LL.M. Class of 2017
This year has been another exciting year for the University of Oregon LL.M. Program. The Environmental and Natural Resources Law concentration continues to bring enthusiastic, highly accomplished students to the law school. The expanded LL.M. program also welcomed talented students who pursued an LL.M. in the American Law, Business Law, or Conflict and Dispute Resolution concentrations.
In May, Oregon Law celebrated eleven students who received their Master of Laws degrees, including seven students who completed the Environmental and Natural Resources Law (ENR) LL.M. concentration.
In addition to their academic work, the 2017 LL.M. cohort was engaged and involved in environmental law and human rights conferences, symposia, and consortia locally and internationally. One LL.M. student, a Fulbright scholar, traveled to Oxford, United Kingdom to participate in the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights. Two LL.M. students coordinated panels on trans-boundary water issues and climate change during the 2017 Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in March and presented papers on climate change migration and offshore underwater data centers during the UO Climate Change Research Symposium in April. Another LL.M. student was a guest lecturer on food law and urban agriculture in an UO undergraduate food studies course. Following graduation, many LL.M. ENR graduates started new internships, applied to advanced degree programs, or returned to their home countries to pursue or recommence their practice in the environmental law and natural resources law fields. LL.M. alumna Gina Rosario Diaz, a LASPAU Fulbright Faculty Development scholar and environmental lawyer from the Dominican Republic, was excited to have an opportunity to participate in a summer internship with the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW). Gina shared that her work at ELAW entails “a variety of environmental law issues in different countries, including climate change, right to a healthy environment, aquaculture, [and] environmental impact assessment.”
LL.M. alumna Gloria Chelang’at, an International Cultural Service Program award recipient from Kenya, was admitted to a prestigious Ph.D. program in international environmental law and policy at Wuhan University in Wuhan, China. She will focus her research on developing “policies governing the environment and natural resources in [Kenya] and in other developing nations facing similar issues.” Gloria’s goal is to establish a consultancy firm in Kenya that focuses on public interest environmental law and natural resources policy.
This August, the LL.M. Program welcomed returning LL.M. students, and seven new members of the LL.M. class of 2017 – 2018. Several LL.M. students will be working toward an LL.M. degree in environmental and natural resources law this academic year. The class of 2017 – 2018 includes an impressive array of students from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Among the members of the incoming class is a Fulbright scholar who is pursuing an LL.M. degree in environmental and natural resources law.
The incoming and returning LL.M. students bring with them vast and experienced professional portfolios. Among them is an attorney who worked as a legal officer for the Ministry of Agriculture, Directorate for Water Resources Management in Africa, several attorneys who are interested in incorporating environmental law and natural resources law into their practice, an attorney who works for a securities and exchange commission in Asia, and several who have a transactional business practice.
Kristie Gibson, LLM Program Director
Just like the class of 2017, some of this year’s students have worked in environmental justice and advocacy programs and projects in their home countries and others aspire to focus their work in this area. The incoming ENR-focused students have a strong commitment to public interest service and initiatives, with a focus on climate change, natural resources law, water law, appropriate dispute resolution, environmental protection and preservation. I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with such talented students, and I am excited to be involved in furthering the legal education of such impressive and dedicated legal professionals.
I work as the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Climate Change Specialist at the Dominican Republic Delegation of the Inter-American Institute of Cooperation for Agriculture (IICA), a specialized agency of the Inter-American System for the promotion of agriculture and rural well-being. After graduating from the University of Oregon School of Law LL.M. Program, I did a summer internship at Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW) in Eugene, Oregon, where I gained vast knowledge in researching and legal writing on International Environmental Law.
