Message From the Chair

I’d like to thank you all again for the privilege of leading our section this year. Hard to believe that three and a half years ago I was asked to join the section’s cabinet. I remember feeling honored and excited for the next four years. It had not been too long since the section added “Energy” to its title, and the state had just enacted the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). That was at the end of 2019, and so much has changed since that time.

In 2019, no one could have anticipated the world health pandemic that ensued in early 2020; I certainly could not. Attorneys were not deemed essential such that almost all of us transitioned to a work from home environment. No longer were meetings held in person and, for better or worse, the use of Zoom and Microsoft Teams proliferated. In-person bar association events came to a halt, and the world of virtual events, even in cocktail party format, ensued. Although nowhere near ideal, we all made the best of it. I’m honored that this section continued to provide excellent programming and events for our members thanks to the endless work of our committees.

Now that the world has gotten back to “normal”—whatever that means—in-person events are now back. We just had our first in-person Annual Meeting earlier this year after a two-year hiatus, and the state’s work in implementing the CLCPA, although not yet finished, has been momentous. We also have a new president with different environmental and energy priorities. So where does EELS go from here?

As incoming chair, I am reminded of the section’s mission statement:

The purpose of this section shall be to bring together such members of the New York State Bar Association as are interested in environmental, land use, energy, health and safety and related issues and topics, to further the education of the legal community, the public and governmental and elected officials on legal, administrative and policy matters relating to such issues, to facilitate the making of public policy, and to provide networking opportunities between and among attorneys in private practice, government, corporations and consulting firms.

I have therefore chosen membership as my primary initiative this year. I may be biased, but EELS is tremendously privileged with its incredible group of members. I have seen this throughout my longstanding tenure on the executive committee and now the cabinet. We therefore want to ensure that we retain our current members by providing excellent programming focusing on environmental and energy law issues of interest. This will inevitably include the great work of the Brownfield Task Force a focus on regulatory changes, such as the Part 360 updates, as well as the ongoing implementation of the CLCPA, just to name a few.

But as I look around, and I think most of you would agree with me, EELS needs more government attorneys, as well as younger and more diverse practitioners, to count among its membership. The larger bar association is already hard at work developing a new membership subscription model that is slated to be effective January 1, 2025. The model has four primary pillars: recurring revenue, member retention, value proposition, and an improved user experience. The overarching goal aligns with EELS—namely, retain and grow membership by delivering greater value. I am therefore so excited that we have started a new task force dedicated to participating in this larger bar initiative and serving as EELS’s voice in the process. A huge thank you to former chair Nick Ward-Willis, Matt Sinkman, Thomas King, and Julia O’Sullivan for taking on this important initiative.

One key mission of this task force is to make membership affordable and desirable for all attorneys and to ensure that the Bar’s new model accounts for this. For example, EELS programming and events benefit tremendously from the participation of government attorneys whether they be from the federal, state, or local agencies, such as the Department of Environmental Conservation, Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Renewable Energy Siting, or New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Our goal will be to work with the Bar so that the new model makes membership affordable and valuable to all government attorneys.

This past spring, we were for the first time able to offer government attorneys free participation in the Civil and Criminal Investigations and Enforcement of Environmental Law in New York State continuing legal education program. The response was overwhelming. As such, the cabinet has also charged this new task force with planning ways to expand on this successful programming and encourage government attorneys to not only participate as panelists for our programming but also attend.

EELS has also been hard at work trying to recruit younger and more diverse attorneys. Last year, we began hosting events at New York law schools, including St. John’s Law School and Pace. The result was a large number of new members thanks to the hard work of Jim Rigano and others. The response was fantastic, and plans are already in the works to host similar events at additional law schools throughout the state. Buffalo is planned for next year thanks to Mike Hecker. My hope is that this is an ongoing initiative as we strive to reach law students as they begin to embark on their legal careers and invite them to join EELS. My path to environmental and energy law may have been a little more direct in the beginning had I been able to mingle and hear from EELS members.

The Executive Committee also voted at our April meeting to cement two annual diversity and inclusion fellowships, as opposed to just one, and to increase the stipend for both fellows to $10,000. The vote came in response to the hard work of the Diversity Committee led by Christine Leas and Sarah Lobe. Fundraising for these important fellowships, which seek to encourage diverse law students to enter the field of environmental and energy law, began with our April wine tasting and will continue throughout the year, so be on the lookout for ways to help contribute. Feel free to also reach out to Amy Jasiewicz if you would like to donate or volunteer to help raise funds.

Thanks to the work of our Environmental Justice (EJ) Committee and Chairs Jose Almanzar and Ivonne Norman, EELS now has a monthly EJ Committee Newsletter. If you have not seen one yet, I strongly recommend that you do. They are short, sweet, and full of important information like dates for upcoming events of interest and litigation and legislative updates.

Finally, by the time this issue reaches your inboxes, we will have arrived at or even returned from our fall meeting that is scheduled for September 26-27 at the beautiful Sagamore Resort in Lake George. Amy Kendall has done a fabulous job organizing the event where we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Adirondack Park. There will be lots of activities and events on top of our regular programming, including the spa, hiking, a boat cruise, golf, and a post-dinner outing to the Bolton Landing Brewing Company. I hope that many of you will have joined us. Planning has also begun for the annual meeting in New York City, so mark your calendars for January 17 and 18.

In closing, I want to thank our outgoing chair, Jim Rigano, for his leadership last year. I also want to extend my gratitude to the rest of the cabinet (Mike Hecker, Amy Kendall, and Steve Russo). I am blessed to be leading EELS with them this year. And, last but not least, a huge thank you to Amy Jasiewicz. Her support of EELS is unmatched and I could not lead the section this year without her.

Here’s to a year of growth, collegiality, and diversification. My door is always open, at least figuratively, so please email or call if you have any thoughts or ideas.