2025 Villanova Environmental Law Journal Blank Rome LLP Symposium, 02/07

“New Developments in Environmental Litigation”

Friday, February 7
9:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Laurence E. Hirsch ’71 Classroom (Room 101)
John F. Scarpa Hall

Recent major court decisions at the federal and state levels will have important consequences for environmental litigation. In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a spate of major administrative law decisions, including one that overturned the longstanding Chevron doctrine. In July, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted environmental groups the right to intervene in litigation over the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and in that decision indicated support for the groups’ efforts to invoke the Commonwealth’s Environmental Rights Amendment. Environmental lawyers have been left scrambling to foresee how these and other recent cases will affect the field of environmental law moving forward.

The 2025 Villanova Environmental Law Journal Blank Rome LLP Symposium will examine two major areas of recent development in environmental litigation: (1) environmental enforcement in the context of recent Supreme Court administrative law precedent and (2) potential uses of Pennsylvania’s Environmental Rights Amendment to advance environmental justice in the Commonwealth. Panels will bring together experts from the academy, government, private practice, and nonprofit organizations to discuss how recent cases in these areas will change environmental litigation.

The Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board has approved this symposium for 3 substantive CLE credits. Please note registration for this event is required.

AGENDA

9:00 a.m.: Welcome

9:15 a.m.: The Future of Environmental Enforcement

• David M. Uhlmann, Jeffrey F. Liss Professor from Practice, Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Program &  Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Sustainability, University of Michigan Law School, and Former Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance

9:45 a.m.: Environmental Enforcement Under New Administrative Law Principles
This panel will examine how recent major U.S. Supreme Court administrative law decisions such as Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned the Chevron doctrine, will affect environmental litigation and especially environmental enforcement.

10:45 a.m.: Break

11:00 a.m.: Pennsylvania’s Environmental Rights Amendment

• Margaret Murphy, Attorney, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection

11:20 a.m.: Environmental Rights Amendment and Environmental Justice
This panel will examine the implications of Pennsylvania’s Environmental Rights Amendment for environmental justice litigation in the Commonwealth.