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Dan K. Webb Center for Advocacy presents

Community Environmental Concerns and Environmental Justice Advocacy

Monday, March 20, 2023
5:30 P.M.

Zoom Webinar: https://luc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1uqHKzhqRGqGQ3yPtlQFOw  

In Chicago, the Great Lakes Region, and throughout the country, communities of color are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards.  When harm occurs, what legal remedies are available?  Our distinguished panel will discuss how environmental harms disproportionately impact communities of color, civil and criminal enforcement of environmental laws, and what has and can be done to promote environmental justice.

This program has been approved for 1.0 of Illinois MCLE credit. 

The Annual Philip H. Corboy Lecture features prominent speakers on current issues of trial advocacy, and is open to the professional community.  The Corboy Lectures were established as part of the Philip H. Corboy Fellowship program. The first lectures took place during the 1995-96 academic year.

*Loyola Law Students: Attendance qualifies as an “Event” towards a Certificate in Advocacy

Agenda

Welcome and Introduction of Moderators
Adrienne Mebane, Associate Director of the Dan K. Webb Center for Advocacy

Overburdened: The Discriminatory Distribution of Environmental Harms
Andrew Bashi, Great Lakes Environmental Law Center

Criminal Enforcement of Environmental Laws
Vanessa Minson, Illinois Attorney General’s Office

Environmental Justice in Civil Environmental Enforcement;
People v. Hilco Redevelopment, LLC
Matthew Dunn, Illinois Attorney General’s Office

Moderated Q & A
Carmen Gonzalez, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Annalisa Kolb, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Speakers

MODERATOR 

Carmen Gonzalez, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Carmen Gonzalez is a Morris I. Leibman Professor of Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She is a world-renowned expert in international environmental law, environmental justice, human rights and the environment, and the global food system.  Carmen is past chair of the Environmental Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools and served on the Board of Trustees of Earthjustice, the largest public interest environmental law firm in the United States.  Prior to becoming a law professor, she clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Thelton E. Henderson in San Francisco, practiced law with Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, and served as assistant regional counsel at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Professor Gonzalez holds a B.A. from Yale University and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Annalisa Kolb, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Annalisa Kolb is a third year law student at Loyola University Chicago School of Law who is pursuing a certificate in advocacy. Growing up in Southern California, Annalisa developed a deep love and respect for the ocean, its animals, and the great outdoors in general. She is the President of the law school’s Environmental Law Society, who believes in promoting legal advocacy that works towards a sustainable earth and ensuring everyone has equal access to a healthy and safe environment to live, learn and work. After taking the bar, Annalisa will join Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner where she will focus on privacy law and litigation. She also intends to incorporate environmental law into her practice and pro bono work.

SPEAKERS

Andrew Bashi (JD ’12), Great Lakes Environmental Law Center
Andrew joined the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center in April of 2020, returning to his home state of Michigan after nearly a decade of practicing law and teaching in Illinois and New York. Andrew’s passion lies in advancement of racial, environmental, and economic justice, as well as the welfare and rights of the animals and ecosystems with which we share this planet. Upon graduating from law school, he founded a practice in Chicago, through which he provided aggressive defense for the accused as well as know-your-rights outreach to communities of color and activists. Most recently, Andrew served as a course instructor for conservation and One Health courses at Cornell University.

Matthew Dunn, Illinois Attorney General’s Office
Matthew Dunn is the Chief of the state-wide Environmental Enforcement/Asbestos Litigation Division of the Illinois Attorney General's Office where he supervises the Environmental Bureaus in Chicago and Springfield. Matthew has been an Illinois assistant attorney general since 1985, and served as a founding member of the Attorney General's Toxic Waste Strike Force. He served as Deputy Chief of the Environmental Control Division in Chicago from July, 1988 until December, 1990, and as Chief of that division from December, 1990 until January, 1995. In January, 1995 Matthew was appointed to his current position where he supervised the Environmental Crimes Bureau until 1999. He received his law degree from the University of Notre Dame and his undergraduate degree from Blackburn University.

Vanessa Minson, Illinois Attorney General’s Office
Vanessa Minson graduated from SIU Law School Carbondale in December 2013 and began working as an Assistant State’s Attorney in Marion County in the Spring April 2014. She received her Masters Degree in Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School in 2016. She is currently enrolled in the Environmental Resources and Policy doctorate program at SIUC. Vanessa started working for the Illinois Attorney General’s office in December 2017 and currently works with the SVP, Criminal Trials, and Environmental Crimes Bureaus.