New York City Bar/Pace Law School: The Resolution of Environmental Interest Disputes - An Emerging Area of Practice

This program will examine the role of lawyers in the resolution of environmental interest disputes. Panels will discuss the use of alternative dispute resolution in traditional institutional settings such as the New York State court system, federal court litigation regarding environmental liability, local land use decision-making agencies, and State of New York DEC administrative law judge proceedings. In these settings, alternative dispute resolution techniques are frequently and successfully employed by attorneys for the affected parties. The skills and techniques lawyers use in these traditional settings will be described and discussed as a prelude for examining the resolution of critical environmental, land, and resource conflicts that are not adjudicated in these familiar settings. The program will concentrate on the management and resolution of environmental conflicts where rights are less well developed, the conflicts are new and rapidly evolving, the stakeholders many, and where there are less obvious forums for conflict resolution. Panelists and participants will discuss this emerging area of practice.

Ridway Hall is moderating the first panel entitled, What Rights-Based Litigation Can Teach Us About the Successful Settlement of Environmental Interest Disputes.