This past March, ELI wrapped up its 17th Annual Western Boot Camp on Environmental Law. With a record-breaking 86 participants, this year’s virtual event brought together legal experts and attorneys for three days to explore in-depth issues in U.S. environmental law and policy. Course instructors from the public and private sectors lectured on major environmental legal topics, with a particular emphasis on expectations for the Joseph Biden Administration and a new precedent for environmental justice. Sessions prioritized topics related to equity, federal legislation, and long-term environmental sustainability.
For example, Karen M. McGaffey of Perkins Coie LLP and Kevin Poloncarz of Covington & Burling LLP led an exciting session on climate change. They reviewed federal emissions regulations, climate change litigation, and a cross-comparison of the Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Biden Administrations’ policies regarding greenhouse gases and energy consumption. Another popular session focused on environmental justice. Chanell Fletcher of the California Air Resources Board and Veronica Eady of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District discussed the history of the environmental justice movement and the modern regulatory frameworks for equity and justice in environmental protection programs.
This year’s Western Boot Camp covered major federal statutes, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Sessions also covered issues especially relevant to current legal practice, including energy law, environmental liabilities in business transactions, agriculture and the environment, and ethics.
ELI’s Boot Camps are comprehensive courses on U.S. environmental law. With over 20 hours of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit, Western Boot Camp can provide attorneys in most states with the majority or all of their required CLE credits for the reporting period. For attorneys, policy experts, grassroots organizers, and all other environmental stakeholders, this course covers the most critical topics facing the environmental legal space, while connecting participants and faculty from all different sectors through networking events.
To read more about Western Boot Camp, please see the 2021 agenda and faculty list. If you are interested in participating in the next Boot Camp, consider joining ELI for its 30th Annual Eastern Boot Camp in the fall of 2021, an event typically held in Washington, D.C. Find out if your firm is an ELI member, or consider becoming a member here, and learn more about Eastern Boot Camp by checking out the ELI’s Boot Camp page here.