William & Mary Law Students Receive Awards from American Bar Association
Students at William & Mary Law School have received two awards from the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER).
Rosemary Hambright J.D. ’16 and Mary Boothe J.D. ’17 accepted the 2016 Law Student Program of the Year Award on behalf of the William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review (ELPR) at the 2016 ABA annual meeting at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in August.
And Mike Zielinski J.D. ’17 was named winner of the 2016 Energy Law Student Writing Competition.
SEER awarded ELPR for its symposium, “And Justice for All: Current Developments in Environmental Justice.” The award recognizes the best student-organized educational program or public service project of the year focusing on issues in the field of environmental, energy, or natural resources law.
Hosted on February 26 in conjunction with William & Mary Law School’s Virginia Coastal Policy Center (VCPC), the symposium focused on increasing awareness of environmental justice issues and delineating legal means of ensuring environmental justice both domestically and abroad. Panels included speakers from academia, government, and non-profits.
Panelists such as Daniel E. Gogal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice, Alice Kaswan of the University of San Francisco School of Law, and Dr. Erica Holloman of the Southeast CARE Coalition of Newport News, Va., highlighted the historical context and modern developments of environmental justice affairs in the United States.
The symposium served to remind attendees that this goal is often unfulfilled even in nearby environs of Virginia. Holloman highlighted that the areas of Newport News most likely to be damaged by recurrent flooding are the areas where the median income of residents is less than half of other parts of the city. The VCPC has an ongoing partnership working with the Southeast CARE Coalition.
“Environmental justice is an important issue that deserves continued attention, discussion, and action,” said Hambright, chief organizer of the event and ELPR symposium editor. “Thank you to ABA SEER for honoring ELPR and VCPC’s hard-working students and for helping to shine a light on environmental justice.”
SEER’s Renewable, Alternative, and Distributed Energy Resources Committee (RADER) likewise named Mike Zielinski as winner of the 2016 Energy Law Student Writing Competition.
Zielinski’s winning paper, entitled “FERC’s Authority to Consider Environmental Concerns in Regulating the Electricity Industry,” will be published in RADER’s next newsletter, scheduled for this fall, and will also will be posted on the committee’s website. It is the second writing prize that Zielinski has won this year, and was accompanied by a cash prize of $1,000 from SEER.
About The William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review
The William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review is a student-run legal journal devoted to the discussion of relevant and timely issues in environmental law and policy. It provides professionals, practitioners, and William & Mary law and policy students with a forum for the exploration of environmental law and policy issues through research, critical analysis, editing, and writing. Articles from the William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review have been cited by several U.S. District Courts.
About William & Mary Law School
Thomas Jefferson founded William & Mary Law School in 1779 to train leaders for the new nation. Now in its third century, America's oldest law school continues its historic mission of educating citizen lawyers who are prepared both to lead and to serve.