Vanderbilt Law School EELU Program

ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND LAND USE PROGRAM

FAST FACTS

The Energy, Environment and Land Use Program at Vanderbilt Law School prepares students for careers in these rapidly evolving areas of law at government agencies, law firms and legal nonprofits by offering a broad curriculum of courses focusing on key regulatory regimes along with research opportunities, a student-edited journal and internships. The Sally Shallenberger Brown EELU Program Fund, a significant endowment established in 2021, has expanded the array of upper-level classes, including experiential learning and intensive, specialtopic short courses, designed to prepare lawyers to practice in these critical fields.

An Extensive Curriculum

First-year students are introduced to agencies, statutes and the central role they play in the American legal system in The Regulatory State. This required course, along with Property Law and Torts, lays the groundwork for upper-level electives devoted to EELU topics:

n Environmental Law I: Public Governance

n Environmental Law II: Private Governance

n Climate Change Law & Policy Lab

n Energy Law

n International Environmental Law

n Land Use Planning

n Real Estate Finance and Development

n Water Law

n Climate Change Governance Seminar

n Sustainable Cities

n Property Theory Seminar

n Private Capital and the ESG Transition (short course)

n International Renewable Energy Development and Finance (short course)

n The National Environmental Policy Act & Infrastructure Permitting (short course)

n Oil and Gas Law (short course)

Vanderbilt also offers many courses that inform the study and practice of energy, environment and land use law, including Administrative Law, Federal Courts, Federalism, Local Government Law, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Protection of Property Rights, Ethics and Public Policy, Behavioral Law and Economics, International Trade Law and Public Governance.

Gain Experience Through Internships

Students interested in working with federal and state government agencies and environmental advocacy organizations receive help in finding summer and semester internships along with stipends to help defray living expenses for work in unpaid legal positions. VLS students have interned with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, state agencies such as the California Water Resources Control Board and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and nonprofit environmental advocacy organizations. A full-semester externship with the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C., is available to one student each semester.

“Environmental policymakers don’t often have the time to read the work done by the most sophisticated scholars. We founded ELPAR to highlight three to six articles each year that offer the best policy ideas. Students work with an expert advisory board to select the articles, work with the authors to condense them, and plan a conference where they’re presented to policymakers.”

MICHAEL VANDENBERGH Director, Climate Change Research Network

The Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review is an annual compendium of the best legal and policy scholarship published the previous year produced by VLS students and the Environmental Law Institute staff. ELPAR affords students the opportunity to identify the year’s best scholarship in environmental law, publish a student-edited volume and participate in a symposium focusing on policy recommendations.

“Energy is going to be one of the foremost regulatory spheres going forward. But what really sold me on taking a job at FERC were the people worked with at its Office of the General Counsel. They did a great job of mentoring me through a broad spectrum of issues in a complex area of law.”

PHILIP MOREL Class of 2021 Law Clerk, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Philip was an intern in the FERC’s Office of the General Counsel in summer 2020 and continued to work for FERC during his 3L year, which helped him secure a clerkship in FERC’s Office of Administrative Law Judges.

Join the Environmental Law Society

Students in the Environmental Law Society sponsor speakers and symposia addressing environmental, energy and land use policy and career opportunities.

Research Opportunities for Students

Study with Influential Scholars

Kevin Stack and Michael Vandenbergh won the 2021 Levin Center Award for Excellence in Oversight Research for their article “Oversight Riders,” which proposes that funding for government agencies be conditioned on their cooperation with congressionally mandated oversight. Jim Rossi and Chris Serkin won the 2020 Morrison Prize for best scholarship in environmental law for their article “Energy Exactions,” which proposes that the fees imposed on real estate developers account for the project’s impact on the energy infrastructure.

Vanderbilt Climate Change Research Network

Vanderbilt University is a leader in promoting interdisciplinary responses to the legal, economic and social challenges presented by climate change. VLS students can explore the role of the legal system in addressing climate change by joining interdisciplinary teams from several Vanderbilt schools involved in theoretical and applied research focusing on the energy use and carbon emissions resulting from household and corporate activities.

Public- and Private-Sector Careers

The Public Interest office works closely with students seeking policy and advocacy careers with government agencies and legal nonprofits, helping them secure internships that lead to permanent employment. The Career Services office supports students seeking private-sector positions, matching them with employers that offer positions in their areas of interest.

James Danly, Class of 2013 commissioner at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, taught a short course on the National Environmental Policy Act in fall 2021. Danly was appointed a FERC commissioner in 2020 after serving as its general counsel. He joined FERC’s legal staff after practicing in the energy regulation group at Skadden.

VANDERBILT’S ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT & LAND USE FACULTY

MICHAEL P. VANDENBERGH is a leading scholar in environmental and energy law whose research explores the relationship between formal legal regulation and informal social regulation of individual and corporate behavior. A former chief of staff of the Environmental Protection Agency, Professor Vandenbergh co-founded and directs the Vanderbilt Climate Change Research Network and has won numerous teaching awards at Vanderbilt.

J.B. RUHL is an expert in environmental law, land use, property law and regulatory theory. His influential articles address environmental law relating to climate change and climate change adaptation, the Endangered Species Act, ecosystems, federal public lands, and other land use and environmental issues. His works have been selected among the best law review articles in the field of environmental law 12 times from 1989 to 2021.

JIM ROSSI is a leading energy law scholar whose work also addresses critical issues in administrative law and state constitutional law. His scholarship addresses legal issues of importance to the energy industry, such as the roles of state and local utility regulation, innovations in renewable and clean energy, and electric power transmission siting and cost allocation. In addition, Professor Rossi has published works addressing important issues related to state constitutional and administrative law.

CHRISTOPHER SERKIN teaches and writes about land use and property law. His provocative scholarship addressing local property law, the Takings Clause, land use regulations and eminent domain has appeared in the Chicago, Columbia, NYU and Northwestern University law reviews. He is one of four co-authors of the fourth edition of Land Use Controls. He won two Hall-Hartman Awards for Outstanding Teaching in 201314, his first year at Vanderbilt.

VLS students are encouraged to write scholarly papers for journals and enter writing competitions, and they have ample opportunities to work with EELU program faculty on cutting-edge scholarship. Students may also serve as EELU Fellows, a position that allows them to co-author white papers on key energy, environmental, and land use issues. Students have won the prestigious national Burton Award, the ABA’s energy law writing competition, and other important national writing competitions, and their writing has been published in peer-reviewed and studentedited law journals.

ADJUNCT FACULTY AND

LECTURERS teach additional EELU courses and contribute to the program’s intellectual community. Caroline Cox, the program director, teaches Sustainable Cities and focuses her scholarship on the role local governments can play in the climate crisis. Anne Davis, program senior advisor, teaches the Climate Law & Policy Lab, an experiential course in which students gain experience with environmental policy work. Additional scholars and practitioners teach courses each year.

VANDERBILT’S LAW AND ECONOMICS PROGRAM

Economic analysis is an important aspect of the Energy, Environment and Land Use Program, and Vanderbilt’s Law and Economics program provides opportunities to interact with noted economist W. Kip Viscusi , a leading expert in risk analysis and environmental regulation.

BROAD FACULTY EXPERTISE

Vanderbilt faculty whose work has addressed energy, environmental or land use law include administrative law scholars Lisa Bressman, Edward Rubin and Kevin Stack ; Mark Cohen of Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management, an expert on corporate environmental compliance; and Jonathan Gilligan of Vanderbilt’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, whose recent work addresses science policy and carbon emissions reductions.

Former EPA Administrator Carol Browner delivered the inaugural Sally Shallenberger Brown Lecture in Environmental Law at VLS in fall 2022. The program regularly brings in prominent policymakers and practitioners to give talks or present scholarly work.

Learn more about the Energy, Environment and Land Use Program.

“THE CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH NETWORK IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THE WAY SCHOOLS AT VANDERBILT WORK TOGETHER TO ADDRESS COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS.

I’M GLAD TO BE A PART OF THAT.”

J.B. RUHL

C0-DIRECTOR, ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND LAND USE PROGRAM