Speakers
Brittany A. Bolen: Counsel, Sidley, Washington, DC
Edward (Ted) Boling: Partner, Perkins Coie, Washington, DC
Sarah Bordelon: Sarah helps clients to obtain environmental permits for natural resource and development projects and defends the permits for those projects in state and federal court and administrative tribunals when challenged. She has extensive experience evaluating the overall permitting approach for a project and developing litigation strategy to defend all aspects of the approval. Sarah has counseled clients nationwide, including onshore and offshore oil and gas, mining, renewable energy, and infrastructure projects. She also litigates environmental and natural resource matters, participates in proposed state and federal rulemakings, advises clients on environmental compliance and enforcement matters, and conducts environmental due diligence on conventional and renewable energy projects.
Bailey K. Brennan: Attorney, National Wildlife Federation, Lander, WY
Sharon Buccino: Originally from Central Florida where she grew up surrounded by orange trees, Sharon Buccino serves as a Senior Attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Her current work focuses on public land management, energy policy and government transparency. Ms. Buccino advocates in court, before federal agencies and Congress. She has worked to implement effective environmental review and public participation for various infrastructure projects including pipelines and transmission. Prior to joining NRDC in 1993, Ms. Buccino practiced environmental and administrative law with a private law firm in Washington, DC, and worked for the Alaska Supreme Court. She is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Law School. In addition to her work at NRDC, Ms. Buccino currently serves as an adjunct professor at the College of Law at the University of Wyoming.
Samantha Caravello: Samantha is an Associate in the Denver office of Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell LLP. She is heavily involved in the firm’s litigation, administrative, and regulatory practices and focuses on a wide range of environmental and energy issues. Her experience includes representing clients in state and federal court and before state administrative bodies such as the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission. Samantha serves on the Colorado Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section Advisory Council and as Vice Chair of the Denver Bar Association’s Access to Justice Committee. Prior to joining Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell, Samantha was a legal fellow at the Environmental Defense Fund and a law clerk for Justice William W. Hood, III of the Colorado Supreme Court. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from New York University.
Matt Christiansen: General Counsel, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
Nada Wolff Culver: Principal Deputy Director, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Washington, DC (invited)
Leilani Doktor: Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC
Michael R. Drysdale: Of Counsel, Dorsey & Whitney, Minneapolis, MN
Danielle L. Dimauro: Attorney, U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor, Lakewood, CO
Craig Galli: Craig advises clients on complex regulatory compliance issues not only in the energy and natural resources sector, but in other industry sectors as well. He defends corporate and individual clients in environmental and natural resources litigation arising under both civil and criminal laws. Craig has handled more than 50 litigation matters to judgment and uses his skills as a former Senior Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, D.C., to litigate and settle enforcement actions and other civil and criminal litigation. Craig is the Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at Brigham Young University Law School where he teaches environmental law, public lands and natural resources law, international environmental law, and energy law.
Kristen Golan: Director, Development Environmental Permitting, Avangrid Renewables, Portland, OR
Timothy J. Hagerty: Member, Frost Brown Todd, Louisville, KY
Arthur Kleven: Deputy Regional Attorney, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the General Counsel, Lakewood, CO
Gussie Lord: Managing Attorney, Tribal Partnerships Program, Earthjustice, Washington DC
Brooke M. Marcus: Partner, Nossaman LLP, Austin, TX
Ira L. Matt: Director, Office of Native American Affairs, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Washington, DC
William Mumby: Wil is an Associate at Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell LLP in the firm’s San Francisco office. He concentrates on environmental and Native American law and policy matters. Wil advises on a broad range of issues arising from water, energy, transportation, and other development projects, including litigation in federal and California courts. Wil advises on issues arising under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), including technical analyses relating to water resources, air quality, transportation, climate change, noise, and historic and cultural resources. He provides advice to tribal, public agency, nonprofit, and clean energy developer clients on environmental review issues arising under CEQA and NEPA as well as other state and federal environmental statutes. An active member of the firm’s Native American law and policy group, Wil helps advise tribal clients on a broad range of environmental, land use, and economic development issues, including fee-to-trust acquisitions. He also advises tribes on strategies to facilitate co-management of natural and cultural resources on public lands with state and federal agencies. Wil graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law where he specialized in environmental law.
Ben Norris: Ben is SEIA’s Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs & Counsel. He leads all of SEIA’s advocacy efforts and issue campaigns on federal regulatory matters, including engagement with the White House, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of the Interior, Department of the Treasury, and others. He also represents SEIA in litigation affecting the interests of the solar industry. Before joining SEIA, Ben served for ten years as senior counsel at the American Petroleum Institute where he advised on upstream and midstream regulatory and litigation matters. Prior to that, he was an associate in the energy and environmental practice of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, where he defended on offshore drilling contractor in Congressional and government investigations stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Ben has been published in the ENERGY LAW JOURNAL, ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM, LAW 360, and other publications. He is a frequent presenter and speaker on various legal issues affecting the energy industry, including federal rulemaking and land use. He earned a J.D. from Washington University School of Law in Saint Louis, Mo., and a B.A. from Rice University in Houston, Tex. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, daughter, son, and dog.
Leroy C. Paddock: Associate Dean for Environmental Studies and Professorial Lecturer in Law, George Washington University Law School, Washington, DC
Justin R. Pidot: General Counsel, Council on Environmental Quality, Washington, DC
Dale Ratliff: Dale is an attorney at Williams Weese Pepple & Ferguson in Denver, Colorado. Dale’s practice focuses on environmental and administrative law, with an emphasis on supporting natural resource projects and recreation and tourism businesses on public lands. His clients include ski areas, renewable energy developers, lodging and resort owners, water supply developers, and other project proponents. Dale helps his clients obtain and implement special use permits, special recreation permits, rights of way, easements, leases, and other authorizations from the United States Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Army Corps of Engineers, and other federal and state agencies. He regularly assists clients obtain project approvals under NEPA and navigate the federal land use planning process. Dale is a graduate of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law where he finished first in his class. Before law school, Dale worked as a fly-fishing guide in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, Chilean Patagonia, and Southwestern Alaska.
Samantha Ruscavage-Barz, Legal Director, WildEarth Guardians, Santa Fe, NM
Michael J. Sawyer: Senior Trial Attorney, Natural Resources Section, Environment and Natural Resources Division, US Department of Justice, Washington, DC
Elizabeth Schulte: Elizabeth is an attorney-advisor for the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), Solicitor's Office, in the Intermountain Region (SLC, UT). Liz represents the DOI agencies in a broad-range of natural resource issues, including permitting decisions, NEPA challenges, oil and gas leasing, rights-of-way authorizations, water rights, and other realty and mineral development matters. Prior to joining the Solicitor's Office, Liz spent more than ten years in private practice helping clients to site and develop projects both on federal, state, and private lands. Liz received her J.D. in 2005 from the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law, where she was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Natural Resources and Environmental Law and received a certificate of environmental law from the Stegner Center. Outside of the office, Liz can be found exploring the mountains with her husband and three dogs.
Tina R. Van Bockern: Tina R. Van Bockern is Of Counsel in Holland & Hart LLP’s Denver office. She is a member of the firm’s Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources practice group, specializing in administrative and civil appeals. She guides clients through the appeals process by developing strategies to build and preserve the record and continuing through briefing and oral argument. Drawing on years of experience representing oil and gas and mining clients on all aspects of project development and environmental compliance, Tina regularly litigates and appeals agency regulations, decisions, and orders affecting these industries. Tina has represented clients in a wide array of matters involving National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act, public land use and development, oil and gas and mining law, environmental law, royalties, class actions, Indian law, and administrative law and procedure.
Michelle-Ann Williams: Senior Attorney, Hunton Andrews Kurth, Washington, DC
Program Chair and Committee
DEANA M. BENNETT, Program Co-Chair, Shareholder, Modrall Sperling, Albuquerque, NM
HADASSAH (DESSA) M. REIMER, Program Co-Chair, Of Counsel, Holland & Hart, Jackson, WY
BAILEY K. BRENNAN, Attorney, National Wildlife Federation, Cheyenne, WY
SHARON BUCCINO, Senior Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Adjunct Professor, University of Wyoming, College of Law, Washington, DC
DANIELLE L. DIMAURO, Attorney, U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor, Lakewood, CO
MICHAEL R. DRYSDALE, Of Counsel, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Minneapolis, MN
CARLOS R. ROMO, Director, Williams Weese Pepple & Ferguson, Denver CO
COURTNEY M. SHEPHARD, Associate, Brownstein, Denver, CO
CLIFFORD J. VILLA, Senior Advisor, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC