On November 6, 2020, ELP held its sixteenth annual Enviromentors event, which connects current students with practitioners in the environmental field – many of whom are William S. Richardson School of Law (WSRSL) graduates who earned Environmental Law Certificates.

Due to the pandemic, this year’s event took place on Zoom instead of its normal location at Café Julia in downtown Honolulu. The virtual setting allowed a record forty-one students and mentors (including several participants from neighbor islands) to join ELP for an evening of “speed” conversations about environmental topics.

“It was great seeing the wide array of career options out there and how many different people are protecting the environment using their passions and skill sets,” said Diego Rivera, a first-year student at WSRSL. “It was awesome being able to speak to professionals face-to-face, especially with such an impersonal semester on Zoom.”

After the event, ELP matches each student with a mentor based on their feedback for, at the very least, a one-on-one lunch if not a more extensive mentoring relationship. Many of the connections made through this event have helped further students’ environmental law careers.

ELP would like to extend a special thank you to all the students and mentors who participated in this year’s event.

2020 Enviromentors:

Denise Antolini, Professor of Law; Deputy Chair of the World Commission on Environmental Law

Adam Borrello, Executive Director, North Shore Land Trust; President, No Ka Oi Enterprises, LLC                   

Douglas Codiga, Member, Schlack Ito, LLLC         

Leslie Cole-Brooks, Attorney at Law

Lance D. Collins, Law Office of Lance D. Collins

Hon. Jeffrey P. Crabtree, Circuit Court Judge, State of Hawai‘i   

David M. Forman, Director of the Environmental Law Program; Faculty Specialist, Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law

Stacey Gray, Associate, Cades Schutte

Ian Hirokawa, Special Projects Coordinator, Land Division, Department of Land and Natural Resources

Bianca Kai Isaki, Law Office of Bianca Isaki

Jamila Jarmon, General Counsel, Elemental Excelerator

Brent Kakesako, Executive Director, Hawai’i Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development (HACBED)

Shaelene Kamakaʻala, Director of ʻĀina Protection and General Counsel, Hawaiian Islands Land Trust (HILT)

Maxx Phillips, Hawai‘i Director and Staff Attorney, Center for Biological Diversity

Andrew N. Porter, Aquatic Invasive Species Legal Fellow; Maritime Law Hawaii

Sarah J. Sheffield, Attorney-Advisor in the NOAA Office of General Counsel, Pacific Islands Section

Josh Stanbro, Chief Resilience Officer and Executive Director, Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency

Onaona P. Thoene, Partner, Carlsmith Ball LLP

Mahina Tuteur, Post-Juris Doctor Research & Teaching Fellow, Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law

Richard Wallsgrove, Assistant Professor of Law

Joanna Zeigler, Associate, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert

JU 11/16/20