-sponsored life insurance policy. For a charitable remainder or lead trust, include VLS as a remainder beneficiary.

Update your will and include VLS as a beneficiary or add a codicil to your will naming VLS as a beneficiary. Fill out the beneﬁciary form provided by your retirement plan administrator, naming Vermont Law School as a beneficiary and indicating the percentage of the remainder of the fund that VLS will receive. Sign and return the form to your plan administrator. OR Fill out the beneﬁciary form provided by your insurance agent or employer, naming Vermont Law School as a beneficiary and indicating the percentage of the policy’s death benefit that VLS will receive. Sign and return the form to your insurance agent or employer.

3 Let us know. We will want to thank you and include your name in the list of Douglas Meredith Society members.

For more information contact Dorothy Heinrichs, Campaign Director, at 802-831-1267 or dheinrichs@vermontlaw.edu

Class Notes A Message from the Vermont Law School Alumni Association President

46 loquitur

Chris Adamo ’04 John Douglas/Flying Squirrel Graphics

Before introducing your current VLSAA Board of Directors and updating you on some of the board’s initiatives, I wanted to begin with a word of thanks and acknowledgment to Scott Cameron ’80. Scott has served with distinction on the board of trustees since 1984 and as chair since 2001. On behalf of the VLSAA, Scott, thank you for your many years of committed service and dedication to the school we love. As part of our strategic plan, the board has been facilitating the growth and involvement of our alumni regional groups. Over the last year, we have added groups in Philadelphia and Albany, joining the existing regional groups in Boston, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. Each of these groups has been sending a delegate to participate and vote in VLSAA board meetings. Regional groups are easy to organize and provide great professional networking and social opportunities for people with the shared sense of community known to VLS graduates. Please contact your regional group representative if you’d like to get involved, or contact the VLS alumni office for information on organizing a new regional group in your area. Going forward, the board’s other strategic priorities include enhancing relationships and communications between the VLS board of trustees and the VLSAA. The board recently met with incoming board of trustees chair, Ed Mattes ’83, to jump-start those discussions. The alumni association board will also be exploring ways to partner with the law school to encourage greater alumni engagement. At commencement this year, I presented the annual Alumni Association Award, which the board created to recognize a member of the graduating class whose thoughtful interest and energy has enriched the law school community in a special, recognizable way. This year’s

2010–11 VLSAA Board of Directors

Mark Sciarrotta ’96, Brian Jones ’10, and Ed Mattes ’83 recipient, Brian Jones, outgoing SBA president, Schweitzer fellow, dean’s fellow, and student ambassador came to VLS specifically to further his path of public service, having previously served as a corrections officer and a police detective. Congratulations, Brian! We warmly welcome you and the rest of the Class of ’10 to the VLS alumni family. It is my pleasure to introduce the incoming president of the VLSAA, Karis North ’95, who has served the board for several years as the chair of our Development Committee. She shares a deep commitment to VLS, and I know that she will do a great job representing the alumni body. I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve as the VLSAA board president over the past two years. It has been an honor to work with the many good folks on the board. For the next three years, I will be representing you as one of your alumni representatives on the VLS Board of Trustees, and I look forward to working to improve the school for students and alumni alike. Of course, we can do our job better the more we hear from you, so I encourage you to contact me and other board members with concerns or ideas. Warmest regards from the Green Mountains, S. Mark Sciarrotta ’96 msciarrotta@velco.com

Samara Anderson JD/MSEL’03 Albany Regional Representative Janet Arnold JD/MSEL’91 Vice President Marilyn Bartlett ’91 Secretary Richelle Blanc JD/MSEL’88 Eric Broadway ’95 Carolina Curbelo ’05 New Jersey Regional Representative Doug Ebeling ’97 Caroline Fisher ’04 Boston Regional Representative Michael Formica ’98 Maria Gomez JD/MSEL’05 Washington, D.C. Regional Representative Jason Hutt ’98 Alumni Trustee Heather Spurlock Kennealy JD/MSEL’02 Gene Linkmeyer ’95 Delaware Valley Regional Representative Katie Rebholz Mathias ’06 David Mears JD/MSEL’91 Deanna Mello ’96 Karis North ’95 President Fidel Rul JD/MSEL’06 Mark Sciarrotta ’96 Alumni Trustee Allison Smith MSEL’07 MSL/MSEL/MELP Representative Chase Van Gorder ’84

Class Notes

In October, Edward Mattes became the second VLS alumnus to serve as chair of the board of trustees, following Scott Cameron ’80. Ed has served on the VLS board since 2001 and as vice-chair since 2006. Ed looks at service on the board as a way of giving back to VLS, which he says has allowed him “to take on challenges and explore opportunities I would never have thought possible on graduation day in 1983. Legal education and the legal profession are going through a period of enormous change. To serve our students, we need to quickly adapt to and, where appropriate, lead that change.” He is cofounder and CEO of AGTT LLC, a targeted pharmacotherapy company focused on the formulation of chronic and acute care therapeutics and the optimal systems for their delivery. Ed was a partner at the Ogdon Partnership from 1997 to 2006, where his practice focused on the recruitment of top general management, including general counsels and partners for law firms. Prior to joining Ogdon, he founded and headed UNISTAR, the private sector consulting arm of the United Nations Development Programme. Ed earned a BA from the University of Pennsylvania (1979) and a JD from Vermont Law School (1983) and took courses in international law at Cambridge University (summer 1981). Ed is cochair of the New York State Bar Association Committee on the United Nations and Other International Organizations and a member of the bars of New York and the District of Columbia. He is a co-owner of the Ogden Raptors baseball club, a minor league affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Oneonta Tigers, a minor league affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. He is a member of the Explorers Club and was a member of the 1998 Ever-

est Extreme Expedition (E3), a telemedicine expedition sponsored by NASA, Yale Medical School, the MIT Media Lab, and the Explorers Club.

Honoring Nina At her retirement celebration in May, Nina Thomas received an honorary VLSAA membership and Boston Red Socks game tickets in thanks for her years of service to VLS. Thomas also received a U.S. flag that had been flown over the U.S. Capitol and a copy of a proclamation from Senator Patrick Leahy that was read in the U.S. Senate on June 15, 2010, congratulating Nina Thomas on her retirement. “I thank her for her service, and I know her commitment over the years has helped to make the school the special, unique place it is today,” Leahy’s proclamation declares. “Her care, her counsel, and her wisdom have made a difference in the lives of many law students who have passed through her office. Her dedication helped the school grow into a successful institution for legal education that is a source of pride for Vermont and Vermonters.”

Members of the VLSAA board honored Registrar Nina Thomas upon her retirement in May.

Senator Bernie Sanders with Professor Marc Mihaly, associate dean for environmental programs, at the DCVLSAA reception

D.C. Regional Group Honors EPA’s Lisa Jackson On the evening of September 28, the Washington, D.C. Regional Group of the VLSAA held a reception in the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol to honor Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson as the recipient of the 2010 DCVLSAA Special Achievement Award. Administrator Jackson was chosen for this award in recognition of her dedication to the environment and outstanding leadership in expanding the conversation on environmentalism and environmental justice issues. Attendees gathered in the Lyndon B. Johnson Room of the Capitol to honor Administrator Jackson and were joined by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont as well as VLS professors Marc Mihaly and Mark Latham.

Thomas said she was “blown away” by the honors bestowed upon her. “I have been honored for having a job that gave me the opportunity to interact with so many wonderful people, many who became friends, over the nearly 34 years I spent at VLS,” said Thomas. “My life has been enriched because you were part of it.”

Send us your notes at alumni@vermontlaw.edu

Laura DeCapua

Ed Mattes ’83 Elected Chair of the Board of Trustees

fall 2010 47

Class Notes

Do you have news to share with your classmates? Please send your Class Notes for the spring issue of Loquitur to your class secretary or alumni@vermontlaw.edu.

1977 Harvey C. Sacks, senior financial advisor, recently received the 2010 Protect the Dream award from RiverSource Life Insurance Company. The award recognizes Ameriprise financial advisors who have reached outstanding benchmarks for helping clients protect their dreams by implementing life and disability income insurance policies.

general and assistant counsel with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, Joel has received numerous awards, including the 2007 Distinguished Service Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section. He is also listed in Chambers USA as one of America’s Leading Business Lawyers for Environmental Law, Best Lawyers in America for Environmental Law, and has been named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer by Law & Politics magazine and Philadelphia magazine.

1978 Please email kevans@vermontlaw.edu if you are interested in serving as class secretary.

1979 Deborah Bucknam dbucknam@vtlegalhelp.com

1980 Scott Cameron jscameron@zclpc.com

Joel Burcat is a partner and chair of Saul

Ewing firm’s environment and natural resources practice group. He is a coeditor of the sixth edition of Pennsylvania Environmental Law & Practice, published by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, and has served as coeditor of the previous five editions. Joel focuses his legal practice in environmental litigation, counseling, and transactional work. A former assistant attorney

48 loquitur

Joel Burcat ’80 Scott Cameron’s tenure as VLS trustee (26 years) and chair (almost 10 years) of the VLS board of trustees ended on October 15. Scott reports that “there was a nice recognition dinner at Basin Harbor on August 1” where the board presented him with a “Tree of Life” platter and VLS Heritage Rocking Chair. Ed Colodny was also recognized for his service to the board. Ed Mattes ’83 is the incoming chair; he will be the second VLS alumnus to chair the board. A scholarship fund was established in Scott’s name, in appreciation for all he has done for the school. Jack Thomas Tomarchio was appointed to the board of PureSafe Water Systems, Inc. He is the former deputy under secretary of United States Homeland Security for intelligence and analysis operations.

1981 Tim McGrath timothy.mcgrath@va.gov Tom Aristide reports that the “oldest of four daughters, Kassandra, graduated from law school in 2007 and is back with my office in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For a little over a year she worked for a firm that, among other things, represented school districts in education law matters. She now handles both education law and workers’ compensation cases like her senior and only partner, me. Also went to Beerfest in Burlington this July. It was a great time. Also looking to take the Florida bar this winter just because I can.” Rich Ericsson continues his environmental practice as a partner with Farer Fersko of Westfield, New Jersey, a boutique environmental and commercial real estate firm. His practice is mostly compliance, cleanup, brownfield redevelopment, and transactional due diligence work. On the home front, his older daughter, Lily, just graduated from Hamilton College and is now off to law school at Seton Hall University in New Jersey (without any urging from him!), and his younger daughter is heading off for her freshman year at St. Lawrence University in New York State, leaving Rich and his wife more time for their elderly yellow lab and their sailboat. He keeps in regular touch with Steve Kunzman and his family. Steve is busy with musical gigs and sidelines as an environmental litigator. Christopher Howe has been probate judge in the district of Fair Haven, Vermont, for nearly 24 years. The district is being closed, and he is running as the Republican candidate countywide. He does like the job and thinks he does well at it. He maintains a private practice in Fair Haven, Vermont, and lives on Lake Bomoseen, with his wife, Susan. His older daughter is a teacher in Hampton Road, Virginia. His younger daughter was recently married in Key West, Florida, and

Class Notes

she and her husband, the assistant coach of the University of Vermont hockey team, live in Burlington. She works for Burton Board in their corporate office. Phil Maier says that he “is doing fine, living in NYC—Brooklyn to be exact—at the moment.” Phil is the director of the New York City office for the state Public Employment Relations Board, which he reports “is pretty active right now as the public seems to hate public employees. Life otherwise is going well; keeping busy and trying to stay in shape. I am in touch with Adam Schneider; he is doing well and has been the mayor of Long Branch, New Jersey, for four terms.”

met in 1978—the scene of the crime —in Zonka’s Bar. Well, when we got to SoRo that Thursday, we found that it had been converted into the food co-op. We stood in the exact spot we met (kissed) and turned around, and there was a refrigeration case, and inside of it at our eye level was a very fancy bottle of Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary brew! We just knew it was a good omen! Our trip to Vermont was lovely, and we were delighted at how VLS has grown since we were there in the early ’80s when it was just one building.”

1982 Larr Kelly photolarr@tidalwave.net

1983 Martha Lyons malyonsesq@hotmail.com

Gary Medvigy ’81 with his daughter Elyse Gary Medvigy says, “No real news for me, other than ‘unique Dad bragging rights.’ My oldest daughter, Elyse, attended United States Army Airborne School at the beginning of this summer. I am still in an active jump status with my own unit, so I was granted permission to attend her graduation week. I jumped twice with her and was able to pin her wings at graduation! As an aside, Elyse spent her twoweek break from West Point climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, then attended French Airborne school—the first female cadet to attend—and is presently in the Congo at the United States Embassy for the rest of her summer cadet training.” Ruth Littner Shaw says “Andrew and I just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary, so we took a trip up to Vermont (from Pennsylvania) to return to where we

Steven H. Swartout recently graduated from the American Bankers Association Stonier National Graduate School of Banking. The Stonier National Graduate School of Banking is a preeminent executive management school for the financial services industry. It is designed to develop leaders with the knowledge and skills to

recognize and solve executive management problems, as well as implement solutions. He is currently chairman of Thompson Health Systems Properties & Services, Inc., a member of the Thompson Health System finance committee, vice chairman of WXXI Public Broadcasting Council in Rochester, New York, a director of United Way of Ontario County, and a director of Genesee Valley Trust Company. He currently resides in Canandaigua, New York.

1984 Please email kevans@vermontlaw.edu if you are interested in serving as class secretary. Bret Wacker joined Clark Hill as a member of the firm’s government relations and public affairs practice group. His practice focuses on counseling clients in all areas of federal government procurement and market development, including reviewing solicitations, drafting proposals, drafting contracts and subcontracts, assisting with contract negotiations, and performing government contract due diligence for mergers and acquisitions. In addition to his federal contracting practice, Bret works with both for-profit and not-forprofit entities seeking to secure federal research and development or other funding support through federal government agencies, including the United States Department of Defense and its subagencies. Bret’s government affairs practice enables him to introduce and seek the support of executive and legislative branch officials who can assist with the funding and acquisition process relevant to client programs and initiatives.

1985 Steve Swartout ’83

Send us your notes at alumni@vermontlaw.edu

Please email kevans@vermontlaw.edu if you are interested in serving as class secretary. fall 2010 49

Class Notes

Although no one in her family had ever graduated from college, at age 12, Colleen Connor knew she wanted to be a lawyer; at 15, an environmental lawyer; and at 18, an environmental lawyer working globally. “Without knowing a lot about what it meant, I knew what I wanted to be,” she says. Her clear-eyed vision bore results. Today, at General Electric Co., America’s second-largest multinational, she is environment, health and safety (EHS) manager and counsel for its Power & Water business. That puts her squarely in the middle of the action on such environmentally crucial approaches as renewable energy technologies, energy conservation, and water desalinization and reuse, as well as workplace safety issues. “It allows me to be a part of the solution in the long-term,” she says. “For those of us in industry who are environmentalists at heart, power and water is a great place to be.” She was key in driving the environmental compliance results in GE’s water business to an all-time high in all metrics and in putting strict U.S. health and safety rules into place at 50 GE factories in 30 countries. When she saw that a daycare center in a Brazilian factory that GE was acquiring shared a wall with a dangerous metals-processing unit, she ordered the center moved; a month later, in a flash fire, the former center burned down. “GE has always been a place where I didn’t have to prove the value of EHS to the man-

agement,” she says. “Everyone is ready to go—I just have to show them how to get there.” Vermont Law School gave her the first introduction to GE, during a Semester in Practice and a summer internship. “VLS changed who I am and opened lots of doors for me,” she says. She chose it in 1982 for its “intimate community” (her dorm floor at Michigan State had more students than her entire VLS class) and its supportive culture. “I never felt I was competing with a fellow classmate for a grade or opportunity or exposure—we were all in this together,” she says. After graduating in 1985, she worked for the EPA in Manhattan on clean water and asbestos issues and for a law firm in New Jersey that handled industrial property transfers. “I realized that where I would fit best, be happiest, and do the most good would be to work for a corporation with an environmental conscience,” she says. In 1993, she made a phone call to GE and was hired in two weeks to lead the group that handled the environmental aspects of buying and selling industrial properties. In 2005, she became manager and counsel of EHS for GE’s Water & Process Technologies, and as of this September, she heads EHS for both power and water, managing a 300-person staff. Amid business travel to 30 countries, she has carved out time for VLS, serving on the alumni board six years and becoming a trustee this year. “I feel that paying back—or paying forward to those who are there now and in the future—is really important,” she says. She brings with her an industry-savvy perspective and a spe-

50 Sendloquitur us your notes at alumni@vermontlaw.edu

John Douglas/Flying Squirrel Graphics

Colleen Connor ’85 Working from the Inside Out

“Paying back—or paying forward to those who are there now and in the future—is really important.” cial concern: “We have a duty to keep the tuition down so folks can afford to go to law school and can afford to do jobs they want to afterward that aren’t necessarily well paid.” Colleen lives in Fairfield, Connecticut, with her husband, Brian Kelahan, a New Haven high school teacher. Their three sons, ages 18 to 23, are environmentally astute, but, she sighs, “They still use more water bottles than I’d like!”

Class Notes

1987

the environmental law clinics at Sun Yatsen University and the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims at the China University of Political Science and Law during the 2010–11 academic year. He also intends to reach out to other universities across China that are interested in establishing environmental law clinics. See the full story in Faculty Highlights.

Mark Ouellette mouellette01@gmail.com Mark G. Ouellette’s daughter Christie graduated in May 2009 from University of New Hampshire with her degree in nursing. She has joined the United States Navy and is an ensign assigned to San Diego, California.

1988 Jan (Fieldsteel) Simonsen was once again selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (2011) for personal injury law in Washington, D.C. In the spring 2010 edition of Loquitur, we incorrectly stated that Jan had recently made partner at Carr Maloney in Washington, D.C. Jan has actually been a partner with the firm for 14 years and has spent the last 21 years of her career at the firm. We apologize for the error.

1989 Michael D. Napolitano has joined Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, PC’s Garden City, New York office as an associate in the personal injury group. Michael’s practice includes clients who have been injured due to construction accidents, motor vehicle accidents, slip/trip and falls, dog bites, and all general negligence matters.

1990 Gina Cannon lives in Concord, New Hampshire. Following the birth of her daughter, Gina “retired” from active practice and started a home-based business as a professional guardian. The state of New Hampshire’s Probate Court was just starting up a pilot project, which offered an alternative to the legislatively created

1992 Michael D. Napolitano ’89 Office of Public Guardian. Subsequently the legislature officially created “Professional Guardians,” of which Gina is one of a handful. Considering the aging demographics in New Hampshire, she expects to be kept very busy. She enjoyed the reunion in September. Anyone interested in the details of her career transition is welcome to ask. Jeff Newman married Katherine Dangel on June 19, 2010, in Concord, New Hampshire. He is currently an associate at Loginov & Associates, PLLC, an intellectual property law firm in Concord, New Hampshire. Also in attendance was Gina Cannon.

1991 Richard S. Leahy MSL recently was named environmental counsel for WalMart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Arkansas. Previously, he was the company’s senior director for environmental compliance. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer. Rick joined Wal-Mart in 2008, after a 17-year legal career with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Atlanta, with stints in New York and Washington, D.C. Rick lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with his wife, a freelance writer, and their two daughters, ages 9 and 7. David Mears has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and to assist

Send us your notes at alumni@vermontlaw.edu

Margaret Olnek mlo@olneklaw.com

1993 Lainey Schwartz geowoman3@aol.com

1994 Matt Ranelli, a Shipman & Goodwin attorney, has been elected secretary of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. The fund was established by Public Act 98-28 and is intended to promote growth and development of renewable clean energy and clean energy technologies in Connecticut. The 15-member board of directors is charged with approving clean energy policies, programs, and funding, as well as developing a comprehensive plan that outlines strategies to support renewable

Matt Ranelli ’94 fall 2010 51

Class Notes

energy sources and to stimulate demand for renewable energy. Matt was appointed to the fund’s board of directors in 2009. He practices in Shipman & Goodwin’s Hartford, Connecticut office in the areas of environmental, energy, and land use law.

From the Class of 1996: Tom Federle, Rebecca Ramos, Kelly Lowry, Clark Atwell, and Brian Dunkiel; and their spouses and children David Ashdown and Jaime Bruck ’95

1995 Karen Moore kj.moore@judicial.state.co.us Jaime Bruck married David Ashdown in October 2009 on Anna Maria Island, Florida. D. Christopher Dearborn was nominated for law professor of the year in the Massachusetts Bar Association/Mass Lawyers Weekly’s Excellence in the Law awards. Beth Fiteni recently won the Environmental Protection Agency’s (Region 2) Environmental Quality Award for 2010.

1996 Tom Federle, Jodi Federle, Rebecca Ramos, Leslie Halperin, Brian Dunkiel, David Eyler, Kelly Lowry, and Clarke Atwell, along with their spouses and children, all met at Sturdivant Island, Maine, this summer for their 10th annual gathering of VLSers.

1997 Joe Cook rode his bicycle from Vancouver to Mexico in May. He is thrilled to report that his daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Alimi Cook, of Waitsfield, Vermont, was recently admitted into the VLS class of 2013. Joe is a partner in the Brattleboro firm of Corum Mabie Cook Prodan Angell & Secrest, PLC, of which four of the partners are VLS graduates. Adam Sowatzka joined Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC, as a shareholder in the Atlanta office and a member of the Government Regulatory Actions practice group. Adam, previously counsel with King & Spalding, joined as the firm’s senior environmental lawyer in Georgia. After three years of running his own firm, Jeremy Vermilyea has recently, and reluctantly, closed shop and moved his practice to the West Coast law firm of Bullivant Houser Bailey. His practice is still focused on representing commercial construction contractors, including building contractors, road and bridge builders, rail contractors and heavy/civil contractors. Jeremy has an active construction prac-

52 Sendloquitur us your notes at alumni@vermontlaw.edu

tice in four states: Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and California. He is still based in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with Kristin, his wife of five years and, until recently, his boss. Kristin is now working with him as a paralegal at Bullivant. They’re also in the process of buying a new house because, “well, closing one office and starting new at another wasn’t enough excitement for us. As always, if you’re in Portland, please look me up. Peter Mohr is in the same building (although he has a much better view than I do), so we could always make it a mini-VLS reunion.”

Joe Cook ’97 on a recent bike trip

Class Notes

1998 Todd Collins won a primary election for a county district attorney’s seat in Maine. Carl Engleman Jr. recently opened The Law Offices of Carl Engleman Jr. LLC. His practice areas include environmental law, compliance, and litigation; oil and gas law; mining law; wills, trusts and estates; and civil and commercial litigation. Wynona Ward was honored by the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains at the Breakfast with Champions, May 4, at the Capitol Plaza in Montpelier, Vermont. Champions were selected for their significant contributions to their state through their work, philanthropy, and/or community service. They serve as powerful, positive role models for girls and work tirelessly to better the lives of girls and women every day.

1999 Joy Kanwar-Nori joy.kanwar@brooklaw.edu Captain Christopher M. Perra, currently of Winooski, Vermont, deployed with the

Captain Christopher Perra ’99, visits an orphanage in Bamyan Province, Afghanistan, May 2010.

Vermont National Guard to Afghanistan earlier this year. He serves as a judge advocate with the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain). Captain Perra served over 14 years in the Navy Reserve, attaining the rank of chief petty officer. After graduating from Vermont Law School, he later received a commission as a reserve officer, Judge Advocate General Corps, in the Vermont Army National Guard. The deployment is the largest of the Vermont National Guard since the Second World War. He is currently on military leave from his civilian employer, the Law Offices of Fred Peet ’93, South Burlington, Vermont.

2000 Joy Braunstein’s son, Jordan, turned one on July 27. Joy is still working as president/ CEO of Carolina Raptor Center. She is teaching a course on NGOs at Salem College this fall and beginning a DBA in corporate social responsibility. Anna Katselas is very honored and excited to report that she has been awarded a Fulbright grant to study international law in Vienna, Austria, during the 2010–11 academic year. She will enroll in an international legal studies LLM program at the University of Vienna Law School, and plans to focus her research on the treatment of national environmental measures in international investment law.

Jason Brandeis recently joined the faculty of the University of Alaska Anchorage as an assistant professor of justice. He has taught at UAA since the fall of 2009 as an adjunct faculty member, but has now been accepted as a full-time assistant professor for the 2010–11 school year. Before entering the world of education, he was a prominent member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alaska for seven years, where he held the position of staff attorney. For the fall 2010, Professor Brandeis will be teaching Introduction to Law, Development of Law, and Civil Procedure. Chris Dodson, a partner with Timmons Group based in Richmond, Virginia, was elected to the board of directors of the firm this past spring. Based on his work and recognizing the need to increase efficiency, Chris and a few associates created a company called Wetcollect. It is a software program on a handheld device designed to collect wetland field data. He will celebrate the eighth anniversary of his marriage to Amy (Wilson) Dodson ’00 this year, and they have two children, Dexter and Taylor. Alex Lee appeared on the Colbert Report in the May 5 news story parody, “The Enemy Within—Backyard Clothesline,” available online at w w w.colbertnation.com/the-colbertrepor t-v ide os/30 875 1 /m ay- 05-2 010/ the-enemy-within---backyard-clothesline.

2001

2002

On August 30, 2010, Kelly Berfield began

Paige Bush-Scruggs paigescruggs@comcast.net

teaching at Lehigh University in their Integrated Real Estate program. She will be teaching Introduction Seminar in Real Estate. Kelly is also a partner and broker of record for Dietrick Group, which is a commercial real estate company in Allentown, Pennsylvania, while remaining of counsel to the law firm of Donohue & Nicosia in Vernon, New Jersey.

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Tameiko Allen Grant is currently living in Jacksonville, Florida. She is married to Rodney Grant, has one son (Jameson, 16 months) and two stepdaughters (Roderica, 15, and Keneesha, 20). She is the associate academic dean at Everest University (Jacksonville Campus). fall 2010 53

Class Notes

Helena Wooden-Aguilar ’02 Outreach on the Fast Track As a child, Helena Wooden-Aguilar loved the Poconos woods so much that she mourned when others cut down four trees near their home. As a teen, she often nagged her parents to recycle. So when she arrived at the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., she was puzzled to find that when she talked about environmental issues, “people kind of withdrew from the conversation.” Tutoring inner-city teens, she gained insight: “They told me, ‘I have a lot going on in my life. I’m afraid for my life—it’s hard for me to champion the environment when my own environment is so complex.’” It made Helen determined to marry her environmental concerns to the passion for justice she had inherited from her father, Mr. Sherman Wooden Sr., a retired director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at the University of Scranton, who also taught social psychology. At only 21, Helena enrolled at Vermont Law School. “It was like home to me,” she says. “People helped me not only mature into being an environmental lawyer, but they also helped me grow and mature as a person. They saw something in me I didn’t see in myself.” Dean Shirley Jefferson became her mentor and surrogate mother, giving her career advice and scooping her up for drives to the grocery store. A tough environmental job market led Helena into a position as staff attorney at the Battered Women’s Justice Project in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: “I learned from the wonderful women around me what it meant to be an advocate in the truest sense—they gave 100 percent every day,” she says. While online one day, she found an opening at the EPA in its Office of Civil

Rights, “my dream job.” When she was hired for the position, she took her Venezuelan-born mother, Ms. Reina Wooden, a retired Pennsylvania state auditor, out to dinner and cried with happiness. As a case manager for the External Compliance Team, Helena investigated discrimination complaints against local and state governments receiving EPA funding, often nudging feuding parties into mediation. Deputy Chief of Staff Ray Spears, her mentor, urged her to expand her focus. While brainstorming with her fiancé, Helena realized what she really wanted to do: bring more minority students into environmental law. Thus, her plan was hatched: a program in which VLS and the EPA would collaborate to offer courses on environmental law and policy to students at historically minority colleges and law schools. The students could steward and champion the environment in their communities and, perhaps, one day become environmental lawyers, as well. Helena methodically worked through details with EPA officials. An email she sent in February 2009 to Dean Jefferson garnered a quick “Excellent idea!” Nine months later, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in which the EPA and VLS agreed to expand outreach to minority and underserved communities. The pilot program, offering for-credit classes in climate change and energy law, will start in spring 2011. Vermont Law School will provide environmental curriculum in a several ways, including faculty and student exchanges and possible distancelearning courses. “It’s been on a fast track,” says Helena. One early outcome: EPA has

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“People helped me not only mature into being an environmental lawyer, but they also helped me grow and mature as a person. They saw something in me I didn’t see in myself.” already sent five African American students from North Carolina Central University Law School to attend the last VLS Summer Session (see story in Discovery). Helena, who is currently team leader of her office, is hoping the program will expand; details are under wraps at the moment. Weekends find her with her fiancé, Mr. Steven Robinson, and their two-year-old son rambling down Virginia trails: “We’re definitely an outdoors type of family,” she laughs. “Just like me, my son loves to run around in the woods!”

Class Notes

2004

Michael O’Brien’s family struck out onto the open road this October and will spend the fall, winter, and spring chasing sunshine and visiting friends from coast to coast. They’ll be unexpectedly dropping in looking for tent space, strong Wi-Fi, and good times. Email him at meoem2002@ hotmail.com or on Facebook. Emily Stone and Seth Bacon are living in Denver, Colorado, and had their first child, a boy named Abbot Bacon, in January. Emily does legislative advocacy for a large animal welfare organization, and Seth manages IT for a large specialty veterinary hospital. They miss summers in Vermont and evenings at the pub and hope everyone is doing well.

2003 Shannon Bañaga

vlsmaher@yahoo.com Shazia Khan serves as the executive director of an environmental nonprofit called EcoEnergyFinance. The organization is based in Washington, D.C., and provides solar lighting systems to the rural poor in developing countries. They are currently focused on flood relief efforts in Pakistan. Shazia and her husband Dr. Samir Kanani welcomed a baby boy, Tarik Kanani, this year.

Class of 2003 alums and babies: Lina Alameddine (daughter Rima), Brian and Diana Joffe (son Noah) and Shannon Bañaga (son Colton)

Spencer Hanes spencer.hanes@duke-energy.com

Adrian Otterman ’03 Shaunna McCovey was recently honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award from Humbolt State University, her undergraduate university. Adrian Otterman says, “It certainly has been a busy few years since graduating VLS. After the first few years of law practice, when the learning curve is so steep, I was able to find the time to build a recording studio in my home. This led to the recording of my album Floating in the Whale and eventually, the formation of my new band, Over Orange Heights. The album is receiving some good reviews, so we have begun recording a follow-up! It’s been amazing how supportive and encouraging my estate-planning clients have been of my music. They want to know what’s going on, how the next album is coming, and the details of the recording process. After speaking with one client about it, I was hired to record his jazz album and to help him transfer some real estate! After working with a mastering engineer on my own album, I was hired to form a new company for his recording studio. Never a dull moment practicing law or making music!”

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Chris Adamo recently finished another congressional session as legislative counsel for U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow. His work includes environmental and energy issues including renewable energy and climate policy for Senator Stabenow’s work on the Energy and Finance Committees. He just finished his fifth year at the Senate and is living in Washington, D.C. Rick Binet opened Blackback Pub and Flyshop in Waterbury, Vermont. Rick says he can “counsel you on fishing tackle and fine European libations, as well as find the occasional legal client.” On March 14, 2008, Heather Bonnet married Anne Hébert in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where they live with their three dogs (Truman, Kennedy, and Olivia), three cats (Pebbles, D’Angelo, and Loki), and a canary, Tweety. Since February 2007, Heather has been working as a trial lawyer with Mandell, Schwartz & Boisclair in Providence, Rhode Island. The bulk of her time has involved working on the Station Nightclub litigation, which arose from a tragic nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, in 2003. Heather says, “I have been pleasantly surprised to discover how immensely fulfilling it is to be working as a plaintiff’s lawyer. My only regret is that we are not in Vermont. I seem to have left a big part of my heart there and it keeps calling me back!” Spencer Hanes accepted a new position as director of Commercial Policy at Duke Energy in Charlotte earlier this year. Spencer now works for Duke Energy’s unregulated affiliate, which develops solar, wind, biomass, and commercial transmission projects throughout the U.S. Spencer led the regulated utilities’ effort to develop a three-turbine offshore wind project in North Carolina as well as other regulated renewable energy policy work. Zoe (Gamble) Hanes ’06 represents renewable fall 2010 55

Class Notes

energy developers in the Carolinas and has helped create a whole practice area dedicated to renewable energy tax credit and development work. Spencer reports that “Zoe and I are doing great as we try to manage the dual working parent responsibilities.” Zoe and Spencer’s daughter, Juliette, is 17 months old and is mastering saying “no” to her parents. Jennifer de Lyon and husband Dr. Matthew A. Stralka are pleased to announce the birth of their son, Matthew Robert de Lyon Stralka, born on January 18, 2010, weighing 6 lb., 5 oz. Currently, Jennifer is enjoying motherhood but will soon be returning to her position as law instructor at Rutgers University’s College of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Brian Potts and Abigail Wuest moved to Madison, Wisconsin, in 2006 and married soon after. Brian is an energy and environmental law associate at Foley & Lardner LLP, and Abigail is an assistant attorney general at the Wisconsin Department of Justice, where she works in civil litigation, specializing in appeals. They recently bought a house and some land on a wooded hillside outside of Madison. David Singer has been elected president of the Cook College/Community Alumni Association at Rutgers University.

Matthew Robert de Lyon Stralka, son of Jennifer de Lyon ’04 and Matthew Stralka

Class Notes

He has also been named a 2010 Rising Star Super Lawyer in New Jersey for Environmental Law. David was listed in April 2010’s New Jersey Monthly Magazine highlighting that state’s Super Lawyers and can also be found in the 2010 edition of New Jersey Super Lawyer Magazine and website. He has also been appointed cochair of the Somerset County Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division. Jennifer and Dustin Taylor welcomed their second daughter, Martha Kay Taylor, on February 26, 2010.

2005 Meg Munsey; Kelly Singer vermontlaw2005@gmail.com Peter Herbst and Kate Nedelman Herbst are thrilled to announce the birth of their daughter, Abigail Mary, on July 23, 2010. Abigail was 6 lb., 12 oz., and 18 in. long. Peter, Kate, and Abigail are living in Braintree, Massachusetts, where Peter is in practice, and Kate works as an assistant district attorney for Norfolk County. Molly Mimier has moved to Lima, Peru, for her first overseas assignment as a Foreign Service officer with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She will be there for a total of two years, managing the legal relationship between USAID and its partner organizations in the region. Molly would be happy to host any VLS alumni visiting Lima. Jill Reymore recently wrote an article titled “Protect Saranac Watershed” for the May/June issue of Adirondack Explorer. She wrote about the need to protect the Saranac River watershed, focusing on the Waterkeeper model. Sarah Winter Whelan accepted a new position this past spring with the American Littoral Society. She is director of their Regional Marine Conservation Project in Portland, Oregon. Sarah’s work focuses on facilitating and coordinating opportuni-

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The Herbst ’05 family, Joel Emlen ’05 and family, Sierra Harlacher Pino ’05 and Sierra’s husband, Steve

Alexander Young-Springer, son of Stephanie Young ’05 and Darren Springer ’05 ties for conservation advocacy on regional and national ocean and coastal issues. Stephanie Young says “On August 3 at 7:27 pm, Darren Springer and I welcomed Alexander Young-Springer, 8 lb., 11 oz., 22 in. long. All of us are doing great, and we cannot get enough of our little one!”

Class Notes

2006 Ashley Carson ashleybrey@gmail.com Ebony Riggins erriggins@gmail.com Kristen Campbell and Lyle Stohler ’04 were married on 8/8/08 at Crow Creek Mine in Girdwood, Alaska. Ashley Carson was in the wedding, and Emily Anderson, Hannah Thorssin-Bahri ’07, Tanya Ringer Schultz, and Barrett Schultz were all in attendance. Kristen is a practicing attorney in Wasilla and surrounding towns, and Lyle works as a public defender in Anchorage.

his accomplishments to the skills taught by his professors and mentors at VLS. His most notable moment came in a case in which a client was charged with murder. He challenged the dying declaration and made a separate confrontation clause argument. Chris states, “Professor Mello would have been proud.” Outside of court, Chris renovates homes for single parents with his Holiday Make-Over Project and is the board chairperson of a nonprofit organization called All Walks of Life, Inc., which was selected as semifinalist for the Presidential “Coming up Taller” Award in recognition of outstanding community arts programs. However, in his spare time he enjoys watching tourists cross the street when he walks Shanobi (his side-kick pit bull) in Forsyth Park.

2007 Greg Dorrington gregdorrington@gmail.com Liz Lucente liz.lucente@gmail.com Megan Campbell and Dickson Corbett are pleased to announce the birth of their daughter, Plover Grace Corbett, who was born on July 7, 2010. Everyone is healthy, happy, and a little milk drunk.

Plover Grace Corbett, daughter of Megan Campbell ’07 and Dickson Corbett ’07

Kristen Campbell ’06 and Lyle Stohler ’04 Christopher K. Middleton is a trial attorney with the Eastern Judicial Circuit Public Defender Office in Savannah, Georgia. He was recently promoted to the Serious Crime Division and now litigates capital offenses and violent felonies. Although intense at times, Chris says working for the Public Defender Office has truly been one of his most fulfilling accomplishments. “Protecting the rights of the indigent and upholding the principles of the Constitution are not easy tasks, but at the end of the day I feel as if I am achieving Vermont Law School’s famous motto, Lex Pro Urbe et Orbe.” He credits

In June, four VLS alumni graduated from the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate Officers Basic Course and Direct Commissioning Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. From left to right: First Lieutenant William Rothstein ’09, Judge Advocate, Fort Carson, Colorado; First Lieutenant Benjamin Rau ’07, Army Reserves, practicing in Olympia, Washington; Captain Olaseni Bello ’06, Judge Advocate, Fort Hood, Texas; First Lieutenant Timothy Riley ’08, Florida Army National Guard and Associate Attorney at the law firm Hopping Green & Sams, PA, Tallahassee, Florida.

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Joseph Griffo and Shannon Vallance got married in March in Newport, Rhode Island. They had a mini-reunion from the class of 2007. In June Joe deployed to Afghanistan, where he is currently stationed, working with the Afghan government in various different capacities. He works closely with the judicial branch of Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, helping to develop the government by increasing the rule of law within the country. Louis-Charles Hevin LLM is happy to announce that he married Claire Boisserie on July 17, 2010, in France. He is currently associate (collaborateur) of Scotto & Associés, a French law firm that specializes in mergers and acquisitions, private equity, capital markets, and tax and labor law. Susan Keane says “after working in private practice for the last three years, I have now joined the Windham County Public Defender’s office in Brattleboro. I fall 2010 57

Class Notes

love my new job and the experience it has given me so far. Recently, we moved to Londonderry, Vermont and are enjoying mountain living!” Chris King says “In regard to his last update, Chris King humbly appreciates the outpouring of concern/sympathy/ laughter he got from his fellow classmates and strangers alike. In fact, he even got a job offer as a result of one of you kind souls reaching out. Thanks Eula and congrats on your marriage! Far from the selfloathing of last year, things are looking up these days. Like Ahab brazenly charging into the seas of solo practice, The King Law Firm has planted roots on Capitol Hill and is currently representing a tribe in California. That doesn’t mean I’m not bitter! Drop me a line; I like hearing from you: christopher.k.king@gmail.com.” Michael Miller and Emily Jackson got married on August 7, 2010, in Petoskey, Michigan. Also present at the wedding were Rebecca Cavanaugh, Ryan Chambers, John Lamson ’06, and Katie (Burton) Lamson. Liz (Vires) Mulholland and Evan Mulholland LLM’05 welcomed twin daughters Sadie Elizabeth and Lucy Rose on June 24, 2010. Liz went back to work after maternity leave in October; she works for the New Hampshire Public Defender. Evan is working as an assistant attorney general with the Environmental Protection Bureau at the New Hampshire Department of Justice. The whole family is happy and healthy and doing well! Daniel Van Orman and his wife, Sarah Bell Van Orman, are pleased to announce the birth of their first child, William Joseph Van Orman, on May 7, 2010. The family resides in Portsmouth, Virginia. On April 24, 2010, Alan Roughton married Beth Gunderson in New Bern, North Carolina. At the wedding were fellow classmates Katie Burton, Rebecca Cavanaugh, Basil Fedorchenko, Josh Galperin, Emily Jackson, Adam Lee, Ross Maddalena, and Jeremiah Sanders.

Class Notes

laws in taxation. He is currently a volunteer attorney with the University of Washington Federal Tax Clinic and an associate attorney with Olson Althauser Samuelson & Rayan, LLP in Centralia, Washington. He practices general civil litigation and tax controversy. Victoria Aufiero recently moved to Albany, New York, to join her fiancé, Luke, who has started his residency at Albany Medical Center. On August 23, she became the new public policy advocate for National Alliance for Mental Illness in New York State. Laura Baker reports that after two years apart, a group of ’08 grads (mostly from the Ultimate Justice) reunited at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire this summer. William Joseph Van Orman, son of Daniel Van Orman ’07

Maxime Beaulieu ’08

Alan Roughton ’07 celebrated his wedding with guests, including several members of the Class of 2007.

2008 Samantha Santiago Santiago.samantha@gmail.com Jamie Williams willjamie@gmail.com Peter J. Abbarno graduated from the University of Washington with a master of

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Maxime Beaulieu joined the New York foreclosure practice of Fein, Such, Kahn & Shephard in the creditor’s rights department. Beaulieu was admitted to the New Jersey State Bar Association in 2009. Sarah and Conor Brockett live in Raleigh, North Carolina, with their loyal dog, Porter. Conor started a new job as assistant counsel for the North Carolina Medical Society in February, primarily assisting physicians and medical practices with legal and policy issues involving managed care companies, Medicare, Medicaid, and workers compensation. He is also involved in the state’s implementation of federal health system reform and lobbies state government on issues important to doctors and patients.

Class Notes

Reuniting this summer were Vince Calvano ’08, Tristan Albrecht ’08, Jim Cowles ’08, Nicole Csiszer (Cowles) ’08, Vivian Guerette (daughter of Dave Guerette), Dave Guerette ’08, Kelli Reddy ’08, Eben Albert-Knopp ’08, Catie Flinchbaugh (Klass) ’08, Mark Beaudoin ’08, Mike Klass ’08, and Laura Baker ’08.

Jim Cowles ’08 and Nicole Csiszer MSEL’05/ JD’08 Jim Cowles and Nicole Csiszer MSEL’05/JD’08 were married in the lakes region of New Hampshire on May 22, 2010, before a small gathering of their

immediate families. Jim and Nicole live in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and both are enjoying what free time they have with each other, while working at small general practice firms; Nicole at Walker & Varney, PC, in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and Jim at Bernson & Burnham, PLLC, in Dover, New Hampshire, after working at the Laconia Office of the New Hampshire Public Defender. They each have one and a half cats. Delia Delongchamp MELP recently took a new position with the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources as stewardship planner. She is working with farmers across the Commonwealth to keep agricultural land in commercial production, actively seeking new farms to conserve, facilitating with alternative energy requests on protected farmland, and streamlining a stewardship program covering over 16,000 acres in Massachusetts. Wish her luck or contact her at Delia.Delongchamp@MassMail. State.MA.US. Emilee Drobbin has been admitted to

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practice law in New York and New Jersey and has recently joined the Law Offices of Brian J. Herman in Hudson, New York. William S. Eubanks II LLM is an attorney with the public-interest environmental law firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal. He recently filed suit on behalf of several conservation organizations to stop the indiscriminate burning of several species of endangered and threatened sea turtles as part of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response in the Gulf of Mexico. As a result of the lawsuit and a request for emergency injunctive relief from a federal court in New Orleans, Eubanks and his clients pressured British Petroleum and the Coast Guard into a favorable settlement requiring the creation of a mandatory sea turtle observer program and the adoption and implementation of sea turtle search, rescue, and rehabilitation protocols to minimize the risk of harm to federally protected sea turtles as part of in-situ burn operations. The case was covered by various media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, CNN, and CBS. In addition to his litigation accomplishments, Eubanks also recently published the cover article for the Environmental Law Institute’s summer reading issue of The Environmental Forum, entitled “Paying the Farm Bill: How One Statute Has Radically Degraded the Natural Environment and How a Newfound Emphasis on Sustainability is the Key to Reviving the Ecosystem.” Robert Gardner has moved back to the environmental world after a brief hiatus working at the Virginia Poverty Law Center in Richmond. He’s back in Washington, D.C., working at Greenpeace as a coalition liaison, traveling the country setting up partnerships and coalitions. Robert is still playing rugby when he can and always has time to chat. If you’re ever in D.C., feel free to contact him at RGardner@greenpeace.org. Allison Hanzawa is living in Juneau, Alaska and is employed with the state as a rural social worker. She enjoys her new fall 2010 59

Class Notes

environment but is still adjusting to life in a rainforest and going to work in a seaplane. Chris Hayes has been engaged in the practice of law as a licensed attorney in the State of tennessee and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Within days of taking the tennessee bar exam in July 2008, Chris began work as an attorney with two private law firms in Nashville, tennessee, concentrating his practice in environmental law related matters at Luna Law Group, PLLC (f/k/a Farmer & Luna, PLLC) and Waller, Lansden, Dortch & Davis, LLP. in May 2009, Chris became licensed as an attorney in the Commonwealth of Virginia while continuing to practice in Nashville. in February, 2010, Chris accepted a civilian-attorney position in Norfolk, Virginia, with the u.S. Department of Homeland Security, u.S. Coast Guard, representing the Coast Guard in environmental law and real property law

Class Notes

related matters. recently, Chris has provided counsel to the u.S. Coast Guard in its ongoing response to the Deepwater Horizon oil release in the Gulf of Mexico. in his spare time, Chris continues his leisure activities of fishing, canoeing, and vertical caving. Jack Kraichnan and his wife, Diane, have simplified their last name to Crane, and are enjoying the associated ease of introductions and transactions. Nicole Lynch is currently volunteering at Colorado Legal Services and is a regional director for The Borgen Project, playing roller derby, and awaiting Colorado bar results. Justin McCabe says “We have a new addition to our family. on March 29, 2010, Seamus William Whelley McCabe joined Kate, Elke (my daughter), and me. He was a little earlier than planned, but he’s doing great. We are still in Montpelier and i am still with Downs rachlin

You can order this Mother Nature’s Lawyer polo from Barrister’s Book Shop for $20.00. Call 802-763-7170 or go to http://barristers.vermontlaw.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display& category_id=7

60 Sendloquitur us your notes at alumni@vermontlaw.edu

Justin McCabe ’08 and family Martin as an intellectual property associate. of note from a work prospective, i had an article entitled ‘Enforcing intellectual Property rights: A Methodology for understanding the Enforcement Problem in China’ published in the Franklin Pierce Law Review (Dec. 2009 issue). other than that, life continues as normal.” Julien Meillereux spent most of 2009 working in Equatorial Guinea at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a tax and legal counsel. He is now back in Paris where he passed the bar and is looking for a position in corporate law. Brock Rutter was sworn into the New York Bar in September. He has worked as a research assistant at Harvard university’s Berkman Center for internet and Society, and helped Professor oliver Goodenough teach a class on law and technology at VLS. He has also been programming legal assistance computer software for the state of Vermont. Brock recently moved to Montreal with his wife, Nicole, and son, Henry. He started a comparative law LLM program at McGill in September and is working with Professor Goodenough on the second offering of the law and technology class at VLS. The following note was received from

Class Notes

Joshua Sattely and Eula Kozma: Dear Liquidator: On Saturday, August 14, 2010, friends, family and myself, Duke Windsor (aka Rufus Dartenblatt), witnessed and celebrated my parents Eula Lee Kozma and Joshua Benedict Sattely join forces in matrimony to form Euloshua Kozzley. A wonderful time was had by all at the Pigeon Hill Farm located near, or slightly above, the top of the world in East Berkshire, Vermont. Mom and Dad, along with myself and our cats, Waffles and Pancake, live and flourish in Roslindale, Massachusetts, where we enjoy walking and sledding at the Arnold Arboretum, visiting and being visited by friends and family, being a therapy dog with my Mom, fetching sticks, and playing rugby for Old Gold (just Dad). The newly minted Kozzleys both work in the nonprofit arena, Mom as the development manager at Community Resources for Justice, and her lesser half as the compliance and legal specialist at Third Sector New England, where he specializes in fiscal sponsorship, world domination, and legal stuff. The guy that married Euloshua, my uncle and everyone’s rabbi, Bobby Gardner, lives in the D.C. area, where he excels as the chief awesome officer of Greenpeace. I hereby thank everyone and all things in the world that witnessed August 14, 2010, especially my grandparents Elaine and Edward Kozma and Susan and Denis Quinlan. Woof, Duke Jack Sautter and his wife, Antonia, are now living in Okinawa, Japan, where Jack is a prosecutor for the United States Marine Corps. Susan (Baker) Senning and William Senning ’06 were married on Saturday, July 10, 2010, at Will’s parents’ home in Duxbury, Vermont. The expected thunderstorms never came and it was a perfect day with family and friends. Several VLS alumni attended and some participated in the ceremony, including Lindsay Browning MSEL’06/JD’08, Erika Smart ’06, and John “JB” Weir ’06. Will was an associate at a small, general practice firm

Eula Kozma ’08, Joshua Sattely ’08, and Duke in Waterbury and Stowe, Vermont, and recently served as the fund-raising coordinator on Doug Racine’s campaign for governor. Susan worked as the health-care advocate at the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and is now the law clerk

for the Vermont Legislative Council’s judiciary team. They live with their two kids (kitties) in Duxbury. Richard Sieg is practicing law at Kilpatrick Stockton LLP in WinstonSalem, North Carolina. He was recently appointed to serve a three-year term on the Forsyth County Environmental Affairs Board. The board was established for advising the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners and assisting the Forsyth County Environmental Affairs Department with topics related to environmental management. The North Carolina Bar Association Zoning, Planning and Land Use Section published Richard’s article “Historic Resources—Finding the Middle Ground” in July. Richard focuses his practice on environmental and natural resources litigation and regulatory compliance concerns. Kate Toan began work in September as a law clerk with Meyer, Glitzenstein & Crystal in Washington, D.C. Meyer Glitz is a public-interest law firm that represents nonprofit organizations in litigation and advocacy on a variety of public-interest issues.

Susan (Baker) Senning ’08 and William Senning ’06

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fall 2010 61

Class Notes

2009 Thad Adkins and Kristi Ponozzo MSEL’07 recently moved to Helena, Montana, with their son, Owen. Thad is a public defender for the State of Montana, and Kristi is working for the Montana Wilderness Association. They are busy exploring the wilds of Montana. Alfie Bartley says “First, on February 3, 2010 I became the proud father of Marsellus Daniel Washington-Bartley. Marsellus is my first child and he is a joy and blessing to his family. Second, I have been hired by the State of Maryland to become one of three new United States District Court Commissioners for the State of Maryland. I will work in the Fifth District (Prince George’s County) and will handle both civil and criminal matters for the District Court. The position is similar to that of a magistrate judge and my duties, in many respects, will be the same as well.” Richard Eckley is the cofounder and head coach of the Fairfield (Iowa) Rugby

Football Club. The Fairfield Ironmen Men’s team will participate as an independent this year and hope to become a full member of the Iowa Rugby Football Union in the fall of 2011. The Iron Maiden’s Women’s team plans to field their inaugural team in the fall of 2011. More information about the Fairfield RFC can be found at www.fairfieldrugby.org. Mariah and Daniel Sotelino welcomed Vivian into the world on August 2. Both mother and baby are healthy and well. Marisa (who will be 3 in October) is very excited about being big sis. Daniel works at Enhesa with VLS alumni Jack Welsch ’97, Riaz Zaman ’04, Ana Santos ’06, and Frank Skiba ’08, on environmental, health, and safety compliance issues. This summer, current VLS student, David Wheaton ’11, joined Enhesa as an intern, making the VLS block over one third of the work force in the Washington, D.C. office. Since joining Enhesa in August 2009, Daniel has become the principal consultant for Brazil, and continues to work on United States compliance. The Sotelino family is enjoying D.C., in large part due to all the VLS alumni who live in

Thad ’09 and Owen Adkins in Monture Creek, Montana

Katie Summers ’10, Quincy Hansell ’10, Bryn Davies ’10, Louisa Yanes ’10, Patrick Munson ’10, and Peter Scully ’10 in Palmer, Alaska

John Miller jmiller@vermontlaw.edu

62 Sendloquitur us your notes at alumni@vermontlaw.edu

the area. Daniel plays music in D.C. with friends Tim Duggan ’07, Chris King ’07, Dan Schramm ’08, Alfie Bartley, and Aaron Lotlikar whenever time allows. The Sotelino family attended three VLS alumni weddings in August and September—predictably, Marisa unveiled new dance moves at each one. Jesse Traugott is a staff attorney with DNA-People’s Legal Services, Inc. at the Window Rock, Arizona office, providing free legal representation to low income clients on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and New Mexico. He says “living in the high desert southwest has been great so far. During the winter I felt like I was back in Vermont. There are plenty of single digit temperatures, icy roads, and snow from the end of October until May.” Look him up if you are in the area: jtraugott@dnalegalservices.org. Anthony Tuorto reports he is an assistant district attorney in Henderson, Polk, and Transylvania Counties. He says, “The work is great, the people are great, I’m getting a TON of courtroom experience and I really love what I’m doing. I work with a VLS alum, Beth (Wissinger) Stang ’04.

Class Notes

It’s nice to have a Vermont ally amongst a sea of Carolina blue.” He also reports that Shannan (Barclay) is doing well and just accepted an associate’s position with a board-certified family law attorney here. They are also getting ready to move to a 43-acre farm.

Marsellus Daniel Washington-Bartley, son of Alfie Bartley ’09

2010 Cara Cookson caracookson@yahoo.com and Laurie Wheelock lauriewheelock@gmail.com Lillian Kortlandt married her longtime partner Roseanne Colasurdo on September 18 in a ceremony held at the headquarters of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps in Richmond, Vermont. They are thankful for those members of their VLS family who were able to attend. Katie Summers reports, “Bryn Davies, Quincy Hansell, Patrick Munson, Peter Scully, Louisa Yanes, and I all met in Palmer, Alaska, for a long weekend. We are spread out over the state, but everyone came down to my place to halibut-fish. Quincy, Bryn, Peter, Patrick, and I are clerking, and Louisa is doing an internship with Trustees for Alaska.”

In Memoriam Duke MacNamee ’82 of Lebanon, New Hampshire, died June 15 following an eight-year battle with cancer. Defined by his humble brilliance, Duke’s many vocations included fighting fires in the Canadian Rockies, serving as owner and executive chef of his gourmet restaurant in Stratton, Vermont, practicing law as an attorney in Rochester and Lebanon, New Hampshire, and mastering the craft of fine woodworking, which he practiced throughout the twin states in his final years. Despite his impressive and eclectic professional résumé, Duke will be most remembered as an amazing father, devoted husband, loving brother, and thoughtful son. Duke’s many talents and prolific career paths just begin to tell the story of a man whose passions always came second to the wants and desires of his family and friends. Among the many superlatives used to describe Duke, honest and selfless are mentioned the most. His happiest moments came in the company of people he loved, enjoying the things he loved: good rock and roll, good food, and good spirits. For those who knew him best, Duke will be forever smiling—gin and tonic in hand—as he effortlessly fills the living room with laughter while the sounds of the Grateful Dead tumble from his favorite turntable. Duke is survived by his mother, Mimi MacNamee, his wife, Barbara MacNamee, his son, Scott MacNamee, his daughter, Courtney MacNamee, and his three brothers, Dana, Jay, and Bart MacNamee. Beverly F. Fiertz ’86 of South Woodstock, Vermont, died on March 8. During her 78 years, she married her high-school sweetheart, raised three sons, resided for 20 years in Germany and Switzerland, earned a law degree at age 55, and served on numerous Woodstock-area community boards. After raising a family, and frus-

Send us your notes at alumni@vermontlaw.edu

trated by the exploitation of several female friends by the legal system, she decided to fulfill a long-standing desire to become a lawyer even though it had been 30 years since she attended college. Bev graduated in 1986 from Vermont Law School, the first of ultimately many senior students. She always appreciated the warm reception from her classmates, despite their differences in age and experience. After passing the Vermont Bar Exam on her first try, Bev worked for Vermont Legal Aid before opening her law practice in South Woodstock, Vermont with a focus on serving low-income victims of domestic abuse. In addition to being an avid skier and tennis player, Bev enjoyed painting and sculpting. She was also an intrepid traveler, who visited all seven continents, and was fluent in both French and German. She particularly enjoyed her three visits each to the Arctic and Antarctica. Her beloved husband Alden survives Bev, as do her sons Carey of Salisbury, Connecticut, Randy of Bethesda, Maryland, and Stuart of London, England, and their wives Kim, Carol and Tina. She leaves behind seven grandchildren: Charles, Henry, Maggie, Katja, Callie, Mimi, and Louisa, and sister Janis Bigelow of Cotuit, Massachusetts, brother Bruce Fowle of New York City, and their families. Linda Kennedy ’94, age 43, died on December 13, 2007. She was an attorney for the Homeless Persons of Representation Project in Baltimore, Maryland, and tireless champion of the disadvantaged; loving daughter of Lenna (née Davis) Kennedy; sister of Sean D. Kennedy and his wife Ariel, and Liam R. Kennedy. She was also survived by her faithful pet, Emmett. Paul L. Mollica ’82 passed away on June 4, at City Hospital in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He was born on May 6, 1952 in fall 2010 63

Class Notes

New York; Dr. Peter W. Mollica of Southold, New York; and a grandson, Dominick Daniel Whiteley. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Wednesday, June 9, from Immaculate Conception Church in Bangall, New York. Erin McGrath Woolley ’10 died March 16, 2010, in Lebanon, New Hampshire. She was born March 12, 1984, in Bangor, Maine, the daughter of T. Russell “Russ” and Anna “Nan” (Sargent) Woolley. Erin attended Bangor High School, where she was the senior speaker at her 2002 graduation. She graduated summa cum laude in 2006 from the University of Maine, Orono, where she majored in English and women’s studies. Erin also spent one semester studying abroad at Hull University in England, where she continued to pursue her academic passions. After graduating from the University of Maine, Erin dedicated her energies to caring for women and children by working for Spruce Run, Bangor. In 2007 Erin enrolled at Vermont Law School where

she continued to advocate for women and children, working during the summer of 2008 for a local nonprofit organization. During the summer of 2009, she worked for the United States District Attorney’s Office in Bangor. Erin would have graduated with a juris doctor degree in May, and had planned on practicing family law. At a young age, Erin found her niche in swimming, competing for the Bangor YMCA and YWCA teams, Bangor High School, and the University of Maine. Erin was a passionate individual with a zest for life and contagious enthusiasm for all she did. Erin fought her toughest battle against Hodgkin’s lymphoma during the past year, but always maintained a positive and bright outlook. Erin is survived by her parents of Bangor; one brother, Kyle Woolley of Boston; the love of her life, Samuel Weaver of Vermont; as well as many aunts, uncles and cousins. The Erin M. Woolley Scholarship Fund was established as part of the Vermont Law School 2010 Class Gift.

Laura DeCapua

Brooklyn, New York, the son of the late Dr. John J. and Ida (Albano) Mollica. Mr. Mollica was a self-employed attorney who practiced family law. Paul was a parishioner of Immaculate Conception Church in Bangall, New York, a member of the board of trustees, and sang in the choir. He was a former president of the Law Guarding Association, a member of the New York State Bar Association, an avid outdoorsman, and member of the Northern Dutchess Rod and Gun Club. On February 10, 1979 in Brooklyn, New York, he married Antoinette (Ferrandino) Mollica at the Regina Pacis Holy Catholic Church. In addition to his loving wife Antoinette, survivors include a son, John Paul Mollica and his wife Gina Marie of Staten Island, New York; two daughters, Danielle Marie Mollica-Whiteley and her husband Daniel of Clinton Corners, New York; Francesca Ida Mollica of Clinton Corners, New York; a sister, Sr. Anne Mollica of Brooklyn, New York; three brothers, John E. Mollica of Martinsburg, West Virginia; Dr. Raymond J. Mollica of Brooklyn,

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Welcome, Class of 2010!

For information about the Vermont Law School Alumni Association,

visit www.vermontlaw.edu/Alumni.htm.

 Chelsea Street, PO Box , South Royalton, VT 

Josh Larkin