Professor Patrick Parenteau, senior counsel at the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) at Vermont Law School and a nationally recognized leader in environmental law and policy, recently was elected to the American College of Environmental Lawyers (ACOEL), the college announced this week. Parenteau is among 22 lawyers who will be inducted into ACOEL at its annual meeting in October.
The 2015 ACOEL Fellows were selected by their peers in recognition of their achievements in environmental law and policy over a minimum 15-year period. Parenteau’s achievements span five decades.
"We are proud of Pat’s accomplishments in the field of environmental law and policy and congratulate him on this honor," said Professor Melissa Scanlan, associate dean of the Environmental Law Program at VLS. "He is a skilled lawyer and passionate advocate for the environment, a mentor to Vermont Law School students, and a respected legal scholar among his peers."
Parenteau, formerly director of the VLS Environmental Law Center and of the ENRLC, is nationally recognized for his expertise on climate change, environmental policy and litigation, endangered species and biological diversity, and water quality and wetlands. He frequently is asked to testify before Congress, and the press regularly seeks his comment on national issues, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan and carbon rules. At VLS, he teaches Climate Change and the Law, Extinction and Climate Change, Water Quality and Environmental Litigation.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Parenteau held various positions with the National Wildlife Federation, including vice president for conservation, and served as regional counsel for the EPA in Boston and commissioner of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. In the 1990s, he served as special counsel to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the spotted owl exemption proceedings under the Endangered Species Act. In 1993, he returned to Vermont to assume the directorship of the Environmental Law Center, a position he held through 1998. In 2003, he helped found and directed the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, where he now serves as senior counsel.
ENRLC attorneys and student clinicians represented the Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) in its pursuit of a state labeling law for genetically engineered (GE) foods, making national headlines, continue to work a case against a new railroad and coal mine proposed for Montana’s Powder River Basin, and this month on behalf of clients filed a complaint against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Canada Lynx in Maine, among other high-profile environmental cases. For more information about the ENRLC, visit www.vermontlaw.edu/ENRLC.
The Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School offers more than 64 courses related to the environment and environmental law, more than any other law school in the United States, and four environmental law clinics: the ENRLC, Energy Clinic, Food and Agriculture Clinic, and Land Use Clinic. For more information about the Environmental Law Center, visit vermontlaw.edu/ELC.
Vermont Law School, a private, independent institution, is home to the nation’s largest and deepest environmental law program. VLS offers a Juris Doctor curriculum that emphasizes public service; three Master’s Degrees—Master of Environmental Law and Policy, Master of Energy Regulation and Law, and Master of Food and Agriculture Law and Policy; and four post-JD degrees —LLM in American Legal Studies (for foreign-trained lawyers), LLM in Energy Law, LLM in Environmental Law, and LLM in Food and Agriculture Law. The school features innovative experiential programs and is home to the Environmental Law Center, South Royalton Legal Clinic, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, Energy Clinic, Food and Agriculture Clinic, and Center for Applied Human Rights. For more information, visit www.vermontlaw.edu, find us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.