Faculty

Staff Attorney, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic and Assistant Professor of Law
Phone: 802-831-1624
Email: chrisahlers@vermontlaw.edu
Christopher Ahlers is a fellow at the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, where he serves as a staff attorney managing projects in collaboration and partnership with the Toxics Action Center. More…
Hillary Hoffmann
Professor of Law
Phone: 802-831-1205
Email: hhoffmann@vermontlaw.edu
Professor Hillary Hoffmann teaches Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law, Advanced Appellate Advocacy, and Appellate Advocacy at Vermont Law School.
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Deputy Director, Senior Fellow for Energy Technology and Policy, Institute for Energy and the Environment
Phone: 802-831-1054
Email: kbjones@vermontlaw.edu
Professor Kevin Jones is Smart Grid project leader at the Institute for Energy and the Environment. Seeking solutions to the energy and environmental policy challenges facing the electric power industry has been the focus of his career. More…

Senior Counsel, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic and Professor of Law
Phone: 802-831-1305
Email: pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu
Patrick A. Parenteau is nationally recognized for his expertise regarding endangered species and biological diversity, water quality and wetlands, environmental policy and litigation, and land use and property rights.More…

Associate Dean for Innovation and New Programs and Professor of Environmental Law
Phone: 802-831-1000
Email: rpurdom@vermontlaw.edu
Professor Rebecca Purdom is known for her work in water and natural resource management, environmental human rights, nonprofit management and policy, and sustainability education. More…

Director, Center for Agriculture and Food Systems and Associate Professor of Law
Phone: 802-831-1230
Email: lristino@vermontlaw.edu
Professor Ristino is director of the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) and an associate professor of law. As director, she is responsible for CAFS vision and direction, including curriculum development, teaching, outreach, and advocacy. Professor Ristino is also the faculty advisor to VLS’s Food and Agriculture Law Society.More…

Director, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic and Professor of Law
Phone: 802-831-1136
Email: druley@vermontlaw.edu
Douglas A. Ruley is the director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic. He has litigated multiple environmental cases over the past two decades. He began his career with a federal court clerkship, followed by five years as a litigation associate at Tharrington & Smith in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1993, he became a staff attorney for Earthjustice in Juneau, Alaska, and brought cases to protect Alaska’s great rainforests and to conserve the marine resources of the Bering Sea. More…

Associate Dean, Environmental Law Program; Director, Environmental Law Center; and Associate Professor of Law
Phone: 802-831-1066
Email: mscanlan@vermontlaw.edu
Professor Melissa K. Scanlan is the Associate Dean of the Environmental Law Program and Director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School. Prior to joining VLS, she was the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Water Law and Policy Scholar, where she led a pilot project on interdisciplinary water research and teaching. She was also a lead consultant involved in launching the Center for Water Policy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences 2011. More…

Director of Water and Justice and Visiting Professor of Law
Phone: 802-831-1000
Email: jtuholske@vermontlaw.edu
Jack Tuholske has practiced natural resource law for more than 26 years and has been lead counsel on more than 45 published decisions. He combines private practice in Missoula, Montana, with appointments as a visiting professor at Vermont Law School and the University of Montana Law School. More…
LLM
William Schulte
LLM Fellow, U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law
William (BJ) Schulte joined the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law (PEL) as an LLM Fellow in July 2013. BJ brings both environmental and international experience to PEL. Prior to joining PEL, BJ spent five years practicing environmental law in the public interest in Newark, New Jersey. During that time he represented environmental and community groups on matters related to environmental permit reviews, environmental justice, air pollution reduction, watershed protection, and energy infrastructure proposals, among others. Additionally, BJ spent two years serving on the Jersey City Environmental Commission, where he worked with his fellow Commissioners and local citizen groups to push environmental initiatives on the municipal level. While in law school BJ worked as a student clinician in the Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic in addition to spending a summer researching evidentiary issues related to the Khmer Rouge Tribunals as an intern for the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. He also spent about a year and a half studying Mandarin at Yunnan University in Kunming before attending law school, and is very happy for the opportunity to combine his environmental law and China experience to support PEL’s mission and programs.
Stuart Souther is an Environmental Law LL.M. candidate at Vermont Law School with a focus on climate disruption and energy policy. He has two decades of experience as a corporate attorney, most recently serving as general counsel of Hoya Corporation, a Japanese public company and, after Hoya’s successful tender offer for Pentax Corporation, as a member of Pentax’s board of directors. Stuart has also served as chief legal officer of Hewlett-Packard Japan, Ltd. and as a staff attorney at Hewlett-Packard Financial Services. He began his legal career as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and was also an associate at Jones Day in Geneva, Switzerland and elsewhere. Stuart received degrees in law and in East Asian Studies from Duke University and was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Tokyo in 1992-93.
Students
Jake Beckstrom, JD/MELP ’15, a native Minnesotan, is a staff editor at VJEL. He graduated summa cum laude from Southwest Minnesota State University with a degree in environmental science. He strongly believes in science-based conservation to protect our natural heritage so that it may be maintained and used wisely by today’s generation in order to bestow its privileges to future generations. He enjoys outdoor activities including hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping. He plans to practice environmental law with a focus on water law and policy.








