John C. Cruden, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, will give the first David Sive Memorial Lecture on Environmental Law at Columbia Law School on Thursday, October 22, 2015, 7:00 p.m. His topic will be “The Arc of Environmental Law and the U.S. Department of Justice.”
Cruden was confirmed as the principal environmental lawyer for the United States government by the U.S. Senate on December 16, 2014. From 1991 he was chief of the Justice Department’s Environmental Enforcement Section, and then, from 1995 to 2011, was career deputy assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. He has also served as president of the Environmental Law Institute; chairman of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Natural Resources; president of the District of Columbia Bar; and chief legislative counsel of the Army.
David Sive, who graduated from Columbia Law School in 1948, was considered one of the fathers of environmental law. He argued many of the most important early cases in the field and helped found several leading groups in the field. After he passed away in 2014 at the age of 91, the law firm he co-founded, Sive Paget & Riesel, established the David Sive Memorial Fund, which is supporting (among other activities) this annual lecture series.
Introductory remarks will be given by Daniel Riesel of Sive, Paget & Riesel, and Michael B. Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice and Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Before the lecture there will be a wine and cheese reception at 6:15 pm.
The event is open to the public but registration is required; please register here. Further information is available here.
