The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is pleased to announce that Sam Kalen will deliver the annual Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Lecture on Environmental Law. Professor Kalen is the William T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the University of Wyoming College of Law, as well as the founder and co-director of the School’s Center for Law and Energy Resources in the Rockies. Also, he is currently the Visiting McKinney Family Chair in Environmental Law at IU McKinney School of Law. His lecture will take place on the Haub Law campus on Tuesday, October 3, 2023 and focus on The Supreme Court’s Approach Toward the Administrative State and Implications for Environmental Programs.

“As the nation’s top ranked environmental law program, we continuously strive to recognize leaders at the forefront of the field while also providing a platform for our law school community to learn from these thought-leaders,” said Professor Jason Czarnezki, Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law and Associate Dean for Environmental Law Programs and Strategic Initiatives at Haub Law. “Each year, our annual Kerlin lecture features a renowned expert in environmental law and this year, we are fortunate enough for that expert to be Professor Sam Kalen. I along with the Haub Law community look forward to learning from his shared insights and experiences on environmental law, public lands, natural resources, energy, administrative law, and more during this year’s lecture.”

The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University has enjoyed a collaborative relationship with Professor Kalen in the past, including an intensive Natural Resources Law and Policy Field Course, which he co-taught with Haub Law’s Professor Jason Czarnezki in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Professor Kalen’s areas of expertise and interest include a variety of areas that impact environmental, public lands and natural resources, energy, and administrative law. He spent years practicing in each of these areas, including working with Indigenous Peoples and Tribal Nations, and attempts to explore these areas in both the classroom and in his scholarship. Before joining the University of Wyoming, Professor Kalen taught as a visitor or adjunct at a number of other law schools. He also served in the Solicitor’s Office at the Department of the Interior during the Clinton administration, and he practiced for many years with a Washington, DC, law firm. Immediately after law school, he clerked at the Missouri Supreme Court.

Professor Kalen alternates teaching a variety of courses, including Environmental Law, Administrative Law, Legislation, Legal History, Public Lands & Natural Resources, Energy Law, Energy & Climate Law & Policy, and Indian Law, in addition to a variety of field courses. Professor Kalen also has worked collaboratively with the University of Wyoming’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources. Professor Kalen is the author and co-author of numerous law review articles, including one that was cited and quoted in a Supreme Court opinion. One of his recent law review articles appeared in Maryland Law Review, on "Public Land Management’s Future Place: Envisioning a Paradigm Shift" (Vol 82, page 240, 2023). He also is a co-author of the American Bar Association’s Endangered Species Basic Practice Series book (2nd edition), a co-author of Natural Resources Law and Policy (3rd ed. Foundation Press), and a co-author Energy Follies: Missteps, Fiascos, and Successes of America’s Energy Policy (Cambridge U. Press 2018). Professor Kalen earned his BA from Clark University in Worcester, Mass., his JD from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, and he spent a year studying legal history and constitutional thought in a PhD program at the University of Virginia.

The Elisabeth Haub School of Law established the Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Lecture on Environmental Law to expand its programs of research, education, professional and scholarly activity and publications in environmental law, a field for which the law school has received national and international recognition. The Kerlin endowment funds a named professorship on Environmental Law at Haub Law. Professor Nicholas A. Robinson, founder of the law school’s environmental program, was named the first Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Distinguished Professor in 1999 and Professor Jason J. Czarnezki was designated as the second Kerlin Distinguished Professor in 2013. The last Kerlin lecture was given by Jeffrey Prieto, General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).