What inspired you to pursue a career in this field?

If I can play with the framing of the question, I see the “field,” for me, as twofold, one being environmental law and then two being teaching.

I had a pretty strong interest in teaching coming out of law school, having found a few professors to be incredibly inspiring. Experiencing how much of a difference that can make made me see the value in teaching and attracted me to it.

The other part, environmental law, took a little longer. I had a couple of experiences shortly after law school when I was working as a law clerk on really interesting environmental cases, and that lit a fire.

Could you tell us about your teaching approach?

I definitely try to leverage the practical experiences I’ve had over the years, but I also try to marry practice with theory. I think that’s a big part of the Lewis & Clark mission in general. Emotional intelligence is important, too; I try to encourage students to think of themselves as capable and resilient.

Could you tell us a little bit more about the courses you teach and what you like about them?

I teach Administrative Law and a brand new course, Environmental Impact Assessments.

Many of the longstanding principles of administrative law and separation of powers have been under tremendous pressure over the past few years, and that can be stressful for students and even teachers. But it also makes the study of administrative law all the more compelling.

And then my new class, Environmental Impact Assessments, centers around the idea that governments should consider the environmental consequences of proposed actions before undertaking them or, more commonly, permitting them. It sounds like a simple, common-sense notion – and it is – but it leads to plenty of conflict in practice. When is a proposal significant enough to trigger an environmental impact assessment? What types of impacts must be considered? What happens when one environmental value (say, for example, protection of habitat) conflicts with another (like development of cleaner energy sources)? These are just a few of the issues we examine in this course, and we look at these issues from a comparative and international law perspective in addition to analyzing how these issues play out in the United States.

You mentioned you have done both online and in-person instruction. Online obviously offers a unique experience. What are some of the benefits you’ve seen for you and the students?

One benefit, and maybe it’s the most obvious, is that we can have students connecting from all over the world. Another benefit is that we end up communicating more just through text (although I also host live video calls with students), and for lawyers and even non-lawyer professionals, communicating effectively in writing is kind of the coin of the realm. Also, of course, students can choose to study remotely and asynchronously for various reasons, such as work, schedule, location, etc.

Is there any topic or assignment that always comes with a really good discussion?

One topic that almost always leads to a really good discussion is Administrative Law is the question of how much power agencies should have in a complex society. Agencies end up making really important policy choices, which then raises concerns about democratic legitimacy since agency officials aren’t directly elected. That creates an ongoing tension between the need for expert, often science-based decision-making and the idea that political accountability is important. In the past, many critics claimed federal agencies had too much power and were not sufficiently beholden to the President. But now we have a President who has attacked many of the tenets of the administrative state, including tenure protections for the heads of independent agencies, and the concern is that the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction.

Have you seen any students taking that knowledge and applying it in their professional lives?

We definitely see students take what they’ve learned and apply it directly in their professional lives. I’m thinking of one  student I recently interacted with who works for a nonprofit doing advocacy around the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). He took Administrative Law from me a few terms back, and now he is in my Environmental Impact Assessments course. In his work around the PCT, he’s constantly engaging with federal and state agencies, whether it’s commenting on proposed rules or working with more informal guidance documents, and those administrative law details really matter for the work he’s doing, even though he’s not a lawyer.

We also see students go into journalism or policy-facing roles where they’re tracking administrative and regulatory changes, covering how agency decisions filter out through regulations or even litigation positions the government takes. In both cases, they are actively using it to understand and influence real-world policy processes, whether in advocacy, reporting, or other public-interest work.

What would you say is the most rewarding about working with this group of students?

What I find most rewarding about working with this group of students is the passion they bring. It’s genuinely contagious and renewing. Every new group has this intellectual curiosity where they’re not just absorbing material, but actively engaging with it. They’ll read a headline or a case and immediately start asking deeper questions like, “How does this actually work procedurally?” or “Does the administration have the authority to do this?” or “How does this fit with what we learned in Administrative Law?” It’s that curiosity and drive to really understand what’s going on underneath the surface that makes the classroom environment so engaging.

I also really value the kind of respectful but real disagreement that emerges from that. We’re able to have substantive discussions where people don’t always agree, but it stays constructive, and I think that kind of exchange is important for a healthy democratic society. Seeing students practice that kind of thoughtful engagement and bring real intellectual energy to the material is what keeps the work exciting and hopeful.

Beyond the grades and the assignments, what’s one thing you want students to leave your class with?

What I want students to leave with is a sense that they are truly empowered. It’s not just about whether you can recite answers to a set of questions or “know the right answer” in a traditional sense, because in law there often isn’t a single answer. What matters more is that they feel confident in their ability to approach new questions: to research effectively, read analytically, and engage with things like proposed regulations or dense legal texts without feeling intimidated by the language or the officialdom.

The idea is that even if you don’t immediately know the answer, you feel capable of figuring it out and producing something of value in response. That connects pretty naturally to a personal philosophy I come back to, which is “never underestimate your own capacity.” Students are going to hit difficult moments, but the key is not underestimating your ability to recover, learn, and find a way forward.

If you’re ready to build the confidence to tackle complex environmental challenges, learn more about the online Environmental Law programs at Lewis & Clark Law School and get started today.