The Southeastern Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (SPIEL) will be held the weekend of Oct 10 -12 on the beautiful campus of Sewanee (University of the South), atop the Cumberland Plateau near Chattanooga, Tennessee.
This conference – in its second year – is intended primarily for environmental attorneys, activists, scholars and leaders in the environmental movement, and was founded as a forum for learning, networking, and cross-pollinating ideas and strategies. Registration is now open and is very reasonable at $25 per day for those not seeking CLE credits, and is free for high school and college students.
Keynote speakers for the SPIEL conference are:
Dr. John Bonine, attorney, author, academic and a pioneer in the field of environmental law. In the 1970s Dr. Bonine served as Associate General Counsel of the U.S Environmental Protection Agency and subsequently joined the faculty of the University of Oregon where he created the world’s first environmental law clinic: Western Environmental Law Clinic. He also established the long-running Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, the largest such conference in the discipline, which is operated entirely by students and known in some circles as the Woodstock of environmental law. Dr. Bonine is also the cofounder of ELAW, the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, which connects 300 environmental lawyers in 70 countries.
Jared Sullivan, author of “Valley So Law – One Lawyer’s Fight for Justice in the Wake of America’s Great Coal Catastrophe.” Sullivan’s 2024 book chronicles the aftermath of the massive coal waste spill at the TVA Kingston plant in Tennessee which inundated the Clinch and Emory Rivers with coal ash. The subsequent cleanup of the spill resulted in dozens of deaths as workers were exposed to toxic dust and refused protective gear.
The conference will offer 26 sessions and workshops on a wide variety of topics, from FEMA to CAFOs to the Trump administration’s assault on the legal framework of NEPA.
The SPIEL conference is an annual convergence dedicated to serving the members and supporters of the public interest environmental movement of the American Southeast. This event brings together public interest environmental attorneys, scientists, grassroots environmental advocates, academics, and students to network and share ideas, skills, and research and through presentations, hands-on workshops, and discussions in a community-building weekend of fellowship at the idyllic University of the South at Sewanee – recently named one of the ten “Most Beautiful College Campuses” by Travel and Leisure. Sewanee’s location and 14,000 acres of forest also helps SPIEL go beyond the traditional lecture hall format, with some outdoor sessions on topics like forest ecology and public lands management issues.
Whether you wish to share your wisdom as a presenter or gain wisdom as a participant, please join us this October. Register now and don’t miss this vital event for our region. For more information and to view the conference schedule, please visit www.spielconference.net
