Students, mentors, and ELP faculty gathered in the WSRSL Clinical Building for ELP’s 18th Annual Enviromentors event, which was held in-person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
On October 28, 2022, the William S. Richardson School of Law Environmental Law Program (ELP) returned to hosting the 18th Annual Enviromentors event in-person for the first time in three years. Richardson law students gathered in the Clinical Building to meet with environmental law practitioners (“Enviromentors”), most of whom are Richardson alums with experience and insight into practicing environmental law in Hawaiʻi.
For many mentors and alum, the event presented an opportunity to visit the Clinical Building for the first time. The opening of the Clinical Building in the fall of 2019 concluded a 15-year quest for much-needed space to provide practical training for law students on campus.
ELP RAs set up meet-and-greet stations throughout the Clinical Building, where students would rotate to new stations and engage in one-on-one, five-minute conversations with mentors. Although the conversations were brief, the informal meet-and-greet setting provided each student with the opportunity to meet each mentor, share their particular interests in environmental law, and learn about the mentor’s current law practice.
Following the event, ELP faculty paired each of the 16 students participants with a mentor. Students were encouraged to reach out to their mentors and connect over lunch to allow for more in-depth conversations.
Grant Barring (3L) met with his mentor, Aarin Gross, at the start of the spring 2023 semester. “Aarin was extremely helpful in describing potential policy options in the conservation field and possible career paths. Furthermore, Aarin offered new perspectives on environmental issues that Indigenous and minority communities face regarding climate change and future opportunities based on her work experience and expertise. I’m happy we were able to connect, and I hope I’ll be able to continue meeting or working with her in the future to gain more knowledge,” he said.
Sophia Tidler (1L), who attended Enviromentors for the first time last fall, reflected on the upsides of conversing in a less formal setting: “Environmentors provided space to practice my five-minute elevator pitch, as well as the time to express my intentions and passions for environmental health and to learn from a legal practitioner/leader’s perspective under a casual setting.”
ELP would like to thank all of the students and mentors who attended Environmentors.
Mahalo Fall 2022 Enviromentors!
- Lea Hong, Hawaiʻi State Director, Trust for Public Land
- Catherine Taschner, Deputy Director, City and County of Honolulu, Department of Land Management
- Honorable Justice Michael Wilson, Associate Justice, Hawaiʻi Supreme Court
- Wayne Chung Tanaka, Director, Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi
- Mahesh Cleveland, Senior Associate Attorney, Earthjustice
- Onaona P. Thoene, Partner, Carlsmith Ball LLP
- Cameron Black, Renewable Energy Program Manager, Hawaiʻi State Energy Office
- Charlie Taylor, Legal Fellow, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR)
- Aarin Gross, Director of the Conservation Policy and Incentives Lab, Conservation International Hawaiʻi
- Tyler Hee, Ocean Conservation Incentives Legal Fellow in the Conservation Policy and Incentives Lab, Conservation International Hawaiʻi
- Sarah Sheffield, Attorney-Advisor, NOAA Office of General Counsel, Pacific Islands Section
- Miranda Steed, Deputy Attorney General, Department of the Attorney General for the State of Hawaiʻi, Land Division
- Joanna Zeigler, Staff Attorney, Our Children’s Trust
- Chase Livingston, Associate Attorney, Davis Levin Livingston
- Colin Lee, Climate Change and Resiliency Policy Analyst, Climate Resilience Collaborative
- Lance Collins, Attorney in Private Practice and Per Diem Judge for the Hawaiʻi State Judiciary, Second Circuit