Theodore W. Kheel Center on the
Resolution of Environmental Interest Disputes
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The Kheel Center on the Resolution of Environmental Interest Disputes was created in April of 2008 with the support of a generous grant by the well-known labor arbitrator and mediator Theodore W. Kheel. The Center’s work focuses on environmental interest disputes of critical importance to communities, states, and regions that require innovative resolution strategies and forums. Its mission is to train law students and lawyers in the skills that practicing attorneys need to address conflicts arising from climate change and other critical environmental and land use issues that may not be amenable to resolution by traditional means of adjudication. |
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Theodore Woodrow Kheel
May 9, 1914 – November 12, 2010
Theodore W. Kheel, Mediator, passed away on Friday, November 12 at the age of 96. Mr. Kheel will be missed by those whose lives he touched at Pace Law School and the Theodore W. Kheel Center on the Resolution of Environmental Interest Disputes, which he founded.
When asked in a 2003 interview with the New York Times, “How would you like to be remembered?” Mr. Kheel responded, “… I think I would like to be remembered in terms of conflict resolution.” Mr. Kheel was regarded as a “master locksmith of deadlock bargaining” and had been credited by The New Yorker with keeping the “sputtering labor machinery” of New York City and much of the Eastern Seaboard in working order in his work as a peacemaker.
Though primarily known for his work in labor negotiations, Mr. Kheel devoted much of his late career to sustainable development. He endowed the Theodore W. Kheel Center for the Resolution of Environmental Interest Disputes at Pace Law School and established the Institute to Nurture New York's Nature at the City University of New York's Queens College. The Kheel Center’s work focuses on environmental interest disputes of critical importance to communities, states, and regions that require innovative resolution strategies and forums. The staff of the Kheel Center remain committed to Mr. Kheel’s belief that conflicts that threaten the public interest can be resolved and perpetuating his effective techniques. Its mission is to train law students and lawyers in the skills that practicing attorneys need to address conflicts arising from climate change and other critical environmental and land use issues that may not be amenable to resolution by traditional means of adjudication. "The opportunity that we have at the Kheel Center to study and emulate Mr. Kheel's conflict resolution theories and practice is one that must be fulfilled, now more than ever,” says Professor John R. Nolon, Director of the Kheel Center.
Though Mr. Kheel may no longer be with us, his legacy will surely reach through the generations. His work in conflict resolution lives on in the numerous training programs and events sponsored by the Kheel Center, most recently a conference entitled Rediscovering Sustainability Law and a training program addressing sea level rise. The Kheel Center also collaborated to publish a special edition of the Pace Environmental Law Review entitled “Environmental Interest Dispute Resolution: Changing Times-Changing Practice,” featuring articles by practitioners, academics, and Pace Law School students. The issue, containing articles by Kheel Center advisors and noted ADR specialists, is devoted to examining the skills with which lawyers can equip themselves to meet the needs of a changing society whose legal system has traditionally been centered around an adversarial practice. According to Professor Nolon, “[Mr. Kheel’s] legacy is needed today as much as his presence was in decades past.”
If you are interested in obtaining a printed version of this book, please contact the Pace Environmental Law Review: pelr@law.pace.edu.
Working with masters students at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the Kheel Center is compiling information on cutting edge tools and techniques used by state and local governments to manage climate change. As part of the Land Use Planning Practice course, taught by Professor John R. Nolon, Director of the Kheel Center, the students’ research projects cover nearly two dozen topics, including adaptation to sea level rise, building communities that are resilient to natural disasters, enhanced transit oriented development zoning, energy efficient buildings, developing sustainable buildings on sustainable sites, and green infrastructure.
New Training Program:
Kheel Center Announces Sea Level Rise Training Program
Pace's Kheel Center and Land Use Law Center have been awarded a grant from the National Sea Grant Law Center to conduct a sea level rise training program in the Hudson Valley. The program will be the first of its kind in the region. The selected communities will represent municipalities that are under increasing pressures from sea level rise and storm hazards that threaten community character, sustainable coastal development, and coastal ecosystems. The program will involve and educate the land use board members from Planning, Zoning, and Conservation Commissions, as well as other key community leaders representing local landowners, developers, Sea Grant extension agents, fishermen, coastal managers, chamber of commerce leaders, business leaders and civic and environmental group representatives. The curriculum for the program will emphasize the relationship between these coastal communities, the health and well being of the Hudson River and non-point source activities, technical assistance on land use law, innovative approaches to sea level rise adaptation, economic development, hazard mitigation, and natural resource protection to strengthen community planning, regulation and informed decision-making. Best management practices to maintain water quality and low impact development techniques will also be highlighted.
Click here for program details
New resource:
Click here for a List of Helpful Links to EDR Related Organizations, Publications, and Mediators. More to come!
Kheel Center Cover Story in Alumni Magazine
The Kheel Center was the focus of the cover story for Pace Law School's Spring 2009 Alumni Magazine. The article, Resolving Mankind's Greatest Challenges: Pace Law School Charts a Path to End Environmental Disputes, features the work of Ted Kheel, his vision for solving the climate crisis, and the work of the Kheel Center in carrying out this vision. "One of the most powerful and compelling voices on the environment and its legal ramifications belongs not to some legal eagle poised at a bank of microphones on the courthouse steps, or even to Al Gore, but to a nonagenarian named Theodore W. Kheel.... 'Climate change is the most serious problem we face today,' said Kheel, 'and resolution between the environment and development is absolutely essential to survival of life on this planet.'" See the cover and read the full article, found on page 20.
Our Mission
The Kheel Center focuses on the practices of lawyers whose clients’ conflicts are best resolved outside traditional litigation and adjudication forums. Distinct skills are needed to resolve conflicts that are precipitated by climate change and acute pressures on land and non-renewable resources where rights are less developed, multiple parties are involved, and scientific facts are imprecise. The central question the Kheel Center answers is how to use the experience and skills of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) professionals to train law students and lawyers who counsel the growing number of clients that are involved in these emerging environmental conflicts. The Center offers:
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Continuing legal education programs in conjunction with Pace's Center for Continuing Legal Education
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Conferences, seminars, and clinics
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Academic law school courses
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Research and publications
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Advocacy