Environmental Law Program

9:00-9:15am Introduction

9:15-9:45am Talk Story with Brian Schatz, United States Senator

9:45-10:30am Shalanda Baker, Deputy Director for Energy Justice & Secretary’s Advisor on Equity, Office of Economy Impact and Diversity at the U.S. Department of Energy
(.75 CLE Credit)

10:30-10:35am Break

10:35-11:20am Julia Olson, Executive Director and Chief Legal Counsel, Our Children’s Trust; Lead Plaintiffs’ Lawyer in Juliana v. United States
(.75 CLE Credit)

11:20-11:25am Break

11:25-11:55am A Roundtable with ELP Directors Casey Leigh (Jarman), Denise Antolini, and David M. Forman (.5 CLE Ethics Credit)

11:55-12:40pm Breakout Rooms, Hāʻupu ʻĀina Aloha: Re-Envisioning ELP

12:40-12:45pm Closing

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Brian Schatz is Hawai‘i’s senior United States Senator. Since joining the Senate, he has focused his work on helping workers, veterans, and families and has led key legislation on health care, climate change, and technology. Senator Schatz chairs the Indian Affairs Committee, and serves on the Appropriations Committee; the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; the Foreign Affairs Committee; and the Select Committee on Ethics. He also serves on the Senate Democratic Caucus’s leadership team as Chief Deputy Whip.

Shalanda H. Baker was most recently a professor of law, public policy, and urban affairs at Northeastern University. She was the co-founder and co-director of the Initiative for Energy Justice, which provides technical law and policy support to communities on the front lines of climate change. Baker served as an Air Force officer prior to her honorable discharge pursuant to the then existing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, and became a vocal advocate for repeal of the policy. She earned a B.S. in Political Science from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a J.D. from Northeastern University, and L.L.M. from the University of Wisconsin.

Julia Olson graduated from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, with a J.D. in 1997. For the first part of her 22-year career, Julia represented grassroots conservation groups working to protect the environment, organic agriculture, and human health. Julia founded Our Children’s Trust in 2010 to lead this strategic legal campaign on behalf of the world’s youth against governments everywhere. Julia leads Juliana v. United States, the constitutional climate change case brought by 21 youth against the U.S. government for violating their Fifth Amendment rights to life, liberty, property, and public trust resources.

Professor Casey Leigh (Jarman) came from the University of Mississippi, where she was Director of the Coastal and Marine ResourcesProgram, to join the School of Law faculty in 1987. She was the founder and first director of the School’s Environmental Law Program (ELP). She retired in the Fall of 2011 and is enjoying life in Washington State.