Spring 2012 Loquitur—The Alumni Magazine for Vermont Law School

SPRING 2012

Geoffrey B. Shields President and Dean 2004 to 2012

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Letter from Dean Jeff Shields Discovery VLS is proud to welcome our new President and Dean Marc Mihaly to campus in August. The Campaign for Vermont Law School tops $15 million, and the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, recently awarded a $1.25 million grant, is searching for a director.

Expanding the Reach of Vermont Law School From 2004 to 2012, Dean Jeff Shields has proved a strong advocate for the VLS community—starting new programs, hiring the best and brightest faculty, and making friends for the school and its alumni far, far beyond South Royalton.

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Faculty Highlights Douglas Ruley takes over as the new director of the ENRLC, the Dispute Resolution Program celebrates 30 years with a fall conference, Gus Speth speaks on America Rising to Its Dream, and Christine Cimini assumes leadership of the SiP and Externship Programs.

Art That Speaks to the Soul of the Law School

Glenn Suokko; Cover: Glenn Suokko

In a conversation with Elizabeth Billings, the artist talks about how her work connects people to nature—from the outdoor classroom, the triptych in Waterman, and the installation in Cornell Library to pieces she is creating for the new Center for Legal Services.

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Class Notes

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In Memoriam

Read the latest on your classmates, including profiles of Patricia Whalen ’79, Peter Keller MSEL’91, Alexander Urbelis ’05, Kenneth Miller ’09, and Jane Graham LLM’10.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter from www.vermontlaw.edu spring 2012 1

LOQUITUR Spring 2012 Volume 25, Number 2 President and Dean Jeff Shields Executive Director of Institutional Advancement Matt Rizzo Editor Carol Westberg Production Editor Jennie Clarke Contributing Editors Kimberly Evans Ashley Patton Contributing Writers John Cramer Oliver Goodenough Dana Grossman Regina Kuehnemund Meg Lundstrom Rolf E. Olsen Pamela J. Podger Special Thanks To Holli Brown ’ Peter Glenshaw Joel Harrington ’ Mary Lou Lorenz Genie Bird Shields Ariel Wiegard Design and Art Direction Glenn Suokko, Inc. Printing Capital Offset Company, Inc.

Send address changes to alumni@vermontlaw.edu or call 802-831-1312 Printed with soy-based inks on recycled paper © 2012 Vermont Law School

Michael Sacca

Published by Vermont Law School 164 Chelsea Street, PO Box 96 South Royalton, VT 05068 www.vermontlaw.edu

Letter from Dean Jeff Shields This will be the last issue of Loquitur on my watch. Congratulations to Carol Westberg, Matt Rizzo, and their team for producing an insightful piece that brings the Vermont Law School alumni closer to campus. More importantly, congratulations to the alumni who have been featured on these pages. Your accomplishments are impressive, and the news you share in the Class Notes section just keeps getting bigger, broader, and more interesting. It has been a privilege to have met so many of you and witnessed so many achievements.

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank the countless alumni who have given back to this institution in so many ways during my tenure. You have generously given of your time, energy, and resources. We count on your support in so many ways: at events on and off campus, in providing financial support for projects and programs, as speakers and instructors here in South Royalton, in offering jobs and internships to alumni and students, and in sharing the VLS story. Making the world aware of the unique place that is your alma mater is of critical importance to a small, young institution, and many of you have contributed in myriad ways toward this cause.

I am pleased that Marc Mihaly has accepted the invitation to be our new dean starting this summer. New initiatives championed by Marc will fill these pages and our website. I am confident that our alumni will give him the same support I was provided during my tenure as dean.

Genie and I will miss our full-time engagement with VLS, but you can count on our continued support for this unique and very special place.

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

Photos by Glenn Suokko

All the best,

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Discovery Environmental Leader Mihaly Our Next President and Dean

nessperson, and fund-raiser who grasps the shifting legal landscape and will inspire VLS to react swiftly and strategically in changing times. He joined VLS in 2004 and most recently has been serving as associate dean of Environmental Programs and director of the Environmental Law Center at VLS. He received his BA degree from Harvard College and his JD degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley. He spent the 2011–12 academic year on sabbatical while teaching at the University of Seville School of Law, one of the topranked universities in Spain.

The VLS community looks forward with great anticipation to Marc’s leadership in the coming years. For more information on our new president and dean, see www.vermontlaw.edu/deansearch.

Marc Mihaly is well positioned to lead the school that boasts the top environmental law program in the country. Last March, Chair of the Board of Trustees Edward Mattes ’83 announced Marc’s appointment as president and dean: “Marc will provide the vision, strategic leadership, and integrity to guide this institution.”

When he takes office on August 1, 2012, Marc will succeed retiring President and Dean Jeff Shields to become Vermont Law School’s eighth dean since the school was established in 1972.

John Sherman

The Campaign for Vermont Law School Tops $15 Million

Professor Marc Mihaly

“I am gratified by the board’s confidence and look forward to helping VLS graduates make an impact. Now more than ever, we need principled, well-educated lawyers who serve clients and the public with skill and humane vision,” said Dean-Elect Mihaly.

Marc is a seasoned entrepreneur, busi-

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On January 26, 2012, VLS announced the public launch of The Campaign for Vermont Law School with a $15 million goal to support student financial aid, a new Center for Legal Services, programs to improve national environmental and energy policies, and educational initiatives that produce highly skilled lawyers at home and abroad.

The campaign was launched silently in September 2008 with a gift from trustee Fran Yates toward the purchase of the former Freck’s Department Store, a landmark in downtown South Royalton, which is being renovated according to standards set for stewardship of the environment and buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. Our new Center for Legal Services will open in summer 2012 as home to the South Royalton Legal Clinic, the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, and Barrister’s Bookshop.

CAMPAIGN FACTS as of April 15, 2012 1,577 — VLS alumni who have given to the campaign 910 — Parents, friends, and other nonalumni who have made campaign gifts 45 — Private foundations that have made campaign gifts 100% —Campaign participation by the board of trustees $1.3 Million — Total raised by the VLS annual fund during the campaign $15.5 Million — Total funds raised

by The Campaign for Vermont Law School $11.1 Million — Current market value of Vermont Law School endowment

To date, the campaign has raised over $15 million, making it the school’s most successful fund-raising drive. In the remaining months of the campaign, our most pressing goals will be to complete fund raising for the Center for Legal Services as well as financial aid. The campaign will run through June 2012. The VLS community is deeply appreciative of the generosity of our alumni, parents, and friends who have made this campaign possible.

Be a Part of Changing Lives

Vermont Law School’s clinical programs will soon move to the new Center for Legal Services. Hundreds of alumni and friends have supported this project, and many have elected to name a space or help furnish rooms.

If you would like to make a gift of any size, contact Dorothy Heinrichs at 802-831-1267 or dheinrichs@vermontlaw.edu, or Sarah Buxton at 802-831-1051 or sbuxton@vermontlaw.edu.

Naming Opportunities Central Corridor $150,000 Outdoor Seating Deck $100,000 Faculty Office $50,000 Faculty Desks $5,000 Student Clinician Desks $2,500 Named Step $2,000 Student Chair $1,000

Agriculture Center Receives $1.25M Gift Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, Vermont Law School’s Center for Agriculture and Food Systems received a gift of $1.25M in January 2012. The grant, which will be distributed over four years, allows the center to launch a national search for a director and to expand its agricultural law and policy curriculum as well as training, research, and support programs.

The center builds on Vermont’s reputation for small-scale agricultural innovation and ethos of environmental and social sustainability. It will provide support for community-based agricultural systems, sustainable agriculture advocates, agencies, food hubs, incubators, and farmers.

“This center is unique in its focus on sustainable food, food safety, and the regulatory, tax, and governance systems that support agricultural policy,” said Dean Jeff Shields.

ELC agricultural field trip, July 2011

The center is supporting the research of key scholars in sustainable agriculture and food issues by hosting a Sustainable Food Systems Summer Scholar during Summer Session. This year’s Summer Scholar will be Stephanie Tai, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and an expert on the role of environmental and health sciences in developing regulatory safeguards. For more information on the center, visit www.vermontlaw.edu/CAFS.

MacDonough ’98 Named U.S. Senate’s First Female Parliamentarian In January Elizabeth MacDonough ’98 became the first woman selected as chief parliamentarian in the U.S. Senate since the post was created in 1935. As parliamentarian, MacDonough interprets arcane Senate rules and precedents.

“Elizabeth knows everybody. She knows the secretaries, she knows the Capitol policemen, she knows the janitors, and she’s always there for them,” Alan Frumin, her old boss and the outgoing parliamentarian, told Politico. “She’s got a good brain and she’s got integrity,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), also told Politico.

“You put all that together, and you have the makings of a great parliamentarian.”

MacDonough grew up in the nation’s capital and earned her BA degree at

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Elizabeth MacDonough ’98

George Washington University. When she was ready for law school, Vermont Law School’s comparative quiet was “extremely attractive,” she said. She could not have predicted then how her Vermont years would help pave the way back to Washington, where she now dispenses legal advice around the clock to the nation’s leaders.

In 1999, MacDonough accepted a position as an assistant parliamentarian for the Senate, and in 2002 she was promoted to senior assistant parliamentarian. See her alumni profile at www.vermontlaw.edu/ Career_Paths/Alumni_Profiles.htm.

eighth annual Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture on Land Use Planning and the Law on February 2, “Explaining the Motivations Behind Land Use Regulation: New York City’s Rezonings of Almost One Quarter of Its Land.”

Since 2002, New York, the first major U.S. city to adopt a comprehensive zoning ordinance, has enacted 101 neighborhood-sized zoning changes. Been explored the city’s motivations for making these changes, their implications for the future of the nation’s urban areas, and the lessons policymakers and courts can draw from a comprehensive analysis of a city’s rezoning decisions.

“Everyone loves to hate zoning,” she said, citing complaints such as unaffordable housing, sprawl, and segregation.

During her study from 2003 to 2009, Professor Been looked at two hypotheses to explain the city’s neighborhood-byneighborhood approach to zoning. In the “growth machine” model, land use officials are part of a powerful pro-growth coalition of government and business elites. In the “homeowner” model, land use decisions are driven by homeowners’ desire to protect their property values.

Been said her findings show more

The results of Professor Vicki Been’s comprehensive study of New York City’s unprecedented rezoning effort are complicated. But one conclusion is clear: land use decision making should be more transparent and tied to city- and region-wide consequences.

Been, director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at the New York University School of Law, discussed her study at Vermont Law School’s

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ENRLC Helps Coalition Opposing Puerto Rico Pipeline In October 2011 the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) filed a letter of intent to sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) on behalf of a coalition of citizens, community, and conservation groups. The ENRLC, acting as lead counsel in the case over a controversial 92-mile pipeline natural gas pipeline project in Puerto Rico, maintains that

Alex Mullee ’12

2012 Williams Lecture: Who Controls Land Use in New York City?

support for the homeowner model than the growth machine model, but that the “messy results” show the difficulty in articulating what drives land use politics.

She said the results show that land use decisions are motivated by complex factors and that broad presumptions should be distrusted.

Student Clinician Christopher Foy ’12 and Rafael Espasas LLM’10, who is an attorney working on the case in Puerto Rico.

Professor Vicki Been

current plans violate the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws, threatening sensitive ecosystems and their inhabitants.

“Our clients’ objective is to ensure the Corps fully complies with federal laws designed to safeguard humans and the environment,” said Professor Pat Parenteau, senior counsel for the ENRLC. The ENRLC and its partners also filed public comments on the Corps’ Draft Envi-

Discovery

ronmental Assessment in January. “The Corps must prepare a full-blown Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), hold public hearings, and provide the citizens of Puerto Rico with a more meaningful opportunity to participate in a decision with profound consequences for their safety and well being.”

For student clinicians, working the case has involved trips to Puerto Rico to conduct interviews, countless hours reviewing evidence and coordinating research, drafting the letter of intent to sue as well as a petition for an emergency listing under the Endangered Species Act and various other letters to federal agencies, and coordinating their efforts with the environmental law clinic at the University of Puerto Rico, other attorneys, scientists, conservation groups, and citizens.

Student clinician Karen Schmidt JD/ MELP’12 reflects on the benefit to student clinicians: “Being able to see a case, basically from its inception through the notice of intent to sue, is a big undertaking. You have to know a case in and out, every little nuance. You further your clients’ interest and make arguments. This is what a lawyer would do.”

Energy Institute Awarded Part of $34 Million EPA Contract The EPA awarded three Vermont groups, including the Institute for Energy and the Environment (IEE), a $34 million contract to provide technical, analytical, and outreach assistance to the national Energy Star program. “This blanket purchase agreement is great for the global environment and also good news for the economy,” said Professor Michael Dworkin, director of the IEE. “Projects that improve energy efficiency will save money and help put people back to work.”

Partnering with the IEE on the con-

tract are The Clark Group, a national environmental consulting and government affairs firm in Montpelier and Washington, D.C., and the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC), which is known for its management of Efficiency Vermont, the nation’s first energy efficiency utility. Under the contract, the EPA may acquire up to $34 million in services from the partnership over five years.

Actual fees will depend upon the specific tasks ordered by EPA. VLS would especially like to recognize Lisa Mahoney JD/ MSEL’99 and David Contrada MELP’10 of The Clark Group for their leadership on behalf of the partnership.

Energy Star programs seek to improve energy efficiency in homes and businesses throughout the United States. In 2010, these programs reduced greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 33 million vehicles and saved Americans nearly $18 billion in utility payments. Christine Donovan, a managing consultant at VEIC, said: “One of the great benefits of this project is that it combines energy solutions with profitability. It’s been proven time and again that capitalizing on energy efficiency is good for a company’s environmental performance as well as its bottom line.”

First in Environmental Law for Four Years in a Row U.S.News & World Report ranked Vermont Law School’s environmental law program as the best in the nation for an unprecedented fourth consecutive year. The 2013 Best Grad Schools rankings released March 13 included VLS among the nation’s top programs for dispute resolution (16th), clinical training (23rd), and law schools where law firms tend to recruit (96th) among America’s 200 law schools.

“I am pleased to report that this year marks a breakthrough in the breadth of recognition of our programs as demonstrated by the U.S. News survey,” said Dean Jeff Shields. “Our success as a place to learn law and policy is enhanced by our unique structure of clinics, institutes, centers, and off-campus experiential programs. Employer recognition of the excellence of VLS’s graduates reflects the

exceptional preparation in writing, speaking, and critical thinking that takes place at Vermont Law School.”

VLS has placed first 15 times and never placed lower than second since the U.S. News environmental specialty rankings began in 1991. Our top ranking this year marks the first time that a school has been ranked number one in the environmental specialty for four consecutive years. Our Dispute Resolution Program was ranked for the first time by U.S. News, while our Clinical Programs ranking improved from 30th last year to 23rd this year.

“The dedication of our faculty, students, staff, and alumni has made them global leaders in teaching, scholarship and professional achievement, and VLS’s innovative programs continue to break new ground in legal education,” Shields said.

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S T U D EN T H I GH L I GH T S

Santner ’10 Article Explores Corporate Responsibility Guidelines

2012 VLS Moot Court Teams Win Awards and Praise

Ashley Santner JD/M1’10 (Cergy-Pontoise), a legal adviser to the secretary general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France, recently published “A Soft Law Mechanism for Corporate Responsibility: How the Updated OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises Promote Business for the Future,” [43 Geo. Wash. Int’l L. Rev. 375-388 (2011)] in the George Washington International Law Review. The issue is devoted to a symposium called “Toward Coherence in International Economic Law: Perspectives at the 50th Anniversary of the OECD,” which was held in Washington, D.C., in March 2011 and organized by the Directorate for Legal Affairs of the OECD and the George Washington University Law School.

Matt Marks ’12, Alex Sherertz ’12 and Colin Hagan ’12 performed well at the National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition on Feb. 23–25 at Pace Law School. Marks won Best Oralist in each of the three preliminary rounds, barely edging out his VLS teammates. The VLS team, which was coached by Professor Pat Parenteau, advanced to the quarterfinals.

“Matt, Alex, and Colin were a class act that drew high praise from judges and competitors alike,” Parenteau said. “It was an honor to work with them, and VLS could not have had better representation in this high-profile competition.”

Four Vermont Law School students turned in stellar performances at the 9th annual National Animal Law Competitions, which were held Feb. 24–26 at the UCLA School of Law. Monica Miller ’12 and Meredith Crafton ’12 advanced to the quarterfinals of the moot court competition against Yale, the University of Chicago, and Lewis & Clark.

Krystil Smith ’13 and Michelle Sinnott ’13 won the Best Brief Award, receiving the highest appellate brief score overall. The team was mentored by Assistant Professor Pamela Vesilind, who said of working with the students, “I cannot overstate how proud I was to be associated with them.”

Michael Dean

Christensen ’12 Examines Detroit Urban Agriculture

Ashley Santner ’10

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In a recent article in the Drake Journal of Agricultural Law titled “Securing the Momentum: Could a Homestead Act

Help Sustain Detroit Urban Agriculture?”

Dana Christensen ’12 explores urban agriculture, focusing on Detroit as an example of a grassroots movement that shifts how the community thinks about food.

“Food security, employment opportunities, answers to urban blight, and health problems—urban agriculture has many reasons to deserve the buzz it has lately received,” Christensen wrote. “Indeed, the rise of urban agriculture coincides with economic depressions in modern history, when state and local governments promoted community gardens to counteract poverty and its attendant social unrest.”

Hosseini LLM’12 Wins Book Award Seyed Mohammad Hosseini LLM’12 was cited as a joint winner in Iran’s 17th Book of the Season Awards for the best translated books in law. The awards, which are from Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Iran’s Book House, are among the most prestigious academic awards in Iran. The book that he translated, International Environmental Law, is published in English by the United Nations Environment Programme and in Persian by Mizan Publishing Center.

He also recently had a paper accepted from among more than 250 submitted papers for the Mid-Year Annual Meeting of American Society of International Law, Research Forum in UCLA in November.

Hosseini, a native of Iran, hopes to combine his knowledge of international and environmental law with his experience as a journalist to have a positive impact on the Middle East region. He is the founder of VLS’s Middle East Environmental Law blog, which can be found at www.ver montlaw.edu/MEEL.

TopKat Photography

Discovery

Ashley Van der Lande ’12 and Phil Foy ’12

VLS Team Takes Top Spot at Transactional Lawyering Meet Ashley Van der Lande ’12 and Phil Foy ’12 won first place in the New England Regional Transactional Lawyering Meet, representing a fictitious client negotiating an employment agreement. This victory resulted from two months of work including term-sheet drafting, mark-ups, and rounds of face-to-face negotiations. Their style, “cordial, yet firm” was noted by the judges. The event took place at Western New England College of Law in Springfield, Massachusetts. In March, they competed at the national meet at Drexel University, Earle Mack School of Law, in Philadelphia.

be done in strengthening programming and in pursuing advocacy at the national level during this presidential election year.

The NBLSA's national conventions bring together attorneys, policy makers, lawmakers and others to discuss the state of the legal profession for minorities.

The NBLSA, whose board of directors is composed of elected law students, represents nearly 6,000 minority law students from more than 200 chapters and affiliates throughout seven countries.

Brown has received numerous honors at VLS, including the NBLSA Sandy Brown Memorial Scholarship, the VLS Merit Scholarship, and the VLS David Firestone Scholarship for Campus Involvement.

In March Kendra Brown '12 was elected national chair of the National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA) and sworn in by Judge Ann Claire Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Brown says more work needs to

Kathleen Dooher

Brown Leads National Black Law Students Association

VLS IN THE NE WS Vermont Law School is getting a growing amount of national media attention for its innovative programs and faculty, student, and alumni accomplishments. In fact, 2011 was the best year for media coverage in the school’s history.

VLS’s surge in media attention was especially significant in the national media such as The New York Times, where VLS was mentioned 28 times, as well as National Public Radio, The Washington Post, and The Huffington Post. Vermont media also frequently cited VLS in their coverage, including Vermont Public Radio, where VLS was mentioned 63 times. Overall, the media mentioned VLS more than 5,000 times last year, far more often than nearly all of its top competitor schools.

VLS faculty provided the media with expert analysis on a range of issues, from Japan’s nuclear disaster, the Vermont Yankee federal court decision, and the controversial Keystone XL pipeline proposal to the year’s biggest sports law stories. The New York Times, Marketplace, and other national media also reported on VLS’s decision to allow military recruiters back on campus after the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law.

Kendra Brown '12

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Expanding the Reach of Vermont Law School: Geoffrey B. Shields, President and Dean 2004 to 2012

Mark Washburn

By Dana Grossman It’s a good thing Jeff Shields didn’t come to work at Vermont Law School when the idea first crossed his mind in the 1970s.

Shields, who will retire on July 31 after eight years as VLS’s dean and president, worked in Vermont for a couple of years following his 1967 graduation from Harvard and fell in love with the state. He left to enter Yale Law School and headed back in 1972, JD in hand, to clerk for Judge James Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Oakes was involved with VLS from its earliest years, so Shields became aware of the then-nascent school. As his clerkship was concluding, he thought about the possibility of teaching at VLS as a way of staying in Vermont. His wife, Genie Bird Shields, had attended Bennington College and loved the state, too.

Had he joined the faculty of the struggling, not-yet-accredited law school, it’s possible Shields would never have ended up in its top post, and VLS would not be the same school it is today. “I don’t want to compare deans—each of our deans has had certain strengths,” says longtime Professor Stephen Dycus.

“But I do think he’ll be remembered as one of the very best.”

Long known for its environmental program, the school no longer sings “a one-note tune,” says Trustee William Lytton, a retired U.S. Attorney and Fortune 500 corporate attorney.

Under Shields, he adds, VLS has become “a tremendously serious institution that is having a profound impact in not just environmental law but law in general.”

Such assessments aren’t limited to those with ties to the school. Shields has, says U.S. Representative Peter Welch, “en-

hanced the already good reputation of Vermont Law School as a premier institution.... He certainly has a lot of admirers in the Vermont Congressional delegation.”

Back in 1973, instead of staying in Vermont, Shields set out for the halls of Congress himself—becoming counsel to the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, then special assistant to the secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare— before entering private practice back in his native Chicago.

He made partner in three years, and by the 1990s, he was chair of the management committee of the Chicago and Washington, D.C. law firm of Gardner Carton and Douglas, specializing in legal and financial aspects of not-for-profit institutions.

Not only was his day job devoted to nonprofits, so was much of his own time. He chaired the board of Lake Forest College and served on Bennington College’s board. He was a trustee of Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium and a director of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation of Chicago. He was vice chair of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Shields moved in influential circles, but he’d retained a belief in the law as a force for public service, a precept he’d absorbed from Judge Oakes. He and Genie had also retained their fondness for Vermont. In 1992 they bought a farm in southern Vermont with the idea of eventually retiring there; in the meantime, they welcomed any excuse to travel east. So when Oakes wrangled an invitation for his former clerk to give a talk at VLS, Shields happily accepted—and made a good impression in South Royalton. The stars were beginning to align spring 2012

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Community building is high on Shields’ list.

The Shieldses’ home in Tunbridge is an important extension of the campus, a VLS community gathering place where Jeff and Genie often host events, meetings, teas, lunches, dinners, and barn dances for professors, students, donors, and friends.

Photographs by Glenn Suokko

for a reversal of that early decision not to settle there.

By 2003, VLS was seeking a new dean. On the advice of Judge Oakes, Trustee John Hennessey contacted Shields to see if he was interested in the post or knew anyone who might be.

“John Hennessey’s a great salesman,” laughs Shields. Deciding the time was right to try something wholly new, he applied.

Jeff Shields became dean on August 1, 2004, bringing to fruition that fleeting thought back in the ’70s. “I would not have been interested in the deanship of any other law school,” he said at the time of his appointment.

Shields had his work cut out for him. The school was, by his admission, “young, poor, remote.” But it was also, “gloriously, the only law school in the state…the leading law school in the country—and probably the world—on environmental issues, and a school with a real passion for using legal training to give back to society. I found the challenges as interesting as the strong points. Plus,” he adds, “I liked the people.”

And VLS liked Shields. Actually, make that Jeff and Genie Shields. “When Vermont Law School got Jeff to come,” says Trustee Emeritus Ann Debevoise, the widow of former dean Thomas Debevoise, “they got a two-for-one, because Genie has been an incredible addition to the atmosphere and attitude.”

“Genie Shields has invested unbelievable amounts of time and energy in supporting individual students and the spouses of individual students and contributing to the spirit and liveliness of the community,” agrees Professor John Echeverria.

In fact, Shields calls the job “something Genie and I took on together.” At VLS she turned their home—a rambling farmhouse and barn in Tunbridge, 10 minutes from South Royal12 loquitur

ton—into an extension of the campus. An author, trained as an art historian, Genie Shields put her career on hold and became a magnet for the members of the VLS family. “I counted up a few months ago,” says Jeff Shields, “and during the seven and a half years we’ve been here, we’ve hosted 600 VLS events at our house.” They had students for tea, student partners for potluck suppers, trustees for breakfast, donors for dinner, the third-year class for a pregraduation contra dance, and sit-down occasions for 60 in the barn.

Shields has had a tangible impact on VLS in many ways, including its finances and its facilities. Nevertheless, it is intangibles—relationships, connections—that constituents of all sorts cite first when asked about his impact.

“I’ve never met anyone who was more generous, more absolutely devoted to the community, both narrowly and broadly,” says Professor Steve Dycus. Both Jeff and Genie, says Trustee Bill Lytton, “took a real joy in the community that they found and that they helped knit together, in many ways, more closely.”

“Community” tops Shields’ own assessment. “If you’re going to talk about accomplishments,” he says, “I think I’d put as number one on the list the internal and external community building and outreach.”

Another element of community building was Shields’s recognition of VLS’s “role as an engine for jobs and for support of local businesses. It’s one way Vermont can maintain its character of a state filled with vibrant small towns,” he explains. “To be a vibrant small town, you need some institution that creates jobs, and we permit that kind of vibrancy in South Royalton.”

He has also made friends for the school far, far beyond SoRo. “He’s done an admirable job of advocating for VLS,” says Echeverria, “within the business community, within the legal fraternity, among elected officials at the state and national level.

He has kept his eye very firmly on how VLS is perceived in the larger world and attempted to expand the greater world’s appreciation for Vermont Law School.”

He’s done so by highlighting areas where VLS can stand out as distinct or even unique among the nation’s 200 law schools. “I felt when I came here,” says Shields, “that it was crucial for this institution’s well-being to differentiate, to do some things better than other schools.”

Foremost among those things is environmental law.

Shields put a priority on maintaining VLS’s preeminence in the field. U.S.News & World Report has ranked the school first in environmental law six of the last eight years and the last four years in a row.

But that emphasis has expanded in eight years with the establishment of the Institute for Energy and the Environment, the Land Use Institute, the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, and the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law. Shields is fond of pointing out that VLS’s Chinese partners “know three places in the U.S.—they know New York, Washington, and South Royalton, Vermont.”

VLS is now one of the few U.S. law schools to offer international dual degrees—including with Cambridge University in England, the University of Seville in Spain, Renmin University in Beijing, and the University of Cergy-Pontoise, “the best

business-oriented law school in France,” notes Shields. There are new domestic joint-degree programs, too, including with the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

A brand-new initiative is extending VLS’s reach in a different way. “Here we are in a town without a traffic light,” says Shields, “and yet we have a world-class group of faculty members. How do you get that intellectual capital used as fully and effectively as possible?” Here’s how: In 2011, the school launched the nation’s first online master’s degree in environmental law and policy.

Shields ticks off other things he’s proud of: The establishment of a certificate-granting program in dispute resolution. A focus in the classroom on more group work and more practical projects. The expansion of the career services office.

There’s a thread tying these efforts together. “A lot of law schools are quite insular in their relationship with the external world,” says Shields. He came in feeling it was important that students learn more than legal theory. He wanted to ensure that they leave VLS with real-world experience in carrying on the tasks of a lawyer. VLS now has an associate dean devoted to clinical and experiential learning, “in particular through our poverty law clinics,” says Shields, “but also through the environmental law clinic and the externships our students do.”

This has an effect on graduates’ careers. “Vermont Law School has turned out some excellent traditional lawyers,” says Echeverria. “But to a greater degree than a lot of schools, our students end up practicing law with a strong ingredient of public service—working in government, working for public interspring 2012

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Major Accomplishments at Vermont Law School 2004–2012 Building Debevoise rehabilitation completed Kirsch House rehabbed Waterman remodeled Outdoor Classroom built Legal Writing Building rehabbed New Buildings and Grounds offices added Curtis House addition built Center for Legal Services building rehabbed Fitness Center construction begun

2005 2005 2005 2007 2008 2010 2011 2012 2012

Infrastructure Campus goes Wi-Fi New computer server center created Lower riverside green reclaimed Zip Cars offered VLS/Montpelier bus route created Major landscaping implemented across campus Complete overhaul of campus software New phone system implemented

2006, 2012 2007 2009 2009 2009 ongoing 2010–12 2011

Programs and Academic Offices Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law Institute for Energy and the Environment Assistant Academic Dean Dispute Resolution Program Land Use Institute Distance Learning Center for Agriculture and Food Systems Associate Dean for Clinical and Experiential Programs Nonprofit Institute

2004 startup (approved earlier) 2005 2007 2007 2009 2010 2011 2011 2011 2012 (proposed)

Joint Degree Programs University of Cergy-Pontoise Thunderbird School of Global Management University of Cambridge Renmin University

2007 2008 2009 2011

Career Services DC spring and fall job fairs; “road warrior” career service officers; career Boot Camps for 1L, 2L, 3L, and MELP students; quadrupled number of employers who interview our students (now 190) Office for Institutional Advancement Foundations and Government Affairs officers, planned giving program, parents’ committee, leaders’ circle program, $30 million raised Technology Long-term plan created Finance Full depreciation budgeting, three-year projection budgeting, and “dashboard” reporting instituted Admissions Feeder school program, campus visit program, shift to online marketing, all admits called, focus on constant student capability improvement Buildings and Grounds Campus plan (2011) International Advisory Committee formed Website redesigned (2008)

Faculty Hired (excluding adjuncts) Betsy Baker Margaret Barry Laurie Beyranevand ’03 Matthew Carluzzo Christine Cimini Teresa Clemmer Jason Czarnezki Sheryl Dickey LLM’10 Michael Dworkin John Echeverria Peg Elmer Stephanie Farrior Kat Garvey LLM’10 Clara Gimenez ’03 Hillary Hoffmann Donald Kreis Siu Tip Lam Mark Latham Jingjing Liu Michele Martinez Campbell Michael McCann Beth McCormack Marc Mihaly Laura Murphy Sean Nolon Brian Porto Rebecca Purdom ’96 Rene Reyes Faith Rivers Hilary Robinson Betsy Schmidt Stefanie Sidortsova Benjamin Sovacool Gus Speth Ellen Swain Veen ’99 Jennifer Taub Jack Tuholske Pamela Vesilind ’08 VLS Family 600 events hosted at Shields’ home Campus bunnies introduced Partners Group focus created Annual VLS/South Royalton Community Day instituted

Photographs by Glenn Suokko

Administrative Initiatives

est organizations, working for nonprofits. It’s a tradition that’s long existed at VLS, but one that Jeff has strongly supported and endorsed and affirmed.”

He has supported the school’s growth in other very tangible ways.

“Jeff came in with a fiat from the board,” says Scott Cameron, a 1980 graduate and chair of the board during most of Shields’s tenure. “The main thing we needed from him was to raise resources, to move the school forward, to enable us to compete for students with scholarships, to help our students with loan repayments.”

Shields delivered. “When I came to the law school,” he says, “on average we were raising $1 million year—sometimes a little more, but that would be about the average. Now it’s about $4 million a year.” Furthermore, “we’ve built an infrastructure in the fund-raising area that will serve the law school extremely well going forward; we’re just finishing up a capital campaign that will exceed our $15-million goal by a substantial margin.”

Most of the funds have gone to expand programs, but the physical plant has benefited, too. Since Shields’s arrival, a major renovation was completed of iconic Debevoise Hall, originally South Royalton’s grade school; another old schoolhouse was remodeled into a legal writing center; the former Freck’s Department Store is becoming a home for the school’s legal clinics; and a new fitness center will soon be under construction.

Shields has also built both the board and the faculty.

He has, says Dycus, made “what was a strong board of trustees even stronger by drawing on his experience and contacts with people around the country who’ve come in and just devoted themselves utterly to the school’s success.”

At the same time, says Cameron, Shields brought “more diversity to the board—diversity of gender, race, and opinion.”

Lytton tells a story illustrating Shields’s commitment to diversity. “There are two things that are not a secret,” says Lytton. “Number one, I’m a fairly conservative guy. Number two, Vermont Law School is not a very conservative place. Jeff asked me to give a talk on some of the experiences I’d had working both in government and for various corporations. As part of the introduction, he noted that I was one of Reagan’s lawyers on Iran-Contra and said he was pretty certain that was the first time those words had ever been used in an introduction at the law school. I thought I noticed a distinct intake of breath from the assembled multitude.” But the talk went well, Lytton says. “I wasn’t booed. Actually, they published my talk in the Law Review afterward. It’s part of Jeff ’s openness to what spring 2012

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Photographs by Glenn Suokko

I think of as real diversity, not just the way people look but the way people think.”

Absolutely, affirms Shields. “For a law school,” he believes, “it’s important to act in the context of broad-based philosophical differences. This is a progressive institution with a progressive thrust in its mission, but it’s not a good thing for our students to be in an environment where every student is exactly the same in terms of their political philosophy. You learn to argue better and to parse through your own ideas better if you’ve got people who have different views—and I think that’s true with regard to our board as well.”

He was no less compromising when it came to building the faculty. “Something that probably differentiates me as a dean,” Shields says, “is that I’ve put a premium” on hiring faculty with “experience outside of academe as well as academic experience.”

In addition, “he insisted that when we hired, we hired the best and the brightest,” says Professor Cheryl Hanna, who has been at VLS since 1994. “If you look at who joined our faculty under his leadership, it’s quite astounding the quality of the folks we were able to attract.”

She believes much of the credit for recruits saying “yes” goes to Shields. “Jeff was very good at communicating why we were such a great place…that their lives and careers would be more meaningful here.” He was also, Hanna adds, very supportive of women as well as “very attuned to the fact that people didn’t come alone—we weren’t just recruiting individuals but we were recruiting families to our community.”

Shields is proud of the faculty hired during his tenure.

“The new faculty have had a tremendous impact on the older 16

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faculty—rejuvenating them and the way they think.” But he’s no less a fan of the veterans. “The older faculty,” he continues, “have had a tremendous impact on the newer faculty, because the older faculty often came here at a real pioneering time, were willing to take risks, were committed to living in northern New England and to a young, fledgling institution. It’s been a great dynamic.”

Yet his time as dean hasn’t been entirely, as the saying goes in Vermont, easy sledding. Count Shields’s health as challenge number one. He was diagnosed with lymphoma last year, and though he came through treatment with flying colors (and never stopped working), the possibility of a recurrence was among the reasons for his decision to retire.

Count the national economic downturn as challenge number two. The resulting budget crunch has had some personnel repercussions though VLS has been able to avoid layoffs. The sluggish economy has made fund-raising harder. It’s also affected students’ ability to find jobs after they graduate. Student debt is a related concern. “The ability of students to borrow is a massive trap in some ways,” notes former trustee Scott Cameron.

“The number of people applying to law school nationally has dropped in the last two years from 100,000 to 70,000,” says Shields. As a result, though class size grew by more than 15 percent during the first half of his deanship, the size of the student body is now closer to where it was when he arrived. For a school dependent on tuition revenue “that’s a concern,” says Cameron.

These are challenges Shields’ successor, Marc Mihaly, will need to grapple with, challenges that now face all law schools.

Being dean and president of VLS is “a huge job,” says Cameron. VLS is one of only a handful of U.S. law schools not attached to a university. Shields sees benefits in that status: an independent school is less encumbered by bureaucracy, more nimble. But its leader must shoulder an extra measure of responsibility. And those closest to Shields say he never cuts himself slack.

“He holds himself to very high standards,” says Hanna.

“And he held the faculty to some very high standards, too,” she admits. “It’s hard to work for somebody who’s demanding like that, and I think all of us at one time or another felt pushed or prodded by Jeff more than we might have liked. But when we look back at what we accomplished over the last eight years, it really is astounding—and I don’t think that would have happened but for Jeff’s insistence that we keep moving forward.”

How did he accomplish so much?

By traveling a lot. Despite what he calls “the gravitational pull of being on campus,” Shields has spent a lot of time visiting donors, legislators, and other movers and shakers around the country and the world.

By being an enabler as much as a doer. “A lot of the role of the dean,” says Shields, “is to surface good ideas that other people have and then champion them.” He hopes he’s remembered “not as ‘this project or that project was Jeff’s,’ but rather ‘this project or that project happened on Jeff’s watch.’”

And by meshing with the school’s culture. Cameron recalls meeting Shields to interview him for the deanship. “Here’s a guy who’s running a huge law firm,” he says, “yet he did not seem arrogant, he had the common touch.” These days the dean

sets off his trademark urbane bow tie with well-oiled hiking boots and regularly dons rumpled khakis to lead student hikes.

It’s clear VLS wasn’t a job for Shields but a cause.

“He’s just thrown himself into it wholeheartedly,” says Debevoise, “with no personal agenda—he was totally committed to the school’s interests and needs.”

“He’s approached every aspect of the job with an attitude of enthusiasm bordering on joy,” comments Dycus. “He has a marvelous sense of humor into the bargain. That was evident this past Halloween. His impending retirement by then widely known, Shields came to work in costume—wearing a cardboard bill and webbed feet and walking with a cane. As if he were lame. A lame duck.”

But he’s stepping out of the dean’s suite with the grace of a swan. He and Genie will spend next year in Cambridge, England, once again trying something wholly new. He’ll be a visiting fellow at Clare Hall, a graduate college at the University of Cambridge, where he’ll help develop a new master’s degree program in comparative business law and do some lecturing and writing.

Then it will be back to Vermont, to the house in Tunbridge, which is now home. They’ve come to love the place, but even more the people. Shields hopes to follow in the footsteps of his immediate predecessors, Kinvin Wroth and Maximilian Kempner, and retain an association with VLS. They “were always helpful to me,” Shields says. “I hope I can perform that kind of role for the law school…be around as a cheerleader and a supporter.” He left SoRo in his rearview mirror in the 1970s.

He doesn’t plan to do so again. spring 2012

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Faculty Highlights

Douglas A. Ruley, who started as director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic in April, believes our forests, oceans, wildlife, and the beauty of nature are all at risk. “Trying to conserve the natural wonder of the world and all of the things that make the world livable is the great challenge of our time,” he says.

Ruley, who earned his JD from Harvard Law School in 1987, has spent decades defending the environment— from Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund in Alaska to the Southern Environmental Law Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Slovenia in 2010, where he taught and collaborated with European attorneys on approaches to climate change and carbon regulation. When he returned to the U.S., he launched Climate Law Consultants as a way of using legal tools to advance U.S. climate change policy and the transition to a more sustainable economy.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to litigate cases that have left old-growth forests standing, that have helped to maintain or recover endangered species, that have stopped huge, ill-conceived highway projects,” he said. “Those are the moments that have sustained me.” He is looking forward to training young advocates at Vermont Law School. “I enjoy the give-and-take and the exchange,” he said. “And it is a great way to multiply one’s effectiveness.”

TopKat Photography

Cimini Leads SiP and Externship Programs

Douglas A. Ruley

“Trying to conserve the natural wonder of the world and all of the things that make the world livable is the great challenge of our time.”

—Douglas A. Ruley, Director, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic

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Investigating language barriers to the courts in Los Angeles County for the Department of Justice… Designing a pilot project to clean up water in a Mexican town for the EPA Office of International and Tribal Aff airs…

Defending youngsters in trouble for the first time in Alexandra, Virginia, courts…

Building Medicaid fraud cases against doctors and nursing homes in Vermont at the Attorney General’s Office… Clerking in the United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd and 9th Circuit and for the Vermont Environmental Court. These were some of the significant assignments and valuable placements of students in Vermont Law School’s Externship Program this year.

“We have one of the most established and expansive programs of this type, in

TopKat Photography

New Director Joins the ENRLC

Christine Cimini

which students can extern on a full- or part-time basis in Vermont or in other parts of the country and abroad. Through these externships, our students are making meaningful contributions and accessing opportunities they might not be able to get at other law schools,” says Professor Christine Cimini, new director of the Semester in Practice (SIP) and Externship Programs at VLS. At a time when many law schools are under fire for a paucity of experiential programs, the VLS externship program, started 25 years ago by pioneering Professor Liz Ryan Cole, is so strong that well over a quarter of the class participated in the SiP, part-time externships, and judicial externships in the fall semester. Under the close supervision of mentors with whom they were personally matched, 52 students learned how to work within government agencies, private firms, courts, nonprofits, and corporations through the full-time SiP program, 5 students worked in offices in VT and NH through the part-time program, and 10 students participated in judicial externship placements. A record-high 88 students have applied to the program

this coming fall. “Our biggest challenge is how to effectively meet that demand in a way that ensures the quality of the experience,” says Cimini. “I don’t know of any other school that gives students such broad opportunities.”

VLS’s strong focus on experiential learning drew Cimini away from a tenured endowed chair at Denver University’s Sturm College of Law, where she directed the in-house clinical program, taught an in-house clinic designed to serve immigrants and low-income communities, and worked closely with the externship director on an externship program that placed 400 students a year. At VLS, she is engaged in expanding the SiP’s reach, not only in its already robust government, NGO, and nonprofit offerings but in the private sector as well, which means vigorously recruiting alums and others as mentors.

Down the line, she would like to see externship programs be the capstone of a VLS education—something students undertake after they’ve learned legal theory in classes, worked through simulation-based learning in the General Practice Program, then gained practical real-life experience through VLS inhouse clinics such as the South Royalton Legal Clinic and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic. “Then our students can go out into the world with a set of skills that will enable them to make immediate contributions in the workplace,” says Cimini.

“It’s incumbent on us to provide students opportunities to learn through doing, and there’s no better way than immersion in practice, or in judicial chambers, with thoughtful mentors who can help students develop their skill sets in new and exciting ways.”

To find out more about the externship programs or becoming a mentor, visit www.vermontlaw.edu/externships.

Laura DeCapua

Faculty Highlights

Gus Speth

Speth Lectures on America Rising to Its Dream Professor Gus Speth, a founder of the modern environmental movement, delivered a three-part lecture series at VLS last fall, based on his book America, the Possible: Roadmap to a New Economy, forthcoming from Yale University Press. Two essays based on the book appeared this spring in Orion magazine.

In the first lecture, “Portrait of a Nation in Trouble: Why America Is at the Bottom of the OECD in Virtually Everything Important,” Speth said the solution to America’s woes is a social movement that creates a new economic and political system—“a new American dream” based not on growth but on a progressive platform of fairness, justice, sustainability, peace, well being, and living in harmony with the planet. In the second lecture, “In the Beauty of the Morning: Envisioning America the Possible,” Speth said, “There’s still hope, but it’s time for civil disobedience.” For the final lecture, “Writhing Free of an Old Skin: Forging a New Politics to Drive the New Economy,” Speth indicted what he called an American plutocracy dominated by greed, money, and power.

Yet Speth concluded that it isn’t too late for a populist uprising to install a democracy fueled by a sustainable economy, peace, income equality, justice, and respect for the environment. “A successful America is still possible,” he said.

The Leaders’ Circle was established in 2006 to recognize individuals and organizations whose notable commitment to the Annual Fund guarantees consistent support for the law school’s core programs and initiatives.

These leaders of our philanthropic community provide crucial support to the school year after year. In 2010–11, Leaders’ Circle members provided nearly 70 percent of our Annual Fund support.

For more information, contact Ariel Wiegard, Assistant Director of Leadership Giving, at awiegard@vermontlaw.edu or 802-831-1041, or visit www.vermontlaw.edu/giving.

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Faculty Highlights

in a panel discussion, “Activist Mediators: Unethical Meddlers or Guardians of Durable Solutions,” moderated by Professor Nolon. Amy Cohen, The Ohio University Moritz School of Law, gave the luncheon keynote followed by Susskind and Stulberg’s master class on “Managing Public Disputes.”

View a video of the panel discussion online at www.vermontlaw.edu/drp.

McCann Receives Media Prize Professor Michael McCann and Harvard Law School Professor Jon Hanson were selected as the co-winners of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s 2011 Media Prize in recognition of their outstanding work in promoting personality and social psychology research to the general public via The Situationist blog.

McCann and Hanson cofounded the blog, which is a forum to examine, discuss, and debate the effect of situational forces—that is, nonsalient factors around and within us—on law, policy, politics, policy theory, and our social, political, and economic institutions.

Under the directorship of Professor Sean Nolon, the Dispute Resolution Program is flourishing at VLS. In October 2011 Dispute Resolution celebrated a milestone with a 30th anniversary conference, “Mediators in Public Policy,” exploring the controversy, current status, and future of mediation in the public arena. The conference brought together John McCrory of Pepperdine University School of Law, Joseph Stulberg of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, and Lawrence Susskind of Harvard Law School, authors of three seminal articles published in the Vermont Law Review in 1981. These articles helped launch a nationwide discussion about the role of mediation in public conflicts. Three decades later, the conversation continues.

The event was standing-room-only, with participants from across the country and Canada. The program began with McCrory, Stulberg, and Susskind

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Kathleen Dooher

Dispute Resolution Celebrates 30 Years

Michael McCann

Porto Publishes Book on College Sports Associate Professor Brian Porto’s book The Supreme Court and the NCAA: The Case for Less Commercialism and More Due Process in College Sports has been published by Michigan University Press. In this book, Porto identifies the Court’s role in shaping college sports and advances a prescription for reform. Porto was interviewed on the subject for NPR’s Only a Game. Hear the interview online at onlya game.wbur.org.

Dycus Casebook Second Edition Published The second edition of Stephen Dycus’s casebook, Counterterrorism Law (with William C. Banks at Syracuse and Peter Raven-Hansen at George Washington), was published by Aspen in January. Dycus and Banks have recently signed a contract with Harvard University Press for a new book, tentatively entitled Safe at Home?

The Military in 21st Century America, and scheduled for publication in late 2013.

Jon Gilbert Fox

Margaret Martin Barry’s new position of associate dean for clinical and experiential programs at Vermont Law School reflects a commitment by the dean, the faculty, and the trustees to emphasize and further develop our substantial clinical and externship programs. Professor Barry looks forward to further developing the clinical and externship opportunities for VLS students, and, in the process, to improving and expanding the professional services offered.

Gerald Magee MSEL’07

Associate Dean Leads Clinical and Experiential Programs

Jack Tuholske

Rob Daugherty/Getty Images

TopKat Photography

Craig Pease

Margaret Martin Barry

Milne Coedits Two Books on Environmental Taxation Janet Milne is coeditor of two books published last September by Edward Elgar, Environmental Taxation in China and Asia-Pacific and Environmental Taxation and Climate Change. They are Volumes IX and X respectively in the series Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation.

Restoring Protected Status for Grizzlies Professors Jack Tuholske and Craig Pease played a major role in a federal appellate court’s decision last fall to restore Endangered Species Act protection for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintains that grizzlies and their habitat in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem have recovered enough to be placed under state management. But the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on November 22, 2011,

struck down federal wildlife managers’ 2007 decision to remove the bears from the endangered species list.

Tuholske handled the case successfully in U.S. District Court, while Earthjustice handled the case before the appellate court. Pease consulted extensively with Tuholske and was one of the scientists relied upon to help restore the grizzlies’ federal protection.

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Faculty Highlights

Teaching Real Law for the 99 Percent

In January, Washington, D.C., was awash with law professors, me among them.

This generally earnest crowd gathered for the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). Although “buzz” is often too animated a term for discussions among people who are fascinated by the details of civil procedure, this year the hive was under threat and buzz there was in plenty. Over the past months, there has been a spate of media attacks on our profession and the value of the degrees we provide. Most often mentioned at the meeting was a particularly critical article in The New York Times. It featured a group of recent hires at a prestigious law firm who were surprisingly ignorant about the mechanics of consummating a merger and acquisition transaction—just the kind of work they had been hired to do. The clear take-home from the article was that legal education—my calling in life—needs thorough reform because it is doing a poor job in preparing its customers for the work of being a lawyer.

Toward the end of the fall term, while I was chewing the bitter sandwich of this criticism, a student provided me with a much appreciated counter-flavor. As we went over a piece of her work, she told me the Times article was a literal take-home for her—her father had sent her the clipping and asked, perhaps a bit pointedly, whether it reflected her experience. Happily, my course, Representing Entrepreneurial Business, gave her a reply; our capstone project involves conducting a mock closing in just such a mergers and acquisitions deal, with each student preparing the necessary documentation from the selling client’s perspective.

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Mark Washburn

By Oliver Goodenough Published in The Huffington Post, January 9, 2012

Professor Oliver Goodenough

I don’t expect this one anecdote to counter the Times attack on the value of a juris doctor degree, but I hope it provides a wedge to get some additional data points into the discussion. First, the Times is significantly behind the curve in its reporting. For a couple of decades now, there has been a trend toward more “hands on” teaching in most American law schools.

At Vermont Law School we have a whole suite of clinical offerings aimed at providing supervised training in the active conduct of being a lawyer. My own course on entrepreneurship is part of the innovative General Practice Program, where students learn both theory and practice for many fields of law through representation-based projects for simulated clients. Other programs send students out for internships, externships, and the Semester in Practice, where the important, if somewhat abstract, lessons of traditional classroom teaching can be enriched by the complementary lessons of practical application.

Making sure our graduates have a solid grounding across the spectrum of what lawyers actually do is one of our baseline goals.

While Vermont Law School is a leader in the breadth of its practice-linked offer-

ings, we are hardly unique. As the sometimes indignant discussions at the AALS confirmed, most schools have at least some of the pieces of the mix; many join us in emphasizing such classes. So what happened to the students the Times focused on? This brings us to another data point— the over-emphasis on prestige-markers in hiring by “big law.” The “leading” big firms have traditionally held themselves out as the best and the brightest. They have bolstered this image by recruiting from a few high-prestige target schools that often emphasize their ability to filter good test taking and argumentative cleverness about obscure topics over imparting a more nuts-and-bolts knowledge about law.

Now I have a confession to make—I was educated in just such a filter and made my start with a downtown New York financial firm. Back in my somewhat distant day as a junior associate, when the arms-race for talent and billing was rather less advanced, the firm paid decent attention to training and was willing to put up with the fact that my formal education in civil procedure was entirely focused on a very narrow and abstract point of jurisdictional theory.

Whatever the merits of the system then,

Faculty Highlights

a number of speakers at AALS confirmed that the reality now is that such firms find they are stuck with high-priced talent with great pedigrees and little experience whom their clients won’t pay to train any more. If that’s what the firms don’t want, however, they need to send different signals back up the recruiting chain and visit different schools. The kind of training big law now claims to want exists; big firms just have to target it in their hiring decisions.

The final data point for consideration, however, calls the argument itself into question. For too long, too many of us have disproportionately fi xed our attention on the elite, finance-driven segment of practice as defining legal excellence—a fi xation the Times coverage has shared. I am not arguing that there isn’t a constructive place for careful Wall Street lawyering; that would be hypocritical given my own career path and the business law classes I teach. What is shameful, however, is the way that this corner of practice has come to define so much of American law, from its delivery to its economics.

Law school costs have grown dramatically as well. Effective legal representation has increasingly priced itself out of the reach of most of America’s residents and most of America’s enterprises, nonprofits, and causes. We need to remember that law belongs to the 99 percent as well.

The legal profession isn’t the only sector of our society that has focused excessively on the needs of moneyed power, but it can help lead the way to redressing the balance. We in the AALS member schools need to graduate lawyers who are steeped in theory, policy, and analysis, educated in the skills of practice, and recommitted to the ideals of equal justice before the law for real individuals and not disproportionately for corporate “persons.” And we need to find ways to make that training more economically feasible for those future practitioners. That would be legal education reform indeed.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The Vermont Journal of Environmental Law eagerly invites Vermont Law School alumni to submit their scholarly articles to be published in the journal’s 14th volume.

As the environmental law journal at the nation’s top environmental law school, VJEL seeks to provide an enlightened and pragmatic discourse on the broad range of environmental issues affecting our local, regional, and global communities. VJEL welcomes all well-supported articles, regardless of position, subject matter, or length.

Please send full articles or finished drafts for VJEL Volume 14, to be published throughout 2013, to vjel@vermontlaw.edu by August 15, 2012 (subject line: “Loquitur Article Submission”). For more information, please email vjel@ver montlaw.edu or visit www.vjel.org.

spring 2012

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Art That Speaks to the Soul of the School A Conversation with Elizabeth Billings

By Rolf E. Olsen

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Michael Sacca

“Phragmites” (pronounced frag-mahy-teez) is a large-scale installation on the upper level of Cornell Library, and her triptych “Red Pine and Apple” hangs on the wall in the Waterman Conference Room. The law school’s outdoor classroom was a collaborative design by Billings, Vershire, Vermont artist Andrea Wasserman, and Will Machin, a South Washington, Vermont artist. Billings is designing a new installation for the portico between the Chase Center and the Cornell Library, in honor of Jeff and Genie Shields, and she has completed two new works for the Center for Legal Studies, which will open in late summer.

Elizabeth Billings’ early interest in the craft and art of weaving was sparked during time she spent on the Greek island of Kalymnos, where she worked with a mother and daughter who wove rag rugs. Billings received her undergraduate degree

Michael Sacca

For generations of Vermonters, the Billings family name has been iconic, closely identified with politics, the law, and environmental conservation. Franklin S. Billings served as the 60th Governor of Vermont, among several other leadership roles. His son, Franklin S. Billings Jr., a Woodstock attorney, held a number of judicial and legislative positions in state government, eventually serving as chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Vermont. With his wife, Polly Gillingham, a Woodstock native, Judge Billings was among the founders of Vermont Law School. They were also part of the energetic faction that established the Vermont Arts Council in the 1960s.

And they raised four children, including daughter Elizabeth Billings, whose art now graces the law school campus, creating potent, evocative connections between the study of law and the environment.

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Michael Sacca

in art from Earlham College in Indiana, and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy in Michigan. She also studied with National Heritage Fellow Norman Kennedy at the Marshfield School of Weaving, and apprenticed for a year in Japan with master ikat weaver Keiko Shindo.

What follows is a conversation with Billings, at the home she shares with her husband and three children, high on a hill at the edge of a meadow in Tunbridge, Vermont.

What drew you to study art initially?

I came to art through handwork. My grandmother—my mother’s mother—lived a few houses away. She was always making something by hand, and I would join her; it didn’t matter whether it was making donuts or doilies, I loved it.

Michael Sacca

What effect do you hope for in the mind or emotions of people who encounter your public art installations?

What I really hope is that my work intuitively connects people to nature. I have thought a lot about form and function and have come to believe that a connection to nature through art is completely utilitarian. In designing public art, I look at a place and try to make it more of what it is. Once, I was hanging a piece in a state office building, and a woman who worked in one of the offices walked down the hallway and said, “I just want to thank you. You have made my daily life so much better.” I almost burst into tears. It was so humbling to think I had done that for someone else.

Michael Sacca

Is there an environmental theme in your installation called “Phragmites” in the Cornell Library?

Pages 24–25: Elizabeth Billings, Phragmites, 2007 Page 26: Elizabeth Billings, Red Pine and Apple, triptych, 2007 Page 27: Elizabeth Billings, Andrea Wasserman, and Will Machin, Outdoor classroom, 2007

Phragmites is an invasive species. It takes over marshy areas.

The poplar that forms the base of this piece is one of the first trees to move in as meadows become forests. A hundred years ago, Vermont was 80 percent deforested, and now it’s 80 percent forested. I chose these materials because I hope through harvesting them, I am working with the environment. Of course, I also think they are beautiful.

The outdoor classroom is reminiscent of Greek antiquity, even invoking the Socratic method often used in law school. Was this part of the inspiration?

You really pull in all of your experiences and influences when

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designing something. The outdoor classroom was a gift of the class of 2006 because they believed it was fitting for a school focused on environmental law. We made it a subtle spiral, nestled into the hillside going down toward the river. Grounding people to the place, it needed to be complete in and of itself, and yet a part of the landscape.

John Sherman

Do you see connections among the rhythms, drama, and juxtaposition in these pieces and the practice of law?

Weaving is a grid and it’s very structural or it doesn’t last. That’s the framework that we work from, that is the departure point.

The law is like that, too. You have the written word, and then we interpret it.

What can you say about the new work you’ve created for the new clinics building?

John Sherman

There are two pieces. One is a hanging installation made of 20-gauge wire and poplar rounds cut with a chainsaw. There is a directness to it, the roughness of the bark, the growth rings of a tree, saw marks, the twist of a wire holding a piece of wood in midair, that together, shifting gently with the air currents, somehow speak to the billow of a cloud or the flow of a river.

The other piece is made from woven cotton threads and plant matter. What you see, however, is rhythms of lines and abstract shapes gathered from our woods and meadows. Giving homage to these familiar plants through the common process of weaving, there is a visual and intellectual connection made to something both ancient and alive.

You’re also creating something new and special for the portico….

When Genie and Jeff decided to retire, I wanted to do something for them, to recognize how important I think their contribution has been to the law school—they’ve made it blossom.

So I asked them if I could make a piece for the hallway, and they didn’t say no. They leave the end of July, and I told them it would be in by then. This is my gift to the law school in honor of them, and in gratitude to them. It’s exciting to make something in celebration of them and all they have given. ***

Michael Sacca

The sentiments are clearly mutual. As retiring President and Dean Jeff Shields has aptly observed, Elizabeth Billings’ work “speaks to the soul of the law school.” spring 2012

27

Class Notes Notes from the Vermont Law School Alumni Association Do you remember what it was like to receive your degree from VLS and move on into the great wide world of lawyering that awaited you? Did you have someone who answered your questions? Or who shared their experiences and perspective as you were looking for a job? Was there someone who inspired you to go to law school? In short, did you or do you have a mentor?

Mentoring is an important part of the transition from law student to practicing attorney.

In case you were curious, the term “mentor” comes from classical Greek mythology. While Odysseus was away from home fighting the Trojan War, his friend Mentor looked out for and advised Odysseus’s son, Telemachus. In time, the word “mentor” became used as an English word, meaning someone who imparts wisdom to and shares knowledge with a lessexperienced colleague.

One of the ongoing missions of the VLSAA is to connect recent grads with more experienced alumni who can share their knowledge and experience with newly minted VLS lawyers. In the past, we have done this on a mostly informal basis, by working to connect alumni through regional groups, social events, and on-campus programs. In the next few months, the Office for Institutional Advancement and Career Services Office will be working to help establish a pilot mentoring program for graduates from the Class of 2012. We hope this will be the start of an ongoing mentoring program for each graduating class.

Mostly, we will be looking for alumni like you to talk to members of the Class of 2012 as they settle into a particular geographical area or area of practice, be their sounding boards, and share the wisdom you have gained. If you are interested in joining this effort, please email Kim Evans at kevans@vermontlaw. edu. I hope that you will consider participating, and paying forward any mentoring you received—whether formal or informal—when you first graduated from VLS. Sincerely, Karis L. North ’95, President, Vermont Law School Alumni Association knorth@mhtl.com www.vermontlaw.edu/VLSAABoard

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Laura Decapua

Dear Alumni,

3M (MSL/MSEL/MELP) Alumni Committee Update 3M Committee Call for Alumni Input Since the inception of the Environmental Law Center, an ever-increasing number of Vermont Law alumni are non-JD environmental professionals. This master’s degree program— dubbed the “3M” for MSL, MSEL and now, MELP—has continued to successfully attract students with backgrounds and career goals as diverse as engineering, policy, legislation, and not-for-profit and corporate programming. The diversity of the 3M alumni, while a strength of the program, also presents a unique challenge for maintaining alumni connections with the VLS community, given the multitude of career paths available with the master’s degree outside of the legal field.

Approximately three years ago, a collective of alumni established the 3M Committee, to strengthen ties between the 3M alumni, specifically non-JD alumni, and VLS. The 3M Committee focuses its efforts on reestablishing contact with alumni, providing mentoring/ career opportunities to new graduates and current VLS students, and providing an advisory voice for the 3M career development services available to these program students.

Recently, the committee thanked outgoing Committee Chair Sandy Hauserman ’94 and Secretary Ed Wadsworth ’03 when the new officers were sworn in for 2012—Chair Lisa Phipps ’99, Vice-chair Stephanie Kiefer ’95, and Secretary Todd Parker ’06. Sandy

will continue leading the Special Projects Subcommittee. All 3M alumni were recently contacted about an opportunity to give back to VLS and the 3M program in a way that only 3Ms can. We hope that you will join us in our efforts. The committee continues to partner with VLS in engaging MELP students and providing networking opportunities through the Student Relations Subcommittee headed up by Todd. The Mentoring Subcommittee, chaired by Lisa, seeks to enhance the networking opportunities as graduates enter back into the workforce and to create connections in professional fields or geographic locations for 3M alumni. The Brown Bag Series, led by Christina Cope ’02, continues to work with VLS to bring real life together with academics.

Finally, the External Relations Subcommittee, led by Stephanie, is tasked to keep 3M alumni engaged and informed of the 3M Committee activities. To learn more, visit the website at www.vermontlaw.edu/3MAlumni.

Any 3M alumni interested in learning more or becoming a part of the committee should contact Lisa Phipps at 3MAlumni@vermont law.edu.

VLSAA Regional News Albany The Albany-Saratoga VLS Alumni Association continues to stay active. In February, the group got a jump on Mardi Gras with a festive Jambalaya Dinner at Class of ’79 alumna Jackie Brilling’s home. The group continues to plan frequent gatherings, so check your email for further details. If you are in the AlbanySaratoga area and are not receiving emails, please let us know at alumni@vermontlaw.edu.

Boston On February 9, 2012, Boston alumni gathered at the Kinsale Pub near Government Center to enjoy cocktails, appetizers, and conversation. The turnout and enthusiasm were sensational.

Boston is an active and lively group, anticipating a summer weekend overnight in rural New Hampshire for alumni and their families, brownbag lunches in Boston with lectures from visiting VLS professors, and socials to assist more recent graduates and recent arrivals to Massachusetts in acclimating to the Boston legal community, as well as to provide networking opportunities for more established alumni.

If Boston alumni can help you, please do not hesitate to contact Boston VLSAA President Kate Barnes ’01 at kab@katebarneslaw.com.

Class Notes

1976 Mark Portnoy mhportnoy@gmail.com James L. Watson, former assistant state attorney, Hillsborough County, Florida, former conflicts attorney for Public Defender Office, former student legal counsel for U.S.F., practicing in criminal law, family law, and personal injury, is announcing his retirement after 35 years. During those 35 years he has traveled throughout South America, including Machu Picchu, Colombia, and other parts. In 2005 he had an extensive meeting with Fidel Castro in Cuba. “All because I was a lawyer, thanks to Vermont Law School and all those who participated in its founding. Thank you to my classmates and the founding staff.

1977 35th Reunion September 2012 alumni@vermontlaw.edu Allen S. Kaufman writes, “I’m proud to announce the birth of my granddaughter, Rylie Kaufman. First grandchild. I am getting old! Thanks to VLS, life has been good. Greetings to my fellow classmates. Fond memories.”

1978

to keeping those communications open in the future. Ray was appointed to a three-year term as a director of the board of the American Board of Certification (ABC) following the December 2011 ABC Board meeting, in addition to his board membership for the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees (NABT).

ABC, also known as the American Board of Certification of Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Attorneys, is the group accredited by the American Bar Association that certifies attorneys as specialists in business bankruptcy, consumer bankruptcy and creditors’ rights law. Ray was certified in both business and consumer bankruptcy in November 1992 as part of ABC’s inaugural certification class.

Ray and Marie, his spouse, still reside in South Royalton and venture to their home in North Carolina when time allows.

1981 Tim McGrath timothy.mcgrath@va.gov

1982 30th Reunion September 2012 Larr Kelly photolarr@tidalwave.net

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

Larr Kelly exhibited his latest photography series, Lights, twice last year, in June/July in Santa Barbara, California, and in November/ December in Leesburg, Virginia. Check out his work at www.larrkelly.com.

1979

1983

Deborah Bucknam dbucknam@vtlegalhelp.com

Martha Lyons malyonsesq@hotmail.com

1980

Joe Benning says, “I was elected to the Vermont State Senate in 2010 from the CaledoniaOrange District. Since then I have served on two standing committees: Institutions, and Natural Resources and Energy. In Institutions, we are wrestling with what to do about the Waterbury State Office Complex in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene. Part of that discussion has been a redesign of our state’s mental health system after the Waterbury State Hospital had to be closed down. Solutions are quite complex and very expensive. In Natural Resources, I have met countless VLS graduates. They are all flexing their legal muscles in lobbying for many different bills. It is truly a testament to the law

Scott Cameron jscameron@zclpc.com Raymond “OB” Obuchowski extends his appreciation to both classmates and other VLS friends who sent their deeply felt condolences and concerns for the Raleigh family following the tragic death of classmate Chris Raleigh and his 10-year-old son, Travis, on January 15, 2012.

As class communication conduits, OB, with classmate Scott Cameron, assisted in reuniting many VLS classmates and look forward

Joe Benning ’83 school’s immersion in state government. I’m also assigned to several ad hoc committees, including Judicial Retention. It is a sobering experience, as a trial lawyer in my normal job, to be deciding on the continued employment fate of experienced judges. Should any members of the Class of ’83 find themselves in the statehouse during the session, feel free to seek me out for a personal tour. Just tell a page you are looking for me.”

1984 alumni@vermontlaw.edu Please email kevans@vermontlaw.edu if you are interested in serving as class secretary.

Nancy Papademas writes, “I am excited to report that I am having a fantastic adventure in May. I have been sponsoring Macy, now a young woman, through ChildFund (formerly the Christian Children’s Fund) for over 16 years—it was my daughter Calla’s idea to put money saved from quitting smoking into sponsoring a child in the developing world— in Dominica (not the Dominican Republic).

Macy has gone from a scowling three-year-old to a brilliant college student, and I have passed the background check (even though I’m still a lawyer!) and I am going to meet her in May! She wants to go to medical school, and the island nation can sure use native doctors! This is a very long-term fantasy materializing here.”

Dominique Pollara moved to Sacramento, California, in 1994 where she joined Schuering, Zimmerman & Doyle. She specializes in medical malpractice defense and representing healthcare professionals before licensing boards. Dominique is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and became managing partner of her firm January 1, 2012.

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Patricia Whalen ’79 From Vermont Legal Aid to The Hague You might think a justice at The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina War Crimes tribunal in Sarajevo would have some pithy advice for VLS students. But Judge Patricia Whalen laughs at the thought. “I did everything ‘wrong,’” she says.

Raised in a large Irish family in Philadelphia, she moved to Vermont in the 1970s with her husband and baby and soon became involved with helping a pregnant neighbor whose husband had beaten her so badly she lost the child. “While I was with her at the hospital, he shot himself in the foot, and she got off her gurney to take care of him. That one night taught me everything I needed to know about domestic violence,” she says.

Seeking legal tools against domestic violence, Whalen chose the then-fledgling Vermont Law School. After graduation, she worked at Vermont Legal Aid, even though “people told me, you’ll never go anywhere if you work there.” But at Legal Aid she spearheaded the creation of a statewide domestic violence network and found herself on the other side of the bench in 1990 when Governor Madeline Kunin appointed her magistrate in the state’s new Family Court system, settling child support disputes.

Soon after, Whalen attended an organizational meeting of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ). “That meeting changed my life in so many ways,” she says.

She became active in the group, spoke on family law at international conferences, and organized annual visits by Afghan women jurists to Vermont so they could see first-hand the workings of an orderly, independent judicial system.

In 2002 she got a call from a former Vermont District Court judge and IAWJ member, Shireen Fisher, asking her to help draft The Hague Maintenance Convention, an international treaty on child support. Whalen immersed herself in international law and spent time in The Hague as well as in Vermont. Her visibility rose, and she was selected as a justice in 2007 for the war crimes court because of her experience harmonizing civil and adversarial systems of law.

The court is currently the busiest warcrimes court in the world. Among its recent convictions are those of a high-ranking Bosnian Serb army officer who participated in the mass executions of at least 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men in Srebrenica and of a Bosnian Serb army officer who ordered an artillery fire on a youth rally in Tuzla, a UN-protected zone, that killed 71. “We’re finding that even though international law doesn’t adequately address many of these contemporary conflicts, we believe what we say and do will have a sig-

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nificant impact in Syria, Libya, and the next conflicts,” says Whalen.

“What we say and do has a significant impact in Syria, Libya, and the next conflicts.”

The testimony can be harrowing. One witness who appeared recently before the court was mobilized into the army at age 18, along with his best friend. Their first week in the war, they came upon soldiers playing soccer with a severed head, and they were ordered to bury it. Afterward, disturbed by what they had seen, they woke up the wisest man they knew, their first grade teacher, who happened to live nearby. They went together to the burial place, dug up the head, and videotaped it. Their teacher told them, “You can’t tell this story to anyone today. It’s not safe. But some day, you’ll have to tell this story.” The young man, now in his early 30s, said to Judge Whalen and the other judges: “Your Honors, today is that day.”

When her term ends at the end of this year, Whalen will rejoin her husband of 30 years, Putney attorney Fletcher Proctor, and they’ll enjoy visits from their three grown children, who work in art, technology, and international public health. “And I’ll get to go to community town meetings, where everything seems real and important and sensible,” she says with a quiet laugh.

1985 alumni@vermontlaw.edu Please email kevans@vermontlaw.edu if you are interested in serving as class secretary.

Barry D. Peterson was named magistrate judge of the Family Division of Vermont’s Superior Courts. Barry has held the post in an acting capacity in Chittenden, Lamoille, and Franklin counties as needed in recent years. “Barry’s broad experience, both in law and in his community, make him the perfect fit for family division magistrate,” Governor Peter Shumlin said. “He has already served in this role in an acting capacity, so he’ll hit the ground running.” Barry, whose office is in Jericho, joined his wife, Lori J. Ruple, to start the law firm Peterson & Ruple in 1988. There he has focused on family law and represented clients in real estate, bankruptcy, small business, and personal injury matters. In addition to serving as acting magistrate, he has sat as acting judge on small claims cases in Lamoille Superior Court on a regular basis. Barry also has been a cooperating attorney with Vermont Legal Aid/Law Line of Vermont, doing substantially reduced fee bankruptcies for lowincome Vermonters since 2005 and has served as guardian ad litem in family law cases. In his community, Barry has coached youth sports for many years and served as a member of the Fletcher Elementary School board from 1993 to 2005. He has two grown children, daughter, Kelsey, and son, Carter.

1986 alumni@vermontlaw.edu

“What we say and do has a significant impact in Syria, Libya, and the next conflicts.”

Bob Maxwell continues to represent manufacturers in products liability suits in the Gulf South region. He recently obtained two defense verdicts for Ford Motor Company in Louisiana jury trials (involving design defect claims attacking Ford’s SUV product lines) and a defense verdict for Hyundai Motor Company in a federal court jury trial in Arkansas pertaining to restraint system design in Hyundai vehicles. His email is rmaxwell@ bcedlaw.com.

1987 25th Reunion September 2012 Mark Ouellette mouellette01@gmail.com

Peter Keller MSEL’91 Behind the Scenes on the Chugach Jane Sheehan writes, “My daughter, Liz (47), and I each completed the Tri for a Cure Triathlon for the Maine Cancer Foundation last July and plan to compete again in 2012.

I will be swimming, biking, and running in the 70+ category, and with my granddaughter, Avery (17), joining us this year, we will have three generations supporting finding a cure for breast cancer.”

1988 alumni@vermontlaw.edu

1989 alumni@vermontlaw.edu

1990 Mario Galluci mario@hnglaw.com

1991 Peg Stolfa margaret.stolfa@gmail.com

1992 20th Reunion September 2012 Margaret Olnek mlo@olneklaw.com Stephanie Notemyer Marlin and Steve Marlin (and Whiskey Jack, their border/Aussie) write that they “moved to Alaska for a change of scenery and to sea kayak, catch Copper River sockeye, hike Wrangell–St. Elias, learn Tlingit culture, sip China Poot Porter, find Sam McGee, and pursue other new adventures. We can still be reached at s2marlin@aol. com (and eventually by floatplane).”

1993 Lainey Schwartz geowoman3@aol.com Karen Wade Cavanagh suffered spinal cord damage and a brain injury from a boogie board accident in November 2007 and is on long-term disability. She has worked hard to

Peter Keller’s job perks have included field trips down the Amazon River and through the tidewater glaciers of Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Since early 2011 he’s been the Deputy Forest Supervisor of the Chugach National Forest in Alaska, the second-largest national forest in the U.S. With a staff of 130, Keller manages the internal operations of budgets and contracts—“not the pretty stuff,” he says—that live behind the scenes of this 5.4 million-acre national jewel.

Keller became interested in the legal side of parks management and conservation while using his park management training as a ranger in Glacier National Park. “Someone would say, for example, ‘You can’t build a bridge over this river because of the law.’ I wanted to drill down deeper on those issues that the federal laws impact.” He adds, “VLS definitely gave me what I was looking for.”

Because he graduated from Vermont Law School during the economic recession of the early 1990s, he took some interim jobs before landing his first permanent position. He credits the VLS community with keeping him posted on opportunities. “The program director at the Environmental Law Center at the time kept me current on job openings, and my classmates and I kept an eye out for each other.”

He landed a job in Washington, D.C., in the Presidential Management Fellow program and worked as a park planner for the National Park Service. After those first four years inside the beltway, Keller went west to work at Redwood and Yosemite national parks as a management assistant. In 2000, he won a midcareer fellowship from a private foundation and headed to Argentina and Chile for two years of environmental work, which started him on an international path.

A few years later, he worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development in the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau as a biodiversity advisor, guiding conservation projects in 16 countries. He explains one of the many facets of that position: “Any country receiving funding for USAID projects needs to comply with our environmental regulations.

For example, if a Honduran agriculture project is using a particular pesticide, it has to be approved for use in the U.S.” In addition to overseeing millions of dollars in conservation projects, he got involved in USAID’s regional programs focusing on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

After his USAID positions in El Salvador and Washington, D.C., Keller was ready to get beyond the beltway again, especially since he and his wife, Maureen, now had two small children. The position on the Chugach

“People look to me because I can get to issues early, before they get complicated.” opened up, and before long they were moving to Alaska. Keller soon found that he wasn’t the only VLS alum at work there—Josh Milligan JD/MSEL’01, environmental compliance coordinator for the Chugach National Forest, has been there for years, and the two have sometimes reached back and invoked Professor David Firestone’s lessons on National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations in some of their work.

Keller enjoys his new position and new home, and his kids love the moose who visits outside their kitchen window. Not surprisingly, given the vastness and complexity of the Chugach, and the many people who use it, the issues he fields are varied. “Since I’m the deputy for the forest, people expect an answer right away. Sometimes that means working an inch deep and a mile wide,” he says. He’s learned to balance being responsive and responsible, and to appreciate the effectiveness of his legal role: “People look to me because I can get to issues early, before they get complicated.”

spring 2012

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Class Notes

recover from her major surgeries in the summers of 2010 and 2011, and has the love and support of her family, including her three kids.

She is writing a memoir and doing dance therapy. She hopes to recover enough to resume her work on her nonprofit Water Power Peace and become an advocate for TBI survivors.

Jim Maxwell has assumed the practice of Tim O’Connor in Brattleboro, Vermont, concentrating now on real estate, with Tim remaining of counsel.

1994 alumni@vermontlaw.edu John Martin Gillroy is on leave from Lehigh and is living in Vancouver, British Columbia, having been appointed Visiting Simons Chair in International Law and Human Security at Simon Fraser University.

Paul Lhevine joined the education advocacy group Stand for Children as executive director for the Colorado office. Stand for Children’s mission is to ensure that all children, regardless of their background, graduate from high school prepared for, and with access to, a college education. To make that happen, Stand educates and empowers parents, teachers, and community members to demand excellent schools; advocates for effective local, state, and national education policies and investments; and elects courageous leaders who will stand up for our priorities (www.stand.org). Lhevine most recently served as chief operating officer for Mile High United Way. Prior to that, he was chief operating officer of the Host Committee for the 2008 Democratic National Convention held in Denver.

Michael C. Schmahl says, “After spending 10-plus semi-productive years in Florida, including about 3 years with a medical

1995

committee on Water. The subcommittee supports the commissioners’ committee agenda to: “increase awareness and understanding about the issues surrounding uses and reuses of water and wastewater.” She also enjoys teaching legal classes at a local community college for paralegals. Daughter Molly, who was born during the VLS October break in 1994, will soon be heading off to study in Germany for her senior year. Marcia says, “I’m amazed at how fast time has flown since we all were in class together!”

Karen Moore kj.moore@judicial.state.co.us

1996

Joe W. McCaleb MSEL has retired from the practice of law. Joe practiced law in Tennessee for 40 years up through December 2011, and devoted the last 16 years to public interest environmental law. In March and April of 2011, Joe attended the Institute for Conflict Management at David Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tennessee, and received his certificate in civil mediation training. He is now qualified as a civil mediator under the rules of the Tennessee Supreme Court. For the immediate future, however, Joe reports that he plans to relax, travel, finish backpacking the Appalachian Trail—a trip that he began in the late 1980s—and then, perhaps, begin a new career in mediation with emphasis on environmental disputes.

alumni@vermontlaw.edu

malpractice/insurance defense firm, I have returned to Western New York to pursue greener pastures. I am in solo private practice currently, but hope to join a government office.

Keeping my fingers crossed. Lots of difficult health issues going on too...very scary, but all seems well for the time being. I can be contacted via email at mschmahl@mschmahlesq. com. My best regards to all.”

Marcia Thunberg ’95

Michael Schmahl ’94 and close friend, Amy, on a cruise to Cozumel

32 loquitur

Marcia A. B. Thunberg (mathunberg@ comcast.net) wrote to say she is enjoying expanding her private practice (part time) and working full time for the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission. She has been appointed to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Staff Sub-

Mollie Roth says, “Finally decided after four years here to bite the bullet and make Arizona my home (for the time being), which essentially boils down to having bought a home and, the greater mental hurdle, registering my car and changing my driver’s license. Like anyplace I suppose, Arizona offers its pluses— sunshine 425 days a year, the ability to swim laps outside in a heated pool in January and the chance to talk about ‘haboobs’ outside the context of a Lawrence of Arabia movie (those would be the giant dust storms we had this summer). On the flip side is the odd wild west mentality that makes it of fundamental importance for some people here to be able to ride a motorcycle without a helmet but while wearing a gun on their hip, an odd aversion and almost disdain toward education, and the horrible (yet sadly correct) perception of this state on the national stage. My visiting faculty fellowship at ASU Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law ended in May 2010, although I may yet complete my final paper to finish my LLM in genomics and biotechnology before I die. In September 2010, I was promoted to chief operating officer of Diaceutics, which took my job responsibilities from two (corporate counsel and VP business development) to six! I am happy to report in the 4.5 years I have been here we have grown from four people (I was the fourth one in) to an all-company meeting in Ireland next week where there will be 20 of us around the table. In the fall of last year we launched our newest subdivision, Labceutics, an integrated, personalized medicine network of laboratories across the major EU countries ready to provide one-stop lab services to the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries in the space. Other than that (as if that were not enough), I continue to find ample opportunities to indulge my love of triathlon combined when possible with my travel bug, when I am not finding reasons to go scuba diving. If you

Class Notes

ever find yourself in Arizona, don’t hesitate to drop me a line (mroth36@yahoo.com).

1997 15th Reunion September 2012 Cheryl Deshaies cdeshaies@deshaieslaw.com Diane Henkels JD’97/MELP’98 and Lalaina Rakotoson MELP ’95 were O’Donnell Visiting Speakers at Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, in March 2012. They will deliver a joint public lecture on Environmental Democracy in Madagascar and each will teach college classes in topics related to climate change and native peoples.

Rick Johnson moved back to the Upper Valley this past summer to become the associate director of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. He also served as the vice chief of staff for the Marine Corps Reserve in New Orleans, Louisiana. He left that job in April to become an inspector general for the secretary of defense in Washington, D.C. His wife, Lisa, and children, Griffin (12) and Charlotte (9), are happy to be back in New England. He is in charge of organizing the annual class fishing trip this spring.

The usual suspects typically attend—Mike Berube, Chris Cady, Dave Carpenter, Chris Dalton, Joe Suich, Paul Sullivan, and Max Williamson.

Colin Seaman was honored in 2011 by The Justice for Children Task Force for his work in abuse and neglect cases.

2000 alumni@vermontlaw.edu Alexis Levitt writes, “We just moved to a new house, still in the same general area (south of Boston)—there are boxes everywhere! I’ve been growing my elder law and special needs planning firm, hiring staff. I’ve been doing some interesting projects on the board of directors of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, including planning an event for our colleagues from across the country who were in town for a national conference. Who knew my résumé would include party planner? Rich Levitt ’99 recently started a new job in the development office at Brandeis University, specifically supporting the university’s graduate level education program. With his longer commute, we honored our VLS heritage by buying a Prius!

We had a fun day with Pam Hans when she was in Boston in September.”

Pedro Nieves-Miranda ’00 other initiatives that we have implemented and challenges that we have toppled in these difficult economic times. Also, I have been able to lecture in different environment-related topics to audiences in and outside of the United States. In addition, I am an attorney in the Office of the Regional Counsel for EPA Region 2, Caribbean Team, an intergovernmental personnel agreement that made possible my appointment as chairman.”

Kat Spitzer has authored the recently published book, The Happy Hypochondriac, part of which takes place during her years at VLS. Visit her website at: www.happyhypochon driac.com. She is married to Jason Spitzer.

1998 alumni@vermontlaw.edu After active duty with USCGR as a SAUSA in Puerto Rico for 17 months, Russell Booker was home for 3 months, then was recalled. He is again on active duty in New Orleans (actually North Shore) until this summer. If you’re visiting, let him know.

1999 Joy Kanwar-Nori joy.kanwar@brooklaw.edu James J. Bonsignore is happy to announce that as of January 1, 2012, he has been a full equity partner with Fix Spindelman Brovitz & Goldman, P.C., in Rochester, New York!

Alexis Levitt ’00, with children Noah and Maya, and Pam Hans ’00 and Tilly (in Pam’s belly at the time of this photo, and who was born in December 2011) Pedro J. Nieves-Miranda MSEL writes, “In January 2009, I was appointed chairman of the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board (EQB). For the past 37 months, as chairman, I have had the opportunity to work on numerous initiatives, including the evaluation and approval of more than 10 renewable energy projects that will help Puerto Rico transform its current mainly oil-based power generation units, expedite the former Navy Vieques live ammunition area, and develop and implement a comprehensive permit reform system, among

2001 alumni@vermontlaw.edu Heather Rider Hammond was recently named a shareholder in the Burlington, Vermont firm of Gravel and Shea, PC. Heather focuses her practice on the exclusive representation of management in employment litigation and counseling. She lives in Fayston, Vermont, with her husband and two girls, ages 5 and 6.

Cristina Stummer was recently named a partner at the law firm of Saul Ewing, LLP, where she practices environmental law.

Rick Vanderslice was married to Kerry Gregory on September 9, 2011. Howard Kanner and Erik Anderson were groomsmen.

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Class Notes

Howard Kanner ’01, Kerry Vanderslice, Rick Vanderslice ’01, and Erik Anderson ’01

2002 10th Reunion September 2012 Paige Bush-Scruggs paigescruggs@comcast.net

2003 Shannon Bañaga vlsmaher@yahoo.com Samara Anderson is a senior attorney at New York State Workers’ Compensation Board as of January 2011.

2004 Spencer Hanes spencer.hanges@duke-energy.com Zoë ’06 and Spencer Hanes welcomed Gabrielle Lynn Hanes into the world on May 5, 2011.

“Gabby is an absolute joy and enjoys ‘dancing’ with her big sister, Juliette, and sleeping!” Zoë is now general counsel for FLS Energy, Inc., a solar company headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, that was named by Inc. magazine as the 46th fastest-growing company in the U.S. Last year Spencer had the opportunity to work for six months as the speech writer for Duke Energy’s CEO, Jim Rogers. He is now back as the director of Commercial Policy for Duke Energy Generation Services, supporting the wind, solar, and transmission businesses.

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Gabrielle and Juliette Hanes, daughters of Zoë ’06 and Spencer Hanes ’04

tized in water, and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Scott has begun discipleship training with The Fishermen Ministry and is enjoying his new life in Christ Jesus.

Carolina T. Curbelo joined the New Jersey State Board of Mediation as a staff mediator in mid-October 2011. She mediates disputes and facilitates contract negotiations between private employers and labor unions or representatives.

Jerry Edwards has been appointed to the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana. The Judiciary Commission is responsible for investigating complaints of judicial misconduct and, when appropriate, recommends discipline to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Alison McKay MSEL married Nicholas Osweiler on October 8, 2011, in Des Moines, Iowa. Dori Borrelli MSEL/JD’08 was in attendance.

Parker Moore has been elected a principal in the Washington, D.C. office of Beveridge & Diamond, PC. Parker cochairs the firm’s Environmental Practice Group and the firm’s NEPA, Wetlands, and ESA Section. He continues to live in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Molly, and their son, Rawles.

2005 Meg Munsey and Kelly Singer vermontlaw2005@gmail.com Frank F. Berk ’78 and Joseph I. Andriano are pleased to announce the formation of their new firm, Berk & Andriano, PLLC, in South Royalton. “We will continue to provide general legal services to people in South Royalton and the surrounding communities. Feel free to stop by our office on the green when you’re in South Royalton, or email us at either frank@ sorolaw.com or joe@sorolaw.com.”

Scott Bishop took the Vermont Bar exam, passed, and was sworn in last spring. He is working at Atherton Law, handling a wide variety of matters. “On November 1, 2011, we welcomed our fourth child, Shaylon DeEsting Bishop! The home birth went as planned, with Shaylon and Melanie Bishop ’04 recovering from the labor quickly. Melanie began home schooling our children this year. Some days are more challenging than others, the children are learning a great deal, and Melanie is enjoying the additional time she is able to spend with them on a daily basis.” Scott says he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, was bap-

Alison McKay ’05 and Nicholas Osweiler

2006 Ashley Cottingham ashleybrey@gmail.com Ebony Riggins erriggins@gmail.com Jason Beecher and Kara Dowal proudly announce the birth of their son, Harrison Edward Beecher, born December 20, 2011.

Harrison was 7 lbs 13 ozs and 20 inches long!

Mom, dad, and baby are doing great!

Tracy Coppola says, “As many of you know, I work at the D.C. office of Born Free, a national wildlife conservation group. One of the main issues I work on is addressing national and global wildlife trade, particularly in bear parts. This year, I am working with the Vermont State Legislature (Reps. Kate Webb,

Alexander Urbelis ’05 Counseling Business on Internet Security

Harrison Edward Beecher, son of Jason Beecher ’06 and Kara Dowal ’06 D-Shelburne, and David Deen, D-Westminster) to pass House Bill 528. Vermont is one of only six states that fully allows the trade in bear gallbladders and bile, and I hope that we will be able to close this dangerous loophole this year. I am hopeful that many Vermonters feel the same way, so please feel free to spread the word on this important issue. If you live in Vermont, it would be great if you could take action to support this bill, or if you simply want more info on this issue, please check it out here: http://bfusa.convio.net/site/ MessageViewer?em_id=8681.0&dlv_id=11301.”

Agnieszka M. Lech and Jay Nunenkamp (Environmental Protection Specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) married in Washington, D.C., on August 27, 2011. The couple said their vows before a small gathering of family and friends as the 70 mph winds of Hurricane Irene passed over the area. Despite the weather, it was a perfect evening of celebration. Ashley Carson Cottingham, Kate Myers Olson ’00, and Tim Olson ’02 attended. The couple resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, with their dog, Dingo.

Todd Parker MSEL was recently elected secretary of the 3M (MSL/MSEL/MELP) Alumni Committee. Todd is also chairing the

Agnes Lech ’06 and Jay Nunenkamp

Alex Urbelis knew in high school that he wanted to be a technology lawyer. As a fulltime undergraduate, the skilled programmer simultaneously worked almost full time at a software company. Seeing the tension technology stirs between free speech and the public interest, he recognized legal territory he wanted to explore. In addition to technical acumen, his philosophy major was an asset: “If you can read Kant, you can read any Supreme Court decision,” he says.

Now as an associate in the New York firm of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, Urbelis works on international and domestic commercial disputes with a team of attorneys focusing on the expansion of the Internet through “new gTLDs” or generic top-level domains, such as .com or .org. In 2011, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted to allow customization of Internet addresses to the right of the dot—for example, Vermont Law could apply to register .VLS in addition to vermontlaw.edu. Urbelis counsels businesses on how to expand and secure their Internet presence, and whether a new gTLD makes sense.

“It requires tremendous planning and costs $185,000 just to apply,” he says. “Essentially, you become a registry operator, fusing your IT to the backbone of the industry, the Domain Name System.” For some major brand owners, it’s a good move. “There’s greater security, and it’s the equivalent of having a storefront on Fifth Avenue.” He adds that Steptoe has attracted top government experts on data security to advise in this field. “To work with them is a real honor,” he says.

His VLS experience prepared Urbelis well for this subtle, rigorous work. Beyond courses in Internet law, fair use, and trademark issues, he secured a rare 1L internship with the Army JAG Corps, did a full-time externship with a Vermont Supreme Court Justice, and took advantage of a research position at nearby Dartmouth’s Institute for Security Technology Studies, a national center for cyber security and counterterrorism research and analysis. That work primed him for a graduate fellowship in the Office of General Counsel at the CIA, where he provided legal advice to the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, now known as the National Counterterrorism Center. It was both highly selective—“I was the only person who hadn’t gone to Harvard or Yale,” he recalls—and fascinating.

Urbelis feels that VLS’s public service reputation and the opportunities he took advantage of as a student played an important role in landing his job. “I interviewed with Steptoe’s partner in charge of the pro bono program,”

“If you can read Kant, you can read any Supreme Court decision.” he recalls. “My second day on the job he put me on a death penalty case before the Virginia Supreme Court, for which I was part of a team who drafted the petition for reconsideration and prepared the habeas groundwork.” Urbelis recalls this was one of his last projects before taking leave from Steptoe to study for the BCL degree at New College of Oxford University.

Unfortunately, he also learned how emotional such a case can be: Teresa Lewis, considered mentally challenged, was the first woman executed in that state in a century.

Looking ahead, he says, “My background and work experience have laid the groundwork for me to have a wonderful career here,” adding that public service is also an option and a family tradition—his grandfather was a leader in the Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Union in New York City.

Urbelis thoroughly enjoyed VLS’s rural setting and advises prospective VLS students not to underestimate its career-building potential.

“It appears to be a rustic place,” he says “but it’s not far from other centers of learning that offer many chances to combine your legal education with another discipline.” He adds, “With the practice of law becoming increasingly specialized and yet interdisciplinary, this type of collaboration can give VLS students a real edge in the job market.”

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Class Notes

3M Alumni Committee’s Student Relations Subcommittee, which seeks to connect current MELP students to the 3M Alumni Committee through personal contact and group networking events. If you are a 3M and would like to engage with the current MELP class, please contact Todd at 3Malumni@vermontlaw.edu.

Brian Turner spoke on a panel at the 41st ABA Annual Conference on Environmental Law in Salt Lake City on March 23, addressing the conflict between utility-scale renewable energy development on public land and sacred sites protection. Brian works as an attorney for the National Trust for Historic Preservation in its San Francisco Field Office.

2007 5th Reunion September 2012 Greg Dorrington gregdorrington@gmail.com Liz Lucente liz.lucente@gmail.com Rachel Cotrino married (“civil union”) Nicole Papadimos on October 16, 2011, in Chesterfield, New Jersey. Jon Dodson traveled from Florida to attend the celebration. She also opened the Law Office of Rachel S. Cotrino, LLC, a law practice dedicated to divorce and family law matters in Central New Jersey.

Adam Lee writes, “My fiancé, Heidi, and I live in the growing and vibrant community of Lewiston/Auburn, Maine. We call it L/A, which is no more ridiculous than referring to South Royalton, Vermont, as SoRo. I am now a fourth-year associate at Skelton, Taintor & Abbott, P.A., and I represent individuals, municipalities, and businesses in all types of litigation. I was also recently elected to the board of directors of the Lewiston Education Fund, a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 to fund projects and programs that expand educational opportunities and may otherwise be unaffordable, that foster creativity, and enhance academic excellence in Lewiston’s public schools.”

Harper R. Marshall recently earned a master of laws (LLM) degree in taxation from the Boston University School of Law. An associate at Devine Millimet, Harper is a member of the firm’s Corporate Department, focusing his practice on representing small- to mediumsize businesses from start-up to eventual sale, providing advice with respect to formation, taxation, growth and expansion, and transactional matters. Harper’s primary concentration is in the area of general business law with a specialty in mergers and acquisitions

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Harper Marshall ’07 and tax planning. He has experience advising private and emerging companies on debt and equity financings, incentive compensation planning, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate law matters. Harper lives with his family in Hampton, New Hampshire, and practices out of the firm’s Manchester office.

2008 Samantha Santiago santiago.samantha@gmail.com Jamie Williams willjamie@gmail.com William S. Eubanks II LLM, an attorney at Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal, has been busy fighting for protection of watersheds, vegetation, wildlife, and other natural resources in Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve through federal litigation challenging destructive off-road vehicle use. In addition, Bill spoke at the Florida Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in February and at the Yale Law School Robert Cover Public Interest Retreat in March. He is nearing completion of a textbook he coedited and coauthored with Professors Jason Czarnezki and Mary Jane Angelo called Food, Agriculture, and the Environment: History, Law, and Sustainability.

Melissa and Mark Pierce introduce their daughter, Madeline Michelle Pierce, who has brought with her an indescribable joy.

Samantha Santiago ’08 and Maxime Beaulieu ’08 After eight years of dating and weathering the storm of a relationship during law school, Samantha Santiago and Maxime Beaulieu were married October 9, 2011, at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Long Island, New York, on the most beautiful fall day of the season! VLSers in attendance included maid of honor and bridesmaids: Andrea Steiling, Jami Westerhold, Christina Switzer, and Victoria Aufiero, as well as VLS guests Maggie Stubbs ’07, Alison Share, Rosa Mendez, Robert Gardner, Joshua Sattely, Eula Kozma, Emilee Drobbin, Ryan Petersen, Guy Altsentzer ’09, Randy Mondesir ’09, Tamara Toles ’09, Shah Saint-Cyr ’09, and Kyle Lewis ’09. As expected, Max performed a Michael Jackson dance during the reception

Jack Sautter ’08, about to conduct an environmental survey at Patrol Base Doost, Garmser District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

while Samantha surprised Max by serenading him to “At Last.”

Jack Sautter JD’08/LLM’09 is currently deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, with Third Battalion, Third Marine Regiment, as an infantry battalion staff judge advocate. He advises his unit commander on operational law, law of armed conflict, detainee law, and rule of law issues. He is set to return to Okinawa, Japan, in May 2012.

2009 John Miller johndmillerjr@gmail.com Damon Amyx has recently accepted a roughly year-long clerkship offer from the Honorable Christopher C. Conner in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he will soon be starting his third year of clerking in federal district courts.

Jeff Davis was just named as a recipient of The Alaska Journal of Commerce 2012 Top Forty Under 40 (which honors Alaska’s best 40 up-and-coming leaders who are under 40 years old).

Geoff rey Sewake married Gillian Vinton of Waterford, Vermont, on August 20, 2011, in Greensboro, Vermont.

Daniel Sotelino was sworn into the D.C. Bar in December 2011. He says, “I continue to work as a regulatory consultant for Enhesa,

Kenneth Miller ’09 Practicing Law for Food “Local foods can strengthen a rural community,” said Kenneth Miller. “If you want to buy an avocado or a banana in Vermont that is fine, but we want there to be local and regional foods available as well. Small-scale food systems keep money circulating locally and are a good way to build back declining rural communities.” Spurred by the local food movement and community-supported agriculture, Kenneth said he launched Law for Food LLC in Vermont in 2010 to help farmers, restaurants, and food entrepreneurs thrive.

“Small-scale food systems keep money circulating locally and are a good way to build back declining rural communities.”

The firm’s 20 or so New England clients range from a dairy farmer in central Vermont to an itinerant slaughterer in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Some of Kenneth’s clients are referrals from farming nonprofits throughout New England. Kenneth works closely with organizations that provide legal and business support to small-scale farmers and food entrepreneurs. He also works with agricultural cooperative extensions at the University of Vermont and University of New Hampshire.

His venture arose from conversations about food safety, small-scale agriculture, and assistance for struggling rural communities. “I saw the legal issues surrounding farming during my legal internship at the Rural Vermont,” a farm advocacy group in Montpelier, said Kenneth. Through his internship opportunities, he quickly discovered that “VLS instills a sense of responsibility and accountability, and teaches students how to use a JD to make a positive contribution to the community.”

He and his partner, Christina Asbee ’11, write about food safety, farmers’ markets, raw milk, and other issues on their website’s blog, www.lawforfood.com. The firm’s mainstays are business financing, corporate formation, labor law, regulations, and estate planning.

From production contracts to generational estate plans to complex litigation, Kenneth has found many farmers going without the legal support that other businesses consider essential.

Recently, he helped create a legal guide, in conjunction with UVM’s agriculture exten-

“Small-scale food systems keep money circulating locally and are a good way to build back declining rural communities.” sion office, on the prepurchase of farm goods through CSA shares. “There is some ambiguity on whether CSAs are a type of securities,” Kenneth said. “We tell farmers what they should be doing and recommend they talk to each investor and disclose the risks.”

Kenneth’s learning curve was helped by a Randolph lawyer he started working with in his third year at VLS. She gave him general advice and accompanied him on his first few legal consultations with farmers who wanted a will, power of attorney, and other legal help.

Since then, Kenneth has gained traction on an array of legal issues over the years.

“This has been an adventure,” he said. “No two issues are alike.”

Geoff rey Sewake ’09 and Gillian Vinton at their wedding in Greensboro, Vermont

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Jane Graham LLM’10 An Advocate for the Everglades

Jane Graham is passionate about protecting animals and the Everglades in her home state of Florida. As a result of her recent work at Vermont Law School, she has proposed a comprehensive federal law to curtail invasive and exotic animal species that are causing environmental, economic, and public health risks across the American landscape.

“Forget the war on drugs. What the United States needs is a war on invasive animal species,” writes Jane in her article, “Snakes on a Plain, or in a Wetland: Fighting Back Invasive Nonnative Animals—Proposing a Federal Comprehensive Invasive Nonnative Animal Species Statute.” Published in the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, the article was written with guidance from her master’s thesis advisor, VLS Assistant Professor Pamela Vesilind ’08.

Jane’s advocacy for Everglades species isn’t new. As a JD student at the University of Miami, she published an article on “Statutes with Sharp Teeth: Prosecuting a Crocodile Killing with State and Federal Statutes” (with Jonathan Tanoos) in the spring 2009 issue of the Florida Bar’s Animal Law Committee Newsletter. At VLS, she worked on the Endangered Species Act (ESA) during her internship at the National Wildlife Federation’s Northeast Regional Office in Montpelier. At both schools, she was active in the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund.

“What began with ‘I want to write my LLM thesis on something to do with animal law’ developed into a creative critique of invasive species law,” said Professor Vesilind. Back in 2010, Vesilind predicted, “You heard it here first: Jane will be an influential and respected voice in the field of animal law.”

In addition to Jane’s ESA work, her internship at the National Wildlife Federation included researching and writing complaints and portions of amicus briefs on the National Flood Insurance Program litigation, climate change, nationwide permits, the Clean Water Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. While in law school, she interned at the MiamiDade Public Defender’s Office in Miami, The McGuirk Law Firm in Coral Gables, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida in Miami.

“Jane was a standout LLM candidate who wrote a great paper in my course, got it published, and used it to land the job of her

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a global environmental, health, and safety compliance consulting group in Washington, D.C., alongside a handful of VLS alumni— Jack Welsch ’97, Riaz Zaman ’04, Frank Skiba ’08, and Rachel Degenhardt, in the D.C. office, and Ana Santos ’06, based in Europe. Heechul Park ’12 joined Enhesa as an intern for the fall semester. Marisa (age 4) and Vivian (18 months) keep me on my toes (often quite literally during dinner prep dance parties while Mariah teaches Pilates downtown).

Marisa is attending the Audubon Nature Preschool, complete with a beautiful arboretum, pet snakes in the classroom, outdoor activities rain or shine, and wonderful ‘planet pal’ teachers and students. Vivian is climbing furniture, beginning to talk and sing, and covering her clothes in beans, or whatever she may be eating at the moment. We enjoy spending time with many VLSers in D.C. We wish Vermont a speedy and full recovery from the floods.”

2010 Cara Cookson caracooson@yahoo.com Laurie Wheelock lauriewheelock@gmail.com

“When I was older, I realized the alligators weren’t living in my back yard, but I was living in theirs.” dreams working to conserve Florida’s priceless and threatened natural resources,” said Professor Pat Parenteau.

Jane now has a job working with Audubon of Florida as an Everglades policy associate. She lobbies state and local officials on water policy issues and Everglades restoration. Recently, Jane appeared in an interview on West Palm Beach CBS affiliate WPEC news to discuss the impacts of a proposed wind turbine project on endangered wildlife in the nearby Everglades.

“When I was a child in South Florida, alligators lived in the canals outside my house.

When I was older, I realized the alligators weren’t living in my back yard, but I was living in theirs,” said Jane. “This job with the National Audubon Society is the exact realization of my goal when I started the LLM: a job with a wildlife nonprofit protecting and preserving the animals of the Everglades.”

Brendan Bauman and Brian Navarrette ’11 have started Resolution Law Group, P.C., a general practice law firm based in Chicago, Illinois.

Andrew Delaney married Tepin Johnson on August 20, 2011. They honeymooned in Costa Rica.

Jeff rey Heinrick and Tracey L. MacKenzie were married on November 5, 2011 at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.

The bride and groom were joined by close friends and family on their wedding day. Jeffrey took a new position as a prosecutor for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. Tracey is a family law attorney at the Baker Law Firm in Phoenix. The Heinricks just purchased a historical home together in Mesa, Arizona.

B. Jennifer Lemieux LLM is currently working at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, as an expeditor/materials analyst. She says, “It’s not what I thought I would be doing, but I absolutely love it.”

Jessica Scott is currently working at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of General Counsel. She spent six weeks in China recently with a delegation of American environmental attorneys on a trip organized by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Jessica was one of eight American lawyers to participate in this envi-

Class Notes

VLS alum Daniel Greene JD/MSEL’03 (New York City Law Department); Bart Lounsbury (Rossmann and Moore); Gil Rogers (Southern Environmental Law Center); Will Rostov (Earthjustice); and Ethan Strell (Carter Ledyard & Milburn). The delegation was accompanied by National Committee Program Officer Daniel Murphy, Scholar-Escort Alex Wang of UC Berkeley Law, and two U.S. Department of State Mandarin translators, Helen Gao and Ruby Lai. Laurie Wheelock JD’10/MELP’06 married her long-time boyfriend, Jim Maximowicz, in Grafton, Vermont, on February 19, 2012. The couple resides in Brooklyn, New York, where Laurie works as an associate for the Law Offices of Lee M. Nigen, and Jim works as a graphic designer.

Brett K. White will be finishing up his clerkship at the Bankruptcy Court for the District of North Carolina in Greensboro, North

Carolina, in August. He’ll be moving to D.C. in September to begin working in the Office of General Counsel–Energy Markets Division of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Dan Williams started a new job in December working at a consulting group that advises clients on meeting challenges dealing with environmental regulations. In addition, they work with the World Bank to help design low-carbon strategies for developing countries, mostly in Latin America, in order for those countries to receive funding from the World Bank.

2011 Amanda George amandadgeorge@yahoo.com Sarah McGuire smcguire@vermontlaw.edu

Jeff rey Heinrick ’10 and Tracey L. MacKenzie ’10 react to an unexpected guest at their wedding in Phoenix, Arizona

Master of Environmental Law and Policy LLM in Environmental Law Online Laurie Wheelock ’10 and Jim Maximowicz at their wedding in Grafton, Vermont ronmental law professionals exchange. Over the first two weeks the delegation travelled to Beijing, Guiyang, and Wuhan to meet with NGOs, scholars, judges, government officials, journalists, and private attorneys. During the following four weeks Jessica participated in a fellowship with the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative in Beijing, giving presentations to Chinese government officials on U.S. environmental law and researching current public interest litigation in Yunnan province. The delegation consisted of Megan Ceronsky (Environmental Defense Fund); Ilona Coyle (Environmental Law Institute); fellow

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spring 2012

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Laura DeCapua

In Memoriam Christopher Raleigh ’80 of Las Vegas, Nevada, and formerly of Rutland, Vermont, died in a car accident, along with his son, Travis, on Sunday, January 15, 2012, while visiting family in Vermont.

Chris was born in Rutland on July 20, 1955, the son of James and Dorothy Raleigh.

He attended Rutland schools, graduating from Mount St. Joseph Academy in 1973. Chris was a three-sport star athlete at MSJ, earning allconference and all-state selections in football as quarterback and defensive back and earning the same honors as a great hitting catcher for the Mounties baseball team. He was a stalwart catcher and outfielder for the Rutland American Legion baseball team. Chris graduated from the University of Vermont in 1977 and played baseball for the Catamounts all four years. He was also a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He later graduated from Vermont Law School earning his Juris Doctor in 1980.

After passing the bar exams in Vermont and Illinois, Chris moved to Las Vegas and was admitted to the Nevada Bar Association in 1982. He had practiced law since then and for the last 23 years, he had partnered with his great friend, John Hunt. Chris was a member of the Nevada Bar Association, Clark County Bar Association and the National Railroad Trial Lawyers Association. In 1997, Chris married Anastasia Noe, the love of his life, and together they had two beautiful sons, James, born on September 20, 1998, and Travis, born on June 11, 2001.

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Chris was predeceased by his father and mother, James and Dorothy Raleigh. Survivors include his wife, Anastasia, and his son, James; his sister, Debbie, and her husband, Frank Cecot, of North Clarendon, and their three children; his brother, Kevin, and his wife, Lorrie Wild, of Hartford, Vermont, and their three children; his sister, Nancy, of Las Vegas, and her two sons; his grandniece, and many uncles, aunts, and cousins.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Christopher J. Raleigh Scholarship Fund, Vermont Law School, PO Box 96, South Royalton, VT 05068; or to the Bridgewater Volunteer Fire Department in Bridgewater, Vermont.

Robert (Bob) K. Reis ’81 of Chittenden, Vermont, passed away peacefully surrounded by family and friends on October 23, 2011. He is survived by his wife of 33 years, Linda, and his three children, Molly, Robby, and Nell. Bob will also be missed by his eight siblings who looked up to their big brother. His 33 nieces and nephews will miss Uncle Bob at each biannual family reunion. His parents, Bob and Carol, and his parents-in-law, Bob and Freda Aylesworth, predeceased him.

An accomplished scholar, Bob graduated from Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York, and Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. He finished his formal education with a graduate degree from the London School of Economics and earned his JD from Vermont Law School, where he grad-

uated cum laude and was a member of the Law Review. A veteran of the Vermont and Rutland County Bar Associations, Bob litigated many of the most high-profile commercial cases within the state. In 2003, Bob was awarded the Bonnie J. Henkel Gold Star Award recognizing him as one of the preeminent malpractice attorneys in the nation. He was known for his fierce intellect, keen intuition, and booming baritone voice that filled many courtrooms.

Bob was also an accomplished athlete.

He was a three-sport star in high school and played football while at Fordham University.

Bob was a lifelong downhill skier and developed many strong friendships with families associated with the Killington Ski Club. He was an avid golfer and a member of The Rutland Country Club. The perfect day for Bob would be to ski in the morning and golf in the afternoon. His many civic contributions included service on the board of directors of the Vermont Achievement Center and the Killington Ski Club. Bob’s friends will remember him for his honesty, integrity, and kindness.

He was a powerful but humane, generous, and gracious man. Bob displayed a sensitivity and ability to communicate intimately with all walks of life. Whether he was playing, attending, or spectating, Bob loved the game. He never missed any of Molly’s ski races, Nell’s soccer games or Robby’s football games at Fordham. His wife and children were the love and happiness of his life.

reconnect . revisit . relax

Reunion Weekend . September 14–16 If you’re in the classes of 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, or 2007 you’re celebrating a milestone Reunion in 2012.

But no matter when you attended VLS, come back to campus September 14–16 for a fantastic, fun-filled weekend.

We can’t wait to welcome you home!

Start networking with classmates now—more alumni returning to South Royalton means more fun for everyone!

Questions? Contact the Office for Institutional Advancement at 802-831-1312 or alumni@vermontlaw.edu. You can also visit us on the web at www.vermontlaw.edu/reunion for weekend details, including registration forms, lists of registered classmates, and scheduling and lodging information.

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

Laura DeCapua