Shaping Future Scholars: Fall 2024 Pace-Maryland Colloquium Held

On November 22, 2024, the Fall 2024 Pace-Maryland Colloquium was held at the UMD Carey School of Law in Baltimore, Maryland. For the Fall 2024 event, a cohort of Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University Environmental Law students traveled down to Baltimore joining their student colleagues at UMD Law for an entirely student-focused environmental academic event. The now semiannual Colloquium grew out of the broader, Maryland-Pace Environmental Law Alliance, a first of its kind collaboration between two top ranked environmental law programs. The Environmental Alliance draws on each program’s strengths in the field to train the next generation of environmental lawyers in a new era of legal education and environmental challenges.

“In 2015, Haub Law entered into a partnership with UMD Law – the Maryland-Pace Environmental Law Alliance – and have since worked together on numerous important initiatives, including this joint Colloquium,” said Achinthi Vithanage, Professor of Law for Designated Service in Environmental Law and Associate Director of Environmental Law Programs at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. “The Pace-Maryland Colloquium provides a safe space for students to present their research and scholarship to top scholars in the field,” said Professor Vithanage. "Through this Alliance, the Colloquium, and other collaborative initiatives with UMD Law, we are providing our students with broad opportunities for innovative thought sharing and greater access to our shared resources.”

The Pace-Maryland Colloquium provides a safe space for students to present their research and scholarship to top scholars in the field

Throughout the Fall 2024 Colloquium, scholarship produced by the students at both law schools was showcased, providing them a forum to present and receive feedback from experts and professionals in the field. This year, students from The George Washington University Law School also had the opportunity to share their work as well. Pace | Haub Environmental Law student presenters included Samuel Carvalho, who presented on “Advancing Climate Change Goals: Mangrove Ramsar Sites, Conservation and Restoration Through REDD+,” Jamie Lee Justice, who presented on “Against Industrial Animal Agriculture: A Human Rights Approach,” John Nervais-Gwilt, who presented on “Restoring a Dying Land: A Comparative Treaty Analysis for Central Asian Water Management and Humane Remediation,” and Lauren Shy, who presented on “The Secondhand Sustainability Scam: How the Lanham Act Can Stop Resale’s Greenwashing.”

They were supported by a Pace | Haub Environmental Law cohort of student leaders, including Environmental Law Fellow Daniel Dorough, Pace Food Law Fellow Yasmine Blakely, Environmental Law Society Chair Cassidy Yelincic, NELMCC Board Chair Francesca Gugino, and Land Use Law Scholar Jack Finn, as well as faculty members, Professors Camila Bustos and Achinthi Vithanage. Following the colloquium, they joined UMD Law’s annual guest lecture which featured Janet Coit, head of the NOAA National Marine Fisheries, followed by their annual winetasting alumni event.

Launched during the pandemic as the Pace-Maryland Online Colloquium, the event initially welcomed faculty and alumni from both schools to present on interesting research and scholarship in the environmental, energy, and natural resources law fields. In 2022, under the leadership of Professor Vithanage, the Maryland-Pace Environmental Law Alliance shifted and transformed the colloquium into an entirely student-focused event. In Spring 2022, the Colloquium was hosted virtually on a monthly basis and featured the scholarship of twelve students of Pace | Haub Environmental Law and UMD Law. Since Fall 2022, the Colloquium has been held in-person and showcased various student panels and their research papers with both Pace | Haub Environmental Law and UMD Law hosting the event. Most recently, In the spring 2024 session of the Colloquium, students from UMD Law traveled up from Baltimore, Maryland to join Pace | Haub Environmental Law students in White Plains, New York for a packed Earth Week schedule featuring the Pace Environmental Law Review Symposium on Sustainable Business Law and the 10th Anniversary of the Earth Day Jam, featuring the student-faculty band "The Recess Appointments".

It is anticipated that the Spring 2025 Colloquium will be held on Haub Law’s White Plains, NY campus and UMD Law students will travel to Haub Law for it and also attend Haub Law’s annual Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law and network at the School’s Earth Day Jam.