Using All the Options: From the State Legislature to the Courts
This panel brings together legislators and lawyers who work across the legislature and the courts to discuss how multi-faceted strategies can achieve environmental protections and hold polluters liable. Panelists will explore the strengths and weaknesses of various legislative to legal strategies. The panel will cover Vermont’s Climate Superfund legislation and the current lawsuits against the State of Vermont following the passage of this historic law. The panel will also include case studies from legislation in Massachusetts, and ongoing lawsuits in Connecticut.
Amy Boyd Rabin, Environmental League of Massachusetts - VP of Policy & Regulatory Affairs
Elena Mihaly, Conservation Law Foundation - VP, Vermont
James Meinert, Conservation Law Foundation - Senior Attorney, Strategic Litigation
New England Leading the Way: Using State Courts to Advance Innovative Public Trust Law in the Face of our Changing Climate
New England has suffered from dramatic symptoms of climate change in recent years, especially flooding and droughts from increasingly erratic and extreme weather patterns. Scientists anticipate these changes will only become more pronounced in the years ahead, putting communities and ecosystems at ever-greater risk for climate-disruption. Many state laws and policies governing the management of natural resources are still based on twentieth or even nineteenth-century-era climatic conditions and scientific understandings. In this panel, we'll investigate strategies to advance public trust law and reform land management regulations through litigation and rulemaking, with a focus on case studies from Vermont and Massachusetts.
Jim Dumont, Law Office of James A. Dumont, Esq., P.C., Bristol, VT
Christophe Courchesne, Vermont Law and Graduate School Environmental Advocacy Clinic - Co-Director
Zack Porter, Standing Trees - Executive Director
Kevin Cassidy, Vermont Law and Graduate School Environmental Advocacy Clinic - Co-Director
Federal Citizen Suits: Recent Developments and Plaintiffs’ Strategies
The panel will address three hot topics in federal citizen suit litigation:
Standing. Courts increasingly require organizational plaintiffs relying on associational standing to identify members and their harms in the complaint. Yet citizens are subject to threats when their names and other personal information is publicized. Panelists will discuss approaches to alleging and proving standing while protecting members’ safety and privacy.
Civil Penalties & EBPs. Civil penalties and environmentally beneficial project payments deter future violations, and EBPs help to restore damaged resources. Panelists will discuss the statutory penalty factors and recent DOJ policies, court decisions, and consent decrees.
Attacks on Citizen Suits. Picking up on Justice Kennedy’s 113-word concurrence in Laidlaw (2000) defendants in multiple cases—and now the United States as a proposed intervenor in NAACP v. xAI, 3:26-cv-74 (N.D. Miss.)—are arguing that Congressional authorization of citizen enforcement violates Article II of the U.S. Constitution or is otherwise impermissible. The panel will discuss the motion to dismiss in xAI, the broader trend, and its implications.
Reed Super, Super Law Group, LLC (moderator)
Heather Govern, Conservation Law Foundation
Andrew Mergen, Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, Harvard Law School
Julia Muench, Super Law Group, LLC
The Verdict Is In: Tales of Two Successful Trials
Two environmental suits in New England went to trial in 2026, and both were victorious. Trial attorneys from each case will appear to share insights and war stories from their suits. So few environmental lawsuits go to trial--this panel provides a rare opportunity to engage in strategic discussion around trials in today's judicial climate. The experts on this panel will provide an in-depth look at their trials and facilitate discussion about how to set up suits for success at trial from the start.
Sarah Craig, Conservation Law Foundation - Senior Attorney, Clean Air & Water
Meg Sheehan, Community Land & Water Coalition, Inc. - Co-Founder
SLAPP-happy: Responding to the Rise in Lawsuits Designed to Silence Environmental Speech
Environmental advocates and community members have been increasingly subject to harassing lawsuits aimed at curbing speech, known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP). SLAPP experts will share how to recognize a SLAPP suit, discuss state laws that protect against SLAPP suits, and provide resources to turn to if you face a SLAPP suit. Panelists will discuss the current SLAPP landscape, with a focus on two recent high-profile environmental SLAPP suits.
Chris Bavitz (panelist and moderator), Managing Director, Harvard University Law School Cyberlaw Clinic and Faculty Co-Director, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society
Jeffrey Pyle, Partner, Prince Lobel
Marco Simons (joining virtually from DC), Interim General Counsel, Greenpeace
Sarah Shahabi, Associate Attorney, Conservation Law Foundation