AOI: Environmental and Energy Law
21 results
Cover Story Summer 2026
Michigan Law Clinics Evolve to Meet Changing Needs of Students and the Community
The 17 clinics at Michigan Law offer students practical experience while also providing clients with legal help they might not otherwise receive. At the same time, the strength of the program—and its willingness to change with the times—gives Michigan a competitive edge over its peer schools.
In Practice Summer 2026
Jennifer Scheller Neumann, ’03: The Ever-Changing Climate of Environmental Law
Jennifer Scheller Neumann, ’03, spent two decades with the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the US Department of Justice before entering private practice in 2024.
@UMICHLAW Winter 2025
Q&A: Bagley and Klass on Abundance
The concept of “abundance” has gained considerable traction in academic and policy circles. Michigan Law Professors Nicholas Bagley and Alexandra Klass are both active in the abundance movement, and they sat down recently to discuss the topic.
In Practice Summer 2024
Alan Alexander, ’11: Building a Lower-Carbon Energy Sector
Alan Alexander’s work on energy transition projects—including those focused on producing more-sustainable fuel for airplanes—involves collaborating with investors and clients in the energy sector to upgrade existing plants and invest in the research and development of renewable fuels and other low-carbon energy sources.
@UMICHLAW Spring/Summer 2023
Forty Years of Protecting the Great Lakes Watershed and Training Environmental Lawyers
Forty years after its introduction, what is now known as the Environmental Law and Sustainability Clinic continues to provide invaluable hands-on learning experience for students, using litigation and other means of advocacy to advance environmental priorities in the Great Lakes region and beyond.
Class Note Fall 2015
Russell Smith, ’86: Ensuring There Are Plenty of Fish in the Sea
Russell Smith’s clients are slimy. Really. They number in the billions, don’t communicate, and move constantly. He willingly allows many to get the death penalty. Smith, ’86, is deputy assistant secretary for international fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
In Memoriam Spring 2014
Professor Joseph Sax
Joseph Sax, a pioneer of environmental law, died March 9, 2014, at the age of 78. He was a professor of law at Michigan from 1966 to 1986. Although he later joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, he said of Michigan, “It is the place where I grew and prospered professionally, and it shall always be my intellectual home.”
Class Note Fall 2022
Jesse Medlong, ’13: Addressing Climate Change across Borders and Sectors
It was only as he sat in Paris at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties that Jesse Medlong realized he might be an environmental lawyer.
In Practice Winter 2022
Law at the Bottom of the Earth
Ted Kill, ’07, covered a lot of ground between Michigan Law and his arrival in Antarctica, when he travelled to the continent as part of an interagency federal government inspection team. His journey to the bottom of the earth started with a clerkship at the International Court of Justice that he secured through Michigan Law, which served as a bridge to joining the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser.
@UMICHLAW Winter 2022
Environmental Law and Policy Program Hosts National Climate Advisor
“One out of three Americans [have felt the effects of climate change] in the last couple of months, between the wildfires and hurricanes and flooding, and the storms and droughts and heatwaves. We’re in a new era when we can see it and taste it and feel it for ourselves.”