American Bar Association Recognizes Law School’s Environmental Efforts

The American Bar Association awarded the George Washington University Law School’s Environmental and Energy Law Program a Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER) Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy. The award recognizes the collective achievements of the program, which has trained more than 2,000 environmental and energy lawyers throughout its 44-year history.

The award was presented to the Law School at the ABA Annual Meeting in Boston on Aug. 10. The ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources represents more than 9,000 legal professionals dedicated to environmental, natural resources and energy law.

“GW Law continues to build on its 44 years of leadership in environmental and energy law to enable our students to take on the complex environmental and energy challenges of the 21^st century,” said Associate Dean for Environmental Law Studies Lee Paddock.

Sheila Hollis, a former GW adjunct faculty member and former chair of the ABA’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources, nominated the program, noting that many of its students have gone on to shape environmental and energy policy at high levels in government, nonprofit organizations and the private sector. Founded in 1970, it is one of the oldest programs in the country and boasts more than 29 classes that teach students how to tackle problems such as climate change, air pollution and more.

“Few programs have had such a direct and palpable effect on a field of law and policy as the George Washington program has,” Ms. Hollis said.

The SEER award also honors the important contributions of the Environmental and Energy Law Program’s founder Arnold W. Reitze Jr., J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor Emeritus of Environmental Law. Mr. Reitze established the program with a $250,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. Over the years, he built an impressive curriculum of courses taught by some of the leading environmental lawyers from all sectors in Washington, D.C.

Four distinguished lawyers submitted letters to the ABA to support the SEER nomination. J. Brett Grosko, J.D. ’00, of the Department of Justice’s Natural Resources Division, and Lawrence R. Liebesman, J.D. ’73, of Holland and Knight, wrote on the program’s behalf, along with former ABA section chairs Professor Michael Gerrard of Columbia Law School and Dean Irma Russell of the University of Montana School of Law.

The Environmental and Energy Law Program reflects the Law School’s broader commitment to the environment. The school has trained many of the environmental lawyers who serve in the military service branches. In 2008, it was the first law school to join the ABA–EPA Law Office Climate Challenge, in which law organizations help the environment through recycling and the use of recycled materials. The following year, GW Law School founded the Journal of Energy and Environmental Law, published in collaboration with the Environmental Law Institute.

The Law School launched the Sustainable Energy Initiative in 2013, designed as an academic think tank that will play a significant role in transitioning the nation’s energy systems. It currently has one of the most comprehensive energy law curricula in the country.

?“GW Law School is one of only 15 organizations who have been honored with the ABA SEER Distinguished Achievement Award,” Mr. Paddock said. “This award is a testament to the Law School’s long standing support for the program and the hard work and dedication of Professor Arnold Reitze, Professor Rob Glicksman, our many adjunct faculty and the thousands of students who have been part of the program.”