Mayor of Nashville Appoints 2008 Vanderbilt JD... Forum

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whitman

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Mayor of Nashville Appoints 2008 Vanderbilt JD...

Post by whitman » Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:24 pm

...Director of brand new Office of Environment and Sustainability, with a stated goal of making Nashville "the greenest city in the southeast."

Not a bad gig for a 2008 JD grad.


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Observationalist, does this mean that there will be more environmental law positions in Nashville in the future? Potential for Vanderbilt law students to get involved in making Nashville "the greenest city in the southeast" during and after law school?

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legalease9

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Re: Mayor of Nashville Appoints 2008 Vanderbilt JD...

Post by legalease9 » Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:26 pm

lol. I visited Nashville recently and was pleasantly surprised by how strongly pro-environment they are.

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Re: Mayor of Nashville Appoints 2008 Vanderbilt JD...

Post by observationalist » Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:10 pm

whitman wrote:...Director of brand new Office of Environment and Sustainability, with a stated goal of making Nashville "the greenest city in the southeast."

Not a bad gig for a 2008 JD grad.


--LinkRemoved--

Observationalist, does this mean that there will be more environmental law positions in Nashville in the future? Potential for Vanderbilt law students to get involved in making Nashville "the greenest city in the southeast" during and after law school?
He's a great guy... Mayor Dean made that announcement at the beginning of our Nashville ELPAR conference at the law school. He was also formerly on the board of ELPAR (actually helped Vandenbergh and Breggin launch the journal) and President of ELS back at Vanderbilt, so I'd like to think this means that after two years of experience I can say I'm qualified to be the senior environmental attorney for a mid-sized city. Though I guess it would also require two years of practice as an environmental attorney, and there's no guarantee what I'll be doing in Chile is the actual practice of law... will most likely be environmental policy stuff.

As far as this leading to more legal staff, I'm not sure how large the office is going to be but it's possible they'll add another attorney (most likely pulling from private practice like what they did with Bowles). It does mean a great new option for student externships though, which is great.

Other than this, the Environmental Law Society has been working for the last year or so to try and bring a Cumberland Riverkeeper program based in Nashville. A new program would need lawyers to help them litigate, which means ELS could push for the creation of a new environmental clinic based on the Riverkeeper/Pace model. We also have built up a lot of great connections with the enviro community in town as a result of this effort, so if nothing else people can work for places like the Land Trust for Tennessee and the Tennessee Environmental Council.

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Re: Mayor of Nashville Appoints 2008 Vanderbilt JD...

Post by VU2011 » Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:12 am

As a lifelong Nashvillian and a Vanderbilt pre-law undergrad, this is an interesting and cool piece of news. Good for the law school's reputation, and I imagine that it would lure some aspiring environmental law students to take a look at the program. A member of the law school faculty also received an offer to join the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, so Vanderbilt Law is receiving good publicity across the board at the moment (--LinkRemoved--).

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whitman

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Re: Mayor of Nashville Appoints 2008 Vanderbilt JD...

Post by whitman » Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:17 am

Nashvillian here as well. I'd been leaning toward school and a career in another state - probably DC for the career - , but I have been getting more and more interested in trying to live and work in Nashville and help it continue to grow as a city. This is good news, even if it is just a one person office at this point. I know they're working on public transportation and the steps are likely to be small, but a light rail connecting Belle Meade, Bellevue, Brentwood, Franklin, etc, to downtown would be so clutch. And good public transportation from suburbs into the city, as well as around the city - especially on weekends and at night - would be clutch for cutting down emissions; reducing drunk driving, accidents, and traffic; and generally make the city much more livable and enjoyable.

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Re: Mayor of Nashville Appoints 2008 Vanderbilt JD...

Post by observationalist » Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:50 am

whitman wrote:Nashvillian here as well. I'd been leaning toward school and a career in another state - probably DC for the career - , but I have been getting more and more interested in trying to live and work in Nashville and help it continue to grow as a city. This is good news, even if it is just a one person office at this point. I know they're working on public transportation and the steps are likely to be small, but a light rail connecting Belle Meade, Bellevue, Brentwood, Franklin, etc, to downtown would be so clutch. And good public transportation from suburbs into the city, as well as around the city - especially on weekends and at night - would be clutch for cutting down emissions; reducing drunk driving, accidents, and traffic; and generally make the city much more livable and enjoyable.
I agree light rail would be great, and it's something that could happen in the next decade. Vanderbilt grad students all get to ride the Metro for free, which has saved me a lot of money over the last couple of years. Anyone who lives on the Number 7 or 3 lines (or even 2) can manage to get back and forth from school easily, provided they aren't trying to come home after 10pm or so.

Being able to take the bus/light rail home would definitely cut down on drunk driving, though it would also cut down on all the money Metro police bring in by pulling people over when they're going 31 in a 30mph section of West End.

Lesson to prospective law students (and current Nashville residents): don't drink and drive, and definitely watch out for speed limit changes around town.

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