UPCOMING Events for 2009-2010

Stay tuned for summer hikes and upcoming events next fall!

------2008-2009 Events------

Why be a Renewable Energy Lawyer?
Monday, April 20, 12:15p-1:30p, Rm 1430, UCLA School of Law
Free Organics to Go lunch
Co-Sponsored by Chadbourne & Parke.  Managing partner, Ed Zaelke will talk about legal opportunities in the renewable energy sector.  How the renewable energy industry and the green economy will affect your life, career and the country's future.

2009 Working Conference on Nanotech Regulatory Policy
Friday, April 17, 8:30a-5:30p, UCLA School of Law and California NanoSystems Institute
more info here.
The Conference will bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and researchers, policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and businesses for action-oriented workshop panels on the science and policy of nanotechnology.  The goal of the Conference is to critically evaluate several specific policy proposals for responding to the potential public health and environmental impacts of nanotechnology.  *Special Lunchtime Speaker: Assembly Member Mike Feuer.
Sponsors:
UCLA Law and Environmental Health Sustainable Technology Policy Program
UCLA Law School Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program
UC Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology
UC Nanotoxicology Research and Training Program
UCLA Center for Occupational and Environmental Health
Ralph and Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy


LA's New Low Carbon Diet: What AB 32 Means For Los Angeles
Friday, March 6, 8:30a-4:30p, De Neve Auditorium, UCLA
Register and more info here
Keynote Addresses by Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board and Fran Pavley, State Senator & Author of AB 32
The California Air Resources Board just adopted the proposed Scoping Plan for implementing AB32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act. We in Southern California are at a critical point in determining how businesses, government agencies, and community organizations will respond, and we face new and unprecedented challenges in making required greenhouse gas reductions.

Career Paths in Environmental Laws
Wednesday, Feb 18, 12:15PM-1:30PM,UCLA School of Law, Room 1447
Lunch will be served.
Practitioners from diverse backgrounds and environmental practice areas including water quality, climate change, toxic torts, land use and representation of public entities will discuss their career paths and answer questions about the practice of environmental law and how to succeed in the field.
Panelists:
Beth Collins-Burgard (UCLA Law '02), Latham & Watkins
Jennifer Novak, California Attorney General's Office, Natural Resources Law Section
Gideon Kracov, Law Offices of Gideon Kracov
Moderator:
Sean Hecht, UCLA School of Law
This program is co-sponsored by the Los Angeles County Bar Association and UCLA law school’s Evan Frankel Environmental Law & Policy Program, Office of Career Services, and Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy.

Public Interest Career Day & Public Interest Environmental Law Careers Lunchtime Discussion
Saturday, February 7, all day (lunch 12:35a-1:30p), UCLA School of Law, (lunch Rm 1430)
The following entities will have representatives at PICD and the lunch:
         -California Coastal Commission
         -California Department of Conservation
         -California Attorney General’s Office, Natural Resources Section
         -U.S. Department of Justice, Environment & Natural Resources Division 
         -U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Regional Counsel, Region 9
         -U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement
         -Waterkeeper Alliance

Lunch with Jeff Prieto, U.S. Dept of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division
Friday, February 6, 12:15a-1:30p, UCLA School of Law, Rm 2442
Great opportunity to meet informally with Jeff Prieto, a hiring attorney from the U.S. Dept of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (DC office).  Jeff is an UCLA School of Law alum.  Lunch will be provided (not pizza).

Implementing California's New Anti-Sprawl Law - SB 375 Workshop
Tuesday, January 27, 10:30a-1p, UCLA School of Law, Rm 1447
SB 375 has been called the state’s most important land-use law since the Coastal Act. Recently enacted, the bill alters decades of practice in land use planning, transportation funding, and CEQA law, all in an effort to get Californians to drive fewer miles and help slow global climate change.

Key questions remain, however, about how it will work in practice. Bill sponsor Tom Adams of the California League of Conservation Voters will join developers, local planners and other stakeholders to examine crucial implementation questions. 
Sponsored by the Emmett Center on Climate Change and Ziman Center for Real Estate.

Conversations: Summer Jobs in Environmental Law
Thursday, November 6th, 7-9pm, UCLA School of Law, Room 2326 (Faculty Library)
Wine & Cheese provided.
*Must be affiliated with UCLA Law to attend.
Talk to and learn from your fellow classmates, professors, and recent alumni about the different organizations that we have worked for and the ways that we have approached searching for environmental law summer positions.  An opportunity for casual conversations over wine and cheese.  Co-Sponsored by the Environmental Law Society, the Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, the Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program and the Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment.

Fran Pavley Gives a Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Politics of California’s Landmark Global Warming Laws
Wednesday, October 29, 12:15-1:30pm, UCLA School of Law, Room 1457
Lunch will be provided.
     Fran Pavley authored AB 1493 (download: www.climatechange.ca.gov/publications/legislation/ab_1493_bill_20020722_chaptered.pdf), the landmark tailpipe emission reduction bill, the first global warming law in the nation.  11 other states have adopted the "Pavley Clean Car Regulations".  She also co-authored the Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32.  She has served three terms in the California State Assembly and is currently running for State Senate in the 23rd District.  She is known as one of the most effective legislators in Sacramento--over 70 of her bills and resolutions have become law.  She has been widely recognized for her leadership on the most important environmental issue facing our world, receiving (among others) Scientific American's Top Technology Leaders in Transportation award and, together with Al Gore, the 2006 California League of Conservation Voters "Global Warming Leadership Award."  This lecture is co-sponsored by the Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment and the Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program.

Lunch lecture by Jason Burnett, EPA Climate Change Whistleblower "Public Endangerment, Unopened Emails, and the Politics of Federal Climate Policy"
October 13, 2008, 12:15 PM-1:30 PM, UCLA School of Law, Room 1457
Lunch will be provided.
    Jason Burnett has been called EPA's climate change "whistleblower" by the New York Times, and his testimony before Senator Barbara Boxer's investigative hearing helped reveal the White House's undue influence at EPA on issues including the regulation of CO2 as a pollutant and the denial of California's requested auto emissions waiver.  He testified again to Congress two weeks ago on regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.  As the staffer at EPA in charge of climate and energy policy in the year following the Supreme Court's landmark Massachusetts v. EPA, he led development of options for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act and managed climate activities under the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act.  This lecture is co-sponsored by the Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment, the Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program and the Environmental Law Society.

Greening the Law School
Tuesday, September 30, 12:30pm-1:30pm, UCLA School of Law, Room 1337                                           Bring your lunch and ideas about the many ways that ELS can campaign to green the law school.  We have gained some support from the school and environmental law faculty.  No idea is too small or too big.  If for some reason you can’t make it, please email me your ideas before the meeting and we will discuss them.

Lecture by Ken Alex, Senior Assistant Attorney General for the California Dept of Justice
September 22, 2008, 12:15 PM - 1:30 PM, UCLA School of Law, Room 1457   
    Please join California Dept of Justice Senior Assistant Attorney General Ken Alex for a discussion about the current state of legal initiatives to address climate change, and the Attorney General's role in pursuing and shaping these initatives.  Mr. Alex, who received the ABA award for distinguished achievement in environmental law and policy in 2007 for his work on climate change issues, has been a chief architect of litigation-based strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  Learn more about the California Attorney General's work on climate change at http://ag.ca.gov/globalwarming/.  This lecture is co-sponsored by the law school’s Emmett Center on Climate Change and Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program.

California Coastal Clean Up Day, sponsored by Heal the Bay
Saturday, September 20, 9:00am-12:00pm, Santa Monica Pier
ELS will join over 11,000 volunteers from all over L.A. County to take action to rid our beaches and inland waterways of unsightly and harmful debris. Coastal Cleanup Day (CCD) is an international event with over ninety-one countries around the world participating, making it one of the largest volunteer efforts on the planet!Afterward, we’ll hang out and grab drinks/snacks in Santa Monica.  Plan to take the Big Blue Bus with ELS by meeting at the corner of Westwood and Weyburn at 8:15am, or carpool and meet us there (free parking w/flyer).  Please register at: http://www.healthebay.org/volunteer/ccd/2008/participate.asp

Transboundary Environmental Cooperation in the Middle East 
September 9, 2008, 5:00 PM -7:00 PM, UCLA School of Law, Room 1430
    An enlightening and inspiring program featuring environmental experts from Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority who have championed the field of trans-boundary environmental cooperation through the model of the ground-breaking Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (www.friendsofarava.org).    The seminar will feature a key note speech from Dr. Peter Gleick, co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, who will discuss the relevance of Southern California environmental issues to the Arava Institute model.    The event is free, but advance registration is appreciated, as space is limited.  For any questions on this program or to make an advance registration, please email david@friendsofarava.org.  This lecture is hosted and co-sponsored by the law school's Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program, and is co-sponsored by the UCLA Israel Studies Program and the UCLA Institute of the Environment.

Energy Straight Talk!  Lecture by David Freeman, LA Harbor Commissioner and Energy Expert
September 3, 2008, 12:15 PM - 1:30 PM, UCLA School of Law, Room 1447
    L.A. Harbor Commissioner and author S. David Freeman, whose latest book is Winning Our Energy Independence (2007), will give us energy straight talk -- a realistic approach to solving the awesome threats facing this civilization from fossil fuels and nuclear power and the promising technologies now available to create a truly sustainable life as we know it.  Mr. Freeman has worked for decades in high-level policy positions at government agencies relating to energy and the environment, including the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the New York Power Authority, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP).  See http://www.thegreencowboy.com/ for more information about his work.  This lecture is co-sponsored by the law school’s Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program and Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment.

Moot Argument for the Plaintiff and Appellant in the matter of Save Tara v. City of West Hollywood (California Supreme Court)
August 27, 2008, 3:15 PM - 5:00 PM, UCLA School of Law, Cappello Moot Court Room
    Our distinguished panel of practicing attorneys and law professors will be conducting a moot argument for UCLA Law alumna Jan Chatten-Brown, counsel for Plaintiff and Appellant Save Tara, in Save Tara v. City of West Hollywood (Cal. Supreme Court Case No. S151402).  The case involves what level of commitment of resources and what type of agency action by a local government is sufficient to constitute a "project approval" necessitating review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA, Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.).  This case is being watched carefully by attorneys, local government officials, environmentalists, and land developers throughout the state, as it may have serious implications for environmental review of future projects.    The opinion of the California Court of Appeal is available at:  http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/revpub/B185656.PDF
This program is co-sponsored by the UCLA Environmental Law Center and the Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy.

Introduction to the Environmental Law Society and the Journal of Environmental Law and Policy
August 27, 2008, 12:15 PM - 1:30 PM, UCLA School of Law, Room 1347
    Our first meeting of the year!  We’ll be welcoming 1Ls/interested newcomers and explaining to them what we do at ELS and JELP.   Lunch will be provided.

 

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ELS hosts and attends a wide variety of events from speakers to field trips to competitions.  Below is a sampling of past and annual ELS events.

Competitions/Symposiums

•State Bar Environmental Negotiations Competition
• Public Interest Environmental Law Conference
•Pace Environmental Moot Court Competition
•LACBA Environmental Law Section's Fall & Spring Symposiums  
•State Bar Environmental Law Conference, Yosemite

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