Distinguished Visitors
The annual distinguished visitors event celebrates achievements and perspectives of environmental scholars from around the country, aiming to increase exposure of environmental issues and educate students on different perspectives.
This Year’s Distinguished Visitor:
Uma Outka
The University of Kansas School of Law
Professor Uma Outka works at the intersection of energy law and environmental law. Her scholarship explores the legal context for energy transition, with particular interests in energy and environmental justice, renewable energy, electricity regulation and decarbonization of the electric grid. More information on Prof. Outka and the 2024 Distinguished Visitor and Graduates event coming soon.
History of NRLI and the Distinguished Visitor’s Lecture:
The Natural Resources Law Institute (NRLI) provided a focus for legal scholarship at Lewis & Clark’s law school. The NRLI supported work by an annual research fellow, distinguished faculty visitor, and visiting scholars from around the globe, as well as faculty research. The institute has coordinated more than 20 educational programs dealing with natural resources law, several of which have been conducted nationwide. NRLI also conducts intensive, specialized environmental law trainings for federal judges, government agencies, and judges and lawyers in other countries.
NRLI cosponsored, with various student groups, a series of Environmental Colloquia at the law school, attracting local, regional, and national speakers on a range of topics. These colloquia were free and open to the public.
NRLI provided nearly all of the law clerks under contract to the Bonneville Power Administration’s Office of General Counsel. Students placed at BPA work on issues of fish and wildlife restoration, regional power management, environmental impacts, endangered species, and rate setting.
The Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law program continues to provide these programs and events after the dissolution of NRLI. Our Newsletter provides updates on our program.
Prior Distinguished Visitors include:
2023
Helen Kang
Golden Gate University School of Law
“Bearing Witness to Environmental Injustice: The Path Forward”
Here is a link to the recording of Prof. Kang’s lecture.
2021 (lecture held virtually in 2022)
Professor Mary Wood
Philip H. Knight Professor from the University of Oregon
“Nature’s Trust: Protecting An Ecological Endowment for Posterity”
Here is a link to the recording of Prof. Wood’s lecture.
2020
Professor Alexandra Klass
University of Minnesota Law School
“U.S. Energy Transitions in the Trump Administration: A Law and Policy Perspective”
2018
Professor Sarah Krakoff
University of Colorado
“The Roots of Environmental Injustice and the Limits of Environmental Law”
2017
Professor Dan Tarlock
Chicago-Kent College of Law
“Western Water Law and the Challenge of Climate Disruption”
2016
Professor Dan Esty
Yale University
“From 20 th Century Environmental Protection to 21 st Century Sustainability: Evolving Law and Policy”
2015
Professor Rena Steinzor
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
“How White Collar Criminal Enforcement Can Save the Environment”
2014
Professor Richard L. Revesz New York University School of Law
“Three Stages in the Evolution of Environmental Policy”
2013
Professor Jim Salzman Duke University
“Turning the World Upside Down: How Frames of Reference Shape Environmental Law”
2012
Professor Hope Babcock Georgetown Law
“Putting a Price on Whales to Save Them”
2011
Professor Jody Freeman Harvard Law
“The President’s Role in Environmental Law”
2010
Professor Douglas A. Kysar
Yale Law School
“What Climate Change Can Do About Tort Law”
2009
Professor J.B. Ruhl
Florida State University College of Law
“After Cap-and-Trade: The Climate-Forced Path of Environmental Law”
2008
Professor Christopher Schroeder
Duke University School of Law
“Moving the 21st Century Environmental Agenda: Lessons from the Environmental Decade of the 1970s”
2007
Professor Lisa Heinzerling
Georgetown University Law Center
“Climate Change in the Supreme Court”
2006
Professor Robert Glennon
University of Arizona Rogers College of Law
“The Environmental Consequences of Groundwater Pumping: Herein Tales of Bottled Water and French Fries”
2005
Professor Eric Freyfogle
University of Illinois School of Law
“Goodbye to the Public/Private Divide”
2004
Professor Nicholas Robinson
Pace University School of Law
“Conceiving Laws for the Biosphere”
2003
Dean David H. Getches
University of Colorado School of Law
“Water Wrongs: Why Can’t We Do It Right the First Time?”
2002
Professor Robert Percival
University of Maryland School of Law
“Greening the Constitution”
2001
Professor Zygmunt Plater
Boston College School of Law
“Law and the Fourth Estate: Endangered Nature, the Press, and the Dicey Game of Democratic Governance”
2000
John Leshy, Solicitor
U.S. Department of Interior (1993-2001)
“The Babbit Legacy at the Department of Interior: A Preliminary View”
1999
Professor Barton Thompson, Jr.
Stanford University Law School
“Tragically Difficult: The Problems of Regulating the Commons”
1998
Professor Suedeen G. Kelly
University of New Mexico School of Law
“The New Electric Power Houses in America: Will They Transform Your Life?”
1997
Professor Oliver Houck
Tulane University School of Law
“Are Humans Part of Ecosystems?”
1996
Professor Richard Lazarus
Georgetown University Law Center
“Fairness in Environmental Law”
1995
Professor Gerald Torres
University of Texas
School of Law
“Taking & Giving: Police Power, Public Value, and Private Right”
1994
Professor Robert Fowler
Director, Australian Centre for Environmental Law
“Applying Environmental Disclosure Requirements Extraterritorially to Transnational Corporations”
1993
Professor Carol Rose
Yale Law School
“Environmental Lessons”
1992
Professor Harrison Dunning
University of California at Davis School of Law
“Current Issues”
1991
Professor William Rodgers
University of Washington Law School
“Working with Scientists, Public Lands Acquisition, Other Recent Lessons from Washington, D.C.”
1990
Professor Daniel Farber
University of Minnesota School of Law
“Reserve Mining and Judicial Review”
1989
Professor James Krier
University of Michigan Law School
“The Critical Roles of Politics and Economics in Resolving Environmental Issues”
1988
Professor Frederick Anderson
American University Washington College of Law
“Environmental Aspects of Recombinant DNA Research and Products”
Please email elaw@lclark.edu for questions regarding the distinguished visitor or graduate event.