T H E GEORGE WA SHI NGTON U N I V ER SIT Y L AW SCHOOL
ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY LAW
Perspectives
PROGRAM ESTABLISHED 1970
PERSPECTIVES
Training the Nation’s Military Environmental Lawyers
SPRING 2018 ISSUE PERSPECTIVES 1, 11 NEWS 1, 4–6, 12 EVENTS 2–3 PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS 7 PROFILES 8–11
NEWS
Major Thomas Alford, U.S. Air Force, is the most recent of three military LLM’s who have won GW Law’s annual Jamie Grodsky Prize for Environmental Scholarship in the eight-year history of the award.
GW Law Approves New Masters of Science in Law (MSL) Program
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W Law’s Environmental Law program has long been one of the most prominent sources of training for members of the Judge Advocate General Corps who advise the service branches on environmental and energy law issues. Because GW Law has had a robust environmental law program since 1970, it attracted LLM students serving in the military early in the development of environmental law. The connection between service branch environmental attorneys and GW Law was solidified in the 1990s when former Air Force officer Laurent Houclé, a 1982 graduate of the GW Environmental Law LLM Program, joined GW as Co-Director of
the Environmental Law Program. Since the 1990s, GW Law has been one of the main venues for training service branch environmental LLMs. Over the last 20 years, 100 Air Force lawyers have graduated from the program as well as more than 50 from the other service branches. GW’s Environmental Law program is uniquely structured to provide service branch students with in-depth knowledge of environmental and energy law that is essential when they transition into environmental law assignments. The program offers courses in Air Pollution Law, Water Pollution Law, and Control of Solid and Hazardous Waste during the fall semester that allow students to continued on page 11
W Law is developing a new program designed for non-lawyers interested in law, which it expects to launch this spring for August 2018 enrollment. Finalization of these plans is subject to receipt of acquiescence from the American Bar Association (ABA), which GW Law hopes to receive this semester. The program is intended for professionals who are not interested in practicing law, yet who work in jobs where knowledge of law is important and enhancing that knowledge would be valuable for their careers. For example, federal or governmental affairs officers, journalists, consultants, expert witnesses continued on page 12