Distinguished Panelists
Patricia Barmeyer
Patricia Thrower Barmeyer is a partner in King & Spalding's Atlanta office and the head of the firm's environmental practice. She joined the firm in 1990 after working on environmental and natural resource cases for 17 years in the office of the Attorney General of the State of Georgia. At King & Spalding Ms. Barmeyer has concentrated her practice in environmental litigation in the areas of water, waste, and air. Since 2006 Chambers USA Leading Lawyers for Business has ranked Ms. Barmeyer as a "Star Individual," and the top environmental lawyer in Georgia. Chambers 2011 calls her "stellar" and "absolutely top-notch." Chambers 2010notes her "ability to balance the interests of multiple clients" and her success in litigation. Chambers 2009 describes her as "a brilliantly connected superstar with a truly outstanding environmental practice." Chambers 2008 highlighted her "levelheaded, fact-oriented, logical" approach and "forceful but civil" style. Ms. Barmeyer was named Best Lawyers' 2010 Atlanta Environmental Lawyer of the Year. Ms. Barmeyer's expertise combines a detailed knowledge of environmental law with courtroom experience in environmental cases. The environmental practice won the "Law 360 Practice Group of the Year" award for 2010, one of only five law firms in the United States in the field of environmental law.
John Fortuna
John Fortuna is an associate in King & Spalding's Tort & Environmental Litigation Practice Group. He has a general environmental practice with a focus on water law and water resources. He also has substantial experience with the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, permitting under the Georgia Coastal Marshlands Protection Act, and in complex litigation involving air quality permits issued under the Georgia Air Quality Act and the federal Clean Air Act.
Mr. Fortuna served as a law clerk to Judge Beverly B. Martin on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and to Judge Richard W. Story in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Before becoming an attorney, Mr. Fortuna was a research biologist focusing on marine fisheries management, biophysical oceanography, and coral reef ecology. He has co-authored a number of peer-reviewed scientific articles, technical papers and a book chapter, and his research has been presented at numerous scientific meetings.
Lewis Jones
Lewis Jones is a counsel on King & Spalding's Tort & Environmental Litigation Practice Group. Mr. Jones is recognized as a "leading individual" within the Georgia environmental bar by Chambers USA. Chambers USA reports that Mr. Jones is regarded by clients as "a bright legal scholar who understands how to position issues strategically." His practice concentrates on water law and water resources as well as general environmental litigation. He has extensive experience with the Endangered Species Act and wetlands permitting issues as well as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act ("CERCLA").
Victor Flatt
Victor B. Flatt is the Tom & Elizabeth Taft Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law and Director of the Center for Law, Environment, Adaptation, and Resources (CLEAR) at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Law. He also has a current appointment as Distinguished Scholar of Carbon Markets and Carbon Trading at the Global Energy Management Institute at the University of Houston's Bauer College of Business, and is a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform. Prior to his appointment at UNC, Professor Flatt was the inaugural holder of the A.L. O'Quinn Chair in Environmental Law and Director of the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Houston Law Center.
Professor Flatt received his B.A. in Chemistry and Math, at Vanderbilt University, where he was a Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Scholar and Phi Beta Kappa. He received his JD from Northwestern University School of Law, where he was a John Henry Wigmore Scholar and Order of the Coif. He clerked for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs on the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and has taught at the University of Washington and Georgia State University, before his positions at Houston and North Carolina.
Professor Flatt is an expert on environmental enforcement issues and climate change mitigation and adaptation policies. He has published numerous articles on the enforcement and administration of environmental law and policies, in such journals as the Northwestern Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, Washington Law Review, and Ecology Law Quarterly. Six of his articles have been finalists or selected as one of the best environmental law articles of the year in the Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law; and his recent article on state enforcement in the Notre Dame Law Review will be one of the subjects at the 2011 conference in the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review on April 15, 2011.
Dan Inkelas
Daniel Inkelas practices in the litigation section of the Office of the Chief Counsel, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where he provides advice and serves as liaison to the Department of Justice and other federal agencies on a broad range of litigation in federal district and appellate courts affecting the Corps' civil works and regulatory programs. Key practice areas include litigation regarding authority for operation of federal, multipurpose reservoirs; administrative law and compliance with environmental laws including the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act; and implementation of the federal regulatory program pursuant to Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
Mr. Inkelas has served as Assistant Counsel at the Corps' Transatlantic Programs Center in Winchester, Virginia, and Baltimore District, and taught modern German and environmental history before beginning his legal career. He is a graduate of Carleton College (B.A. cum laude, 1991), Northwestern University (M.A. 1994, Ph.D. 1998), and the George Washington University Law School (J.D. with High Honors, 2004).
Andy Warner
Andrew Warner has more than 20 years of experience on environmental and conservation projects and policy relating to water, water quality, and floodplain management, including 13 years with The Nature Conservancy working on rivers in the United States, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Mr. Warner is currently a Senior Advisor for Water Management with the Conservancy's North America Freshwater Program, where he works with government agencies and other managers to implement innovative water management strategies that meet the needs of people while maintaining healthy ecosystems.
One of Mr. Warner's responsibilities is to advance sustainable management of water infrastructure and includes the role as the Conservancy's National Coordinator of the Sustainable Rivers Project, a national collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Sustainable Rivers implements innovative water management practices such as adaptive reservoir management, and currently involves work on eight demonstration river basins across the United States. The Program also involves joint Corps-Conservancy training and software development, staff exchanges, and publications.
Mr. Warner has held an affiliate faculty position at The Pennsylvania State University since 2000.
Neil Purcell
Neil has been Division Counsel for the South Atlantic Division since July 2005. Neil began his career as a lawyer serving on active duty as a Judge Advocate with the U.S. Air Force from 1979 to 1986 with a variety of assignments in Arizona (Claims Officer, Chief of Military Justice), the Republic of the Philippines (Assistant Chief of International Law, Area Defense Counsel), Colorado (Chief of Military Justice), and the United Kingdom (Circuit Trial Counsel).
After leaving active duty in September 1986, he entered Federal civilian service as an attorney at the Air Force Accounting and Finance Center in Denver, Colorado. There, Neil practiced fiscal law and labor law.
In 1987, Neil went to work for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) in Dallas, Texas as a procurement attorney in their worldwide headquarters. At AAFES, he provided legal support for the procurement and administration of automated data processing equipment contracts worldwide, retail contracts worldwide, and concession and support services contracts nationwide.
In 1990, Neil joined the Corps of Engineers in Omaha, Nebraska as an Assistant Division Counsel in the Missouri River Division, which later became the Northwest Division. There, Neil served as the procurement attorney and labor counselor. In 1999, he transferred to the South Pacific Division as labor counselor and environmental attorney. In 2000, Neil became the District Counsel for the Pittsburgh District where he served for five years, including a year as Deputy District Commander.
Neil received both his undergraduate degree in Political Science in 1975 and his law degree in 1978 from Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. He is licensed before the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.
Neil lives with his wife, Roxanne, and their children in Villa Rica, Georgia.
Colin Crawford
Colin Crawford is the Robert C. Cudd Professor of Environmental Law at Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. At Tulane, Professor Crawford also serves as Executive Director of the Payson Center for International Development. Founded in 1996, the Payson Center was one of the first U.S. university-based development studies centers, offering both technical assistance and management for development projects across the world and a full development studies curriculum, including a full slate of undergraduate offerings, an MS and PD degree in international development, and joint degree options such as a JD/MS. The Payson Center currently works on four continents - Africa, Asia, North and South America. Before coming to Tulane, Professor Crawford was on the faculty at Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta, where he founded and co-directed the Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth, which has developed new models for field-based education in comparative environmental and land use law. In this capacity, he has overseen field courses in Brazil, Colombia, Panama and the US - and will soon do so in Cuba and Turkey as well. Professor Crawford also directs a US Agency for International Development/Higher Education for Development program to strengthen pedagogy in environmental law and policy in Central American and the Caribbean. He has lectured and published widely in the US and abroad, concentrating his work especially in Latin America. As a scholar, his work concentrates on comparative environmental and land use law and policy, with a special focus on the social and urban implications of environmental and land use planning choices. Professor Crawford is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese and has a working knowledge of French. He has a law degree from Harvard Law School and degrees in modern history from Cambridge and Columbia Universities.
William Andreen
Bill Andreen is the Edgar L. Clarkson Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law. He joined the Alabama faculty in 1983. He also serves as the Director of the school's Summer Exchange Program with the Australian University (ANU) where he is an Adjunct Professor of Law. Bill has visited at a number of law schools including Washington & Lee University, Lewis & Clark, and Mekelle University (Ethiopia). He has also served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Law at the ANU's National Europe Center. Bill teaches Environmental Law, Administrative Law, and International Environmental Law. His writing has largely concentrated on the Clean Water Act, but he has also written on a number of other environmental and regulatory topics.
Bill graduated from the College of Wooster (1975) and received his law degree from Columbia (1977). After practicing with an Atlanta law firm, he joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, in 1979 as Assistant Regional Counsel. He remained with EPA for four years and primarily worked on defensive litigation. Bill has served as a legal advisor to the National Environment Management Council of Tanzania (1994-1996); as a faculty member in a special graduate law program in Addis Ababa that was designed for Ethiopian law teachers (2009-2012); as chair of the Environmental Law Section of the American Association of Law Schools; and as President of the Alabama Rivers Alliance. He is currently a member of the Environmental Law Commission of the World Conservation Union (IUCN); Of Counsel to the Alabama Rivers Alliance; and a Scholar Member of the Center for Progressive Reform.
Chad Wingate
Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly serves as a Water Resources Division Director for the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA). In this capacity, Kevin supports the Water Resources Division staff and oversees GEFA's water infrastructure loan programs and water supply and water resource planning efforts. Kevin formerly served as the Deputy Director of the Division of Energy Resources at GEFA where he supported state energy planning, coordinated energy procurement and management in state facilities and energy data analysis for Georgia. Kevin came to GEFA from the Environmental Protection Division of Georgia, where he was a Policy and Planning Advisor on energy issues in the Director's office. Prior to his post at EPD, Kevin was on a one-year sabbatical with his wife, traveling in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Prior to this sabbatical, Kevin worked for three years with the Atlanta-based Turner Foundation, as both the Program Director and Program Officer for Energy and Transportation. The Turner Foundation is a national environmental foundation. Kevin hails from New York, but has called Atlanta home for more than fifteen years.
Kelly earned his bachelor's degree from Earlham College in Richmond, Ind. He and his wife, Jessica, reside in Decatur with their two children.
Janice Griffith
Janice C. Griffith is a Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts. From 2008-2011 she served as Vice President for Academic Affairs at Suffolk University. Prior to this role, she served as Dean of the Georgia State University College of Law for eight years. Previously she taught at the Quinnipiac University School of Law and the Bridgeport University School of Law. Nationally recognized as a scholar in State and Local Government Law, she has published articles on federalism, public finance, land use, home rule, and regional governance. She is one of the authors of a leading case book titled State and Local Government in a Federal System.
Before entering academia, Professor Griffith served in New York City's government as Chief of the Fiscal and Securities Division in the Office of Corporation Counsel and as General Counsel and Assistant Administrator of the Housing and Development Administration. She was an associate with the Wall Street law firm of Hawkins, Delafield and Wood before holding these governmental posts. Professor Griffith received a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and an A.B. degree from Colby College.
Dan Tonsmeire
Apalachicola Riverkeeper/Executive Director
Dan Tonsmeire began his tenure as Riverkeeper for the Apalachicola River & Bay in February 2004. Apalachicola Riverkeeper, along with its 1000 members and volunteers work together to restore, protect and preserve this one-of-a-kind resource. Since May 2010, Dan has dually served the organization’s Executive Director.
Previously, Dan served as the principal coordinator for the development and implementation of the Northwest Florida Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) program for the Northwest Florida Water Management District. Prior to that, he was the resident manager of a 1,250-acre Wilderness Preserve on Dog Island (located on the Eastern edge of the Apalachicola Bay), where he facilitated and coordinated research and program development for The Nature Conservancy.
Dan has also been a backcountry guide in Idaho, a commercial fisherman in Alaska, and owned and operated a small marine construction company in Alabama and Florida. He graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Civil Engineering and currently holds a United States Coast Guard Ocean Operators license and a Florida Real Estate license.
Mark Squillace
Mark Squillace is a Professor and the Director of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado Law School. Before coming to Colorado, Professor Squillace taught at the University of Toledo College of Law where he was the Charles Fornoff Professor of Law and Values. Prior to Toledo, Mark taught at the University of Wyoming College of Law where he served a three-year term as the Winston S. Howard Professor of Law. He is a former Fulbright scholar and the author or co-author of numerous articles and books on natural resources and environmental law. In 2000, Professor Squillace took a leave from law teaching to serve as Special Assistant to the Solicitor at the U.S. Department of the Interior. In that capacity he worked directly with the Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, on variety of legal and policy issues.
Richard Hamman
Richard Hamann is a lawyer on the faculty of the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Center for Governmental Responsibility, where he conducts research and teaches in the area of water, wetlands, wildlife and coastal law and policy. Mr. Hamann has taught regularly since 2000 in the "summer" Joint Program in Environmental Law hosted by the Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Costa Rica, most recently teaching Comparative Watershed Management. He is also directly involved with watershed management as a member of the Governing Board of the St. Johns River Water Management District, which has comprehensive water management responsibilities for 23% of Florida.