Message from the Chairs

It was great to see many of you who made it to our Joint CLE Seminar held at The Silvertree Resort in Snowmass (Aspen), Colorado, January 10-12, 2008. We had another very successful meeting, highlighted by outstanding CLE programs, fun social and networking events, and some of the best skiing in years. The in-house counsel program was a big hit again this year and all the outside counsel who attended learned many ways in which to improve relationships with their in-house counsel clients. We also had cutting-edge programs on developing climate change issues and the developing theory of toxic trespass, as well as an excellent young lawyers program on 30(b)(6) depositions. As in the past, we will be posting materials from the program here on our website so, if they are not here now, check back soon.

Planning is already underway for the 2009 Joint CLE Seminar to be held January 21–25 at the Vail Cascade Resort in Vail, Colorado. Please save-the-date and plan to attend. The Co-Chairs for the 2009 meeting are Doug Arnold and Sandra Kearney. Planning began for this meeting immediately after the conclusion of the 2008 meeting.  Program topics are being discussed and will be selected soon. If you have ideas for programs that you think would be of interest to our membership, please email your ideas to Doug and Sandra.

The Section of Litigation Annual Conference in D.C. was outstanding. Although there were many excellent programs and presentations, the Climate Change and Insurance Coverage programs we co-sponsored were clearly among the best. The Union Station and National Portrait Gallery receptions were also great fun.

One of our own, Kevin Bruno, has been named an "Outstanding Subcommittee Chair" and was recognized at the Section of Litigation Annual Conference networking luncheon program. Please join us in congratulating Kevin on this well deserved and hard earned honor.

The ABA Annual Meeting was held in New York City from August 7-10, 2008. We were very excited that the Environmental Litigation Committee presented a substantive breakfast program on Criminal and Civil Enforcement Initiatives, a roundtable discussion on recent environmental enforcement activities, as well as new and developing enforcement priorities.  The two speakers were Eric Shaaf, who is Regional Counsel for U.S. EPA Region 2, and Kris Dighe, who is Assistant Chief at the Environmental Crimes Section for the U.S. Department of Justice. They provided analysis of important court cases and enforcement actions in EPA Region 2.

We hope to see you in Colorado in January, if not before.

We are always looking for program ideas on emerging issues and hot topics developing in the area of environmental litigation. We have opportunities to present programs not only at our Joint CLE Seminar, the ABA and Section Annual Meetings, but also by teleconference CLE programs and regional meetings. If you have ideas, please forward them to our Programming Subcommittee Co-Chairs, Dave Erickson and Jeffrey Pollock.

If you are visiting our website, but are not a member of our committee, joining is easy. If you are interested in getting involved in the activities of this committee, please note that the work of the committee is done through our subcommittees. Join one by contacting one of the Co-Chairs of the subcommittee that interests you. The subcommittee Co-Chairs and their contact information can be accessed from the Subcommittee Leadership Roster (PDF).

Our Newsletter is published quarterly, and provides you an excellent resource and opportunity to be published. Present your article ideas to our newsletter editors and they will follow up with you on deadlines, format requirements and the like. Our newsletter editors are Ken Kilbert, Matt Coglianese, and Matt Prewitt.

We also are always looking for ways to improve this website. We want to make it as useful to our membership as possible. For instance, if you click on Online Resources to the right, you will find links to all the recent federal court decisions involving environmental law from the United States Supreme Court and all the federal circuits. We are also continually looking for recent case filings and unpublished decisions to report on this website, so let us know if you are involved in a case of interest to our Committee members. If you have other ideas for good online resources to which we should link, or other ideas for content or features on this website, please alert our Website Subcommittee Co-Chairs, Andy Mauck, Bill Kammer and Ryan McKain.

Kevin Bruno
Charles M. Denton
Co-Chairs, Environmental Litigation Committee