Program Chair
Max Main
is a member of the Belle Fourche, South Dakota law firm of Bennett, Main &
Gubbrud.
He is licensed to practice in South Dakota and Wyoming. His areas of
practice are natural resources, mining, oil and gas, water and environmental
law. Professional Activities: Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation (Trustee
1986-present; Executive Committee 2003-2005; Treasurer 2005-2007; Vice
President 2009-2010); Chair, South Dakota State Bar Natural Resources and
Environmental Law Committee (1982-1985; 1996-1999; 2007-present); Bar
Commissioner, State Bar of South Dakota (1991-1994); Best Lawyers in America
(1989-present).
Education: University of Colorado School of Law, J.D.; South Dakota School
of Mines and Technology, B.S.M.E.
Program Committee and Speakers
James P. Allen is an associate with the
law firm of Snell & Wilmer, LLP, Salt Lake City, Utah. Mr. Allen received
both his B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering and his law degree from the
University of Utah (High Honors). He served as Editor in Chief, Journal of
Land, Resources & Environmental Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College
of Law and was awarded the Stephen Pierre Traynor Award for Excellence in
Legal Writing. Following law school, he participated in the O’Hara Honors
Program Fellowship in Natural Resources Law with the Utah Office of Attorney
General. Prior to joining Snell & Wilmer, Jim served as counsel to the Utah
Department of Natural Resources, including the Divisions of Oil, Gas &
Mining, Forestry, Fire & State Lands, Wildlife Resources, Water Resources,
and the Utah State Engineer. He was staff attorney and report editor for the
Utah Mine Safety Commission created by Governor Jon Hunstman to assess
Utah’s role in regulation of mine safety in the aftermath of the Crandall
Canyon Mine accidents of 2007. Mr. Allen appears regularly before the Utah
Board of Oil, Gas & Mining, and represents clients on natural resource
matters in state and federal district courts. Mr. Allen authored NEPA
Alternatives Analysis: The Evolving Exclusion of Remote & Speculative
Alternatives, 25 J. Land Resources & Envtl. L. 287 (2005).
Rebecca L. Almon is head of Ireland
Stapleton’s Environmental, Energy & Natural Resources Group. Ms. Almon
represents clients in all aspects of environmental compliance; federal,
state and local permitting; water quality protection and regulation;
groundwater quality protection; wetlands and riparian protection and
permitting; and stormwater and drainage issues. She has extensive experience
representing clients with remediation and mitigation pursuant to CERCLA and
state voluntary clean-up programs, as well as transportation, storage, and
disposal issues relating to RCRA. Ms. Almon has negotiated application and
implementation of the Endangered Species Act and the National Historic
Preservation Act, and has negotiated clients' obligations pursuant to NEPA
and the Clean Water Act, including EIS preparation, development of Section
404 permits, and water storage alternatives analyses. As an Assistant
Attorney General, Ms. Almon enforced civil environmental laws and prosecuted
violators, working closely with the Illinois EPA, Department of Public
Health and Department of Natural Resources. Ms. Almon has worked to permit
development plans in compliance with numerous federal and state
environmental laws, as well as state water law and local land use
requirements. She has advised clients regarding land use and annexation
issues pursuant to FHWA, NEPA/EIS, and NHPA permit compliance. Ms. Almon has
defended and litigated asbestos issues relating to Colorado Air Quality and
Hazardous/Solid Waste Division Regulation 8. Ms. Almon represents and
advises corporate environmental compliance, due diligence, and
sustainability for manufacturing facilities and construction companies, and
counsels clients on various matters relating to corporate mergers and
acquisitions, real estate transactions, and indemnification agreements.
David A. Bailey focuses on water
rights (adjudication and transactional) and water quality matters, wetlands,
public lands and mining, natural resources and environmental litigation and
royalty-related disputes.
He received his undergraduate decree in 1977, a master’s
degree in Natural Resources Policy from the University of Michigan in 1980
and his J.D. from the University of Colorado in 1983.
Dave advises clients on matters arising under state water law and numerous
federal statutes such as, the Clean Water Act, NEPA, ESA, FLPMA and CERCLA.
In addition, he litigates commercial claims, mostly for clients in natural
resources businesses.
Dave's practice also emphasizes government permit applications of various
types (NPDES, special use permits, etc.) and royalty-related disputes
between resource users and the federal Minerals Management Service.
Dave has written and spoken on various water law topics, the Endangered
Species Act, wetland issues, citizen suits, preemption issues and public
lands and mining litigation.
He is qualified to practice in Colorado (state and federal courts), the
Sixth, Ninth and Tenth Circuit of Appeals and the United States Supreme
Court.
Joseph H. Baird is a partner in the
mining and mineral resources law firm of Baird Hanson Williams LLP.
He provides environmental and mining counsel to a wide variety of NYSE, TSE
and venture capital mineral companies, including base and precious metal
production companies, industrial mineral producers, exploration programs and
mineral land management companies.
Mr. Baird co-founded Baird Hanson Williams LLP in June 1997, prior to that
he was a partner in the law firms of Givens Pursley and Elam Burke & Boyd.
Before moving to Idaho in 1988, Mr. Baird practiced mining and environmental
law in Colorado, where he was Associate General Attorney with Union Pacific
Resources Company and an attorney with Holland & Hart. Mr.
Baird graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1981.
He clerked for Exxon Minerals Company, USA in 1980 and the American Mining
Congress in 1979.
Prior to law school, Mr. Baird was with the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency in Washington, D.C.
He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Colgate University in 1976, with majors in
Geology and Political Science. Mr.
Baird has served the Northwest Mining Association (NWMA) continuously since
2004 as either a member of the Executive Committee or the Board of Trustees.
He is currently the Second Vice President of NWMA.
Mr. Baird has been the NWMA Environmental Chair or Co-Chair of throughout
this same period.
Mr. Baird’s
professional memberships include the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation
(former Trustee at Large) and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and
Exploration (SME).
James R. Berlow is Director of the
newly-formed Program Implementation and Information Division of EPA's Office
of Resource Conservation and Recovery. He has served as a Division Director
in this office since October, 1996.
His Division is responsible for, among other things: implementing regulatory
programs for permitting hazardous waste treatment facilities and assuring
corrective actions for facilities that have had releases of hazardous wastes
and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); promoting solutions to Tribal waste
issues; and for collecting and presenting the information necessary to
measure EPA’s
accomplishments in addressing hazardous waste issues.
His management responsibilities also include the relatively new CERCLA
108(b) initiative, in which the agency is developing financial
responsibility assurance requirements for industries that have the potential
to release hazardous substances.
In more than 30 years with EPA Mr. Berlow has held many positions.
Some of the most notable include managing development of the MACT Hazardous
Waste Combustion and Land Disposal Restrictions Rule, Manager of the
voluntary “NPEP”
program to minimize priority agency chemicals, Director of the Definition of
Solid Waste Task Force, and Director of the RCRA Reauthorization Project. He
holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Civil/Environmental Engineering
from Michigan State University, and was a registered professional engineer
in Virginia for more than 20 years.
Patricia A. Corbetta, Partner,
Environmental Resources Management, Greenwood Village, Colorado
Luke J. Danielson is a lawyer, professor
and a principal in the Sustainable Development Strategies Group, a research
organization based in Colorado, USA. He was for over eight years a member,
and three times Chairman of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board, the
state agency that issues permits for mining. He was also a Trustee of the
Colorado Abandoned Mined Land Trust, a government entity that finances and
conducts reclamation and rehabilitation of abandoned mines. He led the
multistakeholder process that developed Colorado’s current mined land
reclamation legislation in the wake of the Summitville Mine bankruptcy. Mr.
Danielson has consulted to a number of governments on issues of
rehabilitation of lands affected by mining, including Peru, Chile, and the
Peoples Republic of China, and is author of major comparative studies of the
reclamation legislation of the various U.S. states, and comparative studies
of reclamation approaches in a variety of countries. He was the Director of
the Mining Policy Research Initiative of the International Development
Research Centre, and the Director of the Mining Minerals and Sustainable
Development Project at the International Institute for Environment and
Development.
David L. Deisley is Vice President,
General Counsel at Goldcorp Inc. Prior to joining Goldcorp in September
2007, Dave served as regional general counsel for Barrick Gold Corporation’s
North America Region in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dave also was based in
Santiago, Chile for three years working with Barrick on its Pascua Lama and
Veladero projects. Prior to joining Barrick, Dave was a shareholder at
Parsons Behle & Latimer where he served as a member and chair of the firm’s
Natural Resources practice. He has presented a number of papers at Rocky
Mountain Mineral Law Foundation annual and special institutes and MALRI
seminars on various mining topics. Dave obtained his Juris Doctor from the
University of Utah College of Law and his Bachelor of Arts from Brown
University. Dave has over 20 years experience in the mining industry in
North and South America.
Denise A. Dragoo is a partner with the
law firm of Snell & Wilmer, Salt Lake City, Utah. Ms. Dragoo received her
Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado in 1973 with honors, is a
1976 graduate of the University of Utah, College of Law, and received a
Masters of Law in Environmental Law and Land Use in 1977 from the Washington
University School of Law, in St. Louis, Missouri. Ms. Dragoo is a member of
the Leadership Council for the American Bar Association’s Section on
Environment, Energy & Resources (“SEER”), and a Fellow of the American Bar
Foundation. She is a former member of the Executive Committee of the Rocky
Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and is the Utah State Bar’s Trustee to the
Foundation. Ms. Dragoo is listed in
The Best Lawyers in America (Natural Resources Law). Prior to
entering private practice, Ms. Dragoo served as Special Assistant Utah
Attorney General to the Utah Board and Division of Oil, Gas & Mining and was
responsible for drafting the Utah Coal Mining and Reclamation Act. Ms.
Dragoo practices before the Board of Oil, Gas and Mining, the Utah State
Engineer, the United States Department of the Interior, Board of Land
Appeals and state and federal courts. In September, 2009, she co-chaired
the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation’s Special Institute on Energy
Development Access, Siting, Permitting, and Delivery on Public Lands and
presented a paper on New NEPA Challenges. In February, 2006, Ms.
Dragoo co-chaired the Special Institute on “NEPA and Federal Land
Development.” She chaired the Environmental Program for the 47th Annual
Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she
presented a paper on “What’s New With NEPA? (Even After 30 Years),”
47 Rocky Mt. Min. L. Inst. 22 (2001). In November, 2002, she presented a
paper on “Compliance with Land Use Planning and NEPA Prior to Issuance of
Federal Oil and Gas Leases,” RMMLF Special Institute on Regulation and
Development of Coalbed Methane, Vol. 2002, No. 4, Paper 15A. She presented
a paper in July, 2003, entitled "Federal Land
Use Planning Primer Under FLPMA and NFMA", 49 Rocky Mt. Min. L. Inst. 22
(2003), at the 49th Annual Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute in San
Diego, California. She co-authored a paper entitled The Designation of
Coal Lands as ‘Unsuitable’ for Surface Coal Mining Operations”, 27 Rocky
Mt. Min. L. Inst. 339 (1981).
David D. Gaskin is currently Chief
of the Bureau of Mining Regulation and Reclamation, part of the Nevada
Division of Environmental Protection. He has been involved with regulation
of the mining industry in Nevada since 1993.
Prior
to that, he worked in the Mojave Desert in California as project engineering
manager for the construction and operation of large solar power plants. He
has a degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), and served for five years as an officer in
the United States Navy. Mr. Gaskin is a Registered Professional Engineer in
mechanical engineering in Nevada and California.
William T. Gorton III is national counsel to numerous
clients on natural resource, environmental regulatory and land and water
resources matters. He has been counsel in the development of over 10 power
plants. He has been lead counsel to numerous surety companies regarding
close to $2 billion in financial guarantees on mining operations, hazardous
waste facilities and solid waste disposal facilities throughout the United
States. He also counsels on natural resource sales and acquisitions. Before
embarking on a law career, Mr. Gorton managed The Kentucky office of Skelly
and Loy Engineers Consultants and managed many mining and related
environmental projects throughout the U.S. for both private and governmental
clients.
He wrote the SMCRA Title IV reclamation programs for Virginia and Alaska.
Bill has a B.S. from Penn State University and a J. D. with distinction from
The University of Kentucky College of Law.
He is an Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky teaching
Environmental Law and Regulation in the National Resources Conservation and
Management program.
He is listed in Best Lawyers in America and Chambers USA in the field of
environmental and natural resources law.
He is a Trustee for the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation.
Randall
E. Hubbard is the head of
the Energy Practice Group at Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP in Denver, Colorado.
He is a graduate of Colorado College and Harvard Law School. Mr. Hubbard’s
practice is concentrated primarily in domestic mining law, representing
clients in the business of exploring for and developing hard-rock minerals,
as well as industrial minerals, coal, uranium and other energy minerals,
primarily on federal lands in the United States. His practice also extends
to assisting North American clients seeking mining opportunities outside the
United States. Mr. Hubbard represents mining clients in both mining asset
and stock purchase transactions, the formation of joint ventures, drafting
and negotiating mining agreements, and in conducting day-to-day exploration,
development and mining activities. He has also represented clients in
obtaining financing for mining operations. In addition, his practice
involves mineral title examination. Mr. Hubbard has been actively involved
in studying proposals to amend or repeal the General Mining Law of 1872, and
has provided or assisted in preparation of testimony on those proposals to
the United States Senate and House of Representatives. He also participated
in the preparation of two studies evaluating the economic impact of proposed
revisions of the 1872 Mining Law. He is a contributing author to “The
American Law of Mining.” He has also published several articles on various
mining law issues. From 2000-2005, Mr. Hubbard was an adjunct professor at
the University of Denver School of Law, teaching a mining law course. He is
also currently the co-chair of the Mining Law Review Sub-Committee of the
Colorado Mining Association Hard Rock Minerals Committee, and a past
chairperson of and legislative liaison for the Mineral Law Section of the
Colorado Bar Association. He is active in the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law
Foundation, serving as a member of the Special Institutes Committee and on
the editorial board of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Journal.
He has previously served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rocky
Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, and as a vice-chair of the Hard Minerals
Committee of the American Bar Association Section on Natural Resources,
Energy and Environmental Law.
James M. King
is a partner in the Denver office of Baker & Hostetler LLP. Jim's practice
has concentrated on all aspects of public land law, mining law, real
property law and construction law, including transactional work related to a
wide variety of contractual relationships involving numerous types of
minerals. His practice has also involved litigation before several
administrative tribunals and state and federal courts concerning the rights
of mining claimants and other citizens to use of the public lands, disputes
related to mining agreements, and the rights of conflicting claimants to
mining property, water rights and other rights in real property.
He has represented mine owners on major mine construction contracts, some
for multi-billion dollar projects.
Jim graduated from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor of Science
Degree in electrical engineering in 1970 and a Juris Doctorate Degree from
its College of Law in 1976.
While in law school, Jim worked as a law clerk for the Rocky Mountain
Mineral Law Foundation.
Jim has since served on numerous Foundation committees, including the
Executive Committee which is the primary governing committee for the
Foundation.
Jim was the 2004-05 President of the Foundation and is now a lifetime
trustee.
He has written several papers and articles on selected areas of mining law,
public land law and mineral contracting, including "Risk Allocation in
Consulting and Mine Construction Contracts," presented at the Foundation's
37th Annual Institute.
He has also taught and spoken at numerous educational seminars and to
numerous professional groups and undergraduate, graduate and law school
classes about mining and real property legal issues.
He presently teaches a course on Negotiating Natural Resources Agreements in
the Graduate Studies Program in Environmental and Natural Resources Law &
Policy at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
He is also a member of the Title Standards Committee of the Colorado Bar
Association.
John Koerth is the program manager
for the Abandoned Mine Land program at Montana Department of Quality.
He has been with the program for 20 years, with prior experience in
consulting as well as the construction and mining industry.
John has a bachelor degree in Agriculture from Montana State University with
an emphasis in mined land reclamation.
John is the Montana delegate to the National Association of Abandoned Mine
Land Programs (NAAMLP) an organization that he has been involved with for
the past 20 years.
John is an acknowledged expert in history and industrial archeology as it
relates to Montana mining sites.
He has presented talks on Montana mining history at the Montana Historical
Society, to various local history groups, and at the convention of the
Western Writers of America.
John has written book reviews on mining topics for Montana the Magazine of
Western History, Oregon Historical Quarterly, and the Journal of the Society
for Industrial Archeology.
He has represented the State of Montana as an expert witness in the ASARCO
bankruptcy trials, producing expert reports and written testimony.
John lives in Helena, Montana with his wife and two children.
Ben Lesser
has served since the first of this year as Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor
to the Director, Program Implementation and Information Division, in the
Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
He also serves as Project Manager for the relatively new CERCLA 108(b)
initiative, in which the agency is developing financial responsibility
assurance requirements for industries that have the potential to release
hazardous substances. Lesser
most recently served as Chief of the EPA’s
Analysis and Information Branch, where he established a record of
innovations in improving the information EPA uses to show results and in
supporting the agency’s
voluntary hazardous waste minimization program. In his 18 years at EPA
Lesser has held widely varying positions including: Agency
“PART”
Coordinator—leading
EPA’s
support of the successful Program Assessment Rating Tool accomplishments
confirmation process; Planning and Budget Officer; Coordinator of five
“Wet
Weather”
Water Pollution Teams; Deputy Leader of EPA’s
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Task Force; and Communications
Director for EPA’s
Office of Water. Lesser’s
primary interests at EPA are leading change and transforming government
performance. Before joining EPA Lesser served in the U.S. Senate as
Legislative Assistant for Environment and Public Works, and he spent 12
years as a television news reporter, anchor and news director. Ben Lesser
has lived and worked in five Western states and now makes his home in the
Alexandria, Virginia area.
Andres Meglioli, Partner, Environmental
Resources Management, Greenwood Village, Colorado
Hal J. Pos is a shareholder in the
Environmental, Energy and Natural Resources department where he concentrates
on environmental and mining matters with particular emphasis on CERCLA
liability and property acquisition transactions. His practice experience
includes conducting environmental due diligence in connection with mineral
and real estate acquisitions and financings and environmental liability
reviews and audits for mining facilities, including gold and coal mines;
development of mine and land closure programs with a particular view toward
minimizing potential CERCLA liability; negotiating and drafting
environmental indemnity agreements; representing potentially responsible
parties under CERCLA in negotiations and litigation with other potentially
responsible parties, state and federal agencies and insurance companies
concerning site cleanups; advising clients on climate change and greenhouse
gas emission issues; and representing parties in environmental civil and
criminal enforcement matters.
Hal has published and presented numerous papers before state bars and
professional organizations on CERCLA topics. He currently serves as Vice
President and is on the Board of Directors of Parsons Behle & Latimer. Hal
formerly chaired the firm's hiring committee. He also is a former chairman
of the Board of Litigation of Mountain States Legal Foundation and of the
Environmental Committee of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce.
He maintains Martindale- Hubble's highest rating, an A V, and is recognized
in the environmental law section of Best Lawyers in America.
William B. Prince is a partner in
Dorsey & Whitney LLP's Salt Lake City office where he co-chairs the firm's
national Energy Practice Group. His practice includes domestic and
international mining transactions, natural resources-related environmental
and compliance matters, and energy development projects.
Bill is the current co-chairman of the Special Institutes Committee, a past
trustee of the Foundation and chaired and co-chaired the Mining Section for
the 40th Annual and 54th Annual Rocky Mountain Mineral
Law Institute respectively.
He has served as the chairman of the Energy, Natural Resources and
Environmental Section of the Utah State Bar, trustee of the Northwest Mining
Association, member of the Board of Directors of the Hemispheric
Environmental Business Council, and chairman of the Great Basin Chapter of
the Air &Waste Management Association.
He was a founding member of the International Mining Professionals Society.
He served for two years as chairman of the Hard Minerals Committee of the
ABA Section of Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law (SONREEL) and
chaired two ABA SONREEL annual conferences on Developments and Trends in
Public Law and Mining.
He authored “Joint
Development of Coal and Coalbed Methane”
presented at the 48th Annual Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute
in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and at the Foundation’s
Special Institute on Regulation and Development of Coalbed Methane.
Bill is the co-author of "Developing an Environmental Regulatory
Model-Piecing Together the Growing Diversity of International Environmental
Standards and Agendas" presented at the Foundation’s
Special Institute on International Resources Law and republished in the
Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy and a
co-author of International Environmental Auditing published by
Government Institutes.
He has participated in numerous seminars in the Western United States,
Canada and Latin America dealing with mineral development and environmental
law.
Bill is a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and has lived in Peru, Ecuador,
Denver, and Washington, D.C. He earned his J.D. from the University of Utah
College of Law. In a prior life, he was a river guide in Colorado, Utah and
Arizona.
Thomas E. Root received his
bachelor’s
degree from the University of Colorado (BA
– English
Literature, 1970), a law degree from the University of Wyoming (JD, 1973),
and master’s
degrees from the University of Denver (Environmental Policy and Management,
1996, Law, 1998).
He taught law periodically at the University of Denver College of Law from
1980 -2002, where he is an adjunct professor of law. He was an editor and
author of the American Law of Mining, 2nd (Rocky Mountain Mineral
Law Foundation, 1988).
He wrote a monograph on the history of railroad land grants for the American
Bar Association (Land Grants from Canals to Transcontinentals, ABA
Press).
He has authored law review articles which were published by the University
of Wyoming, the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and the American Bar
Association. He has served as Trustee of the Denver Bar Association,
Chairman of the Geothermal Energy and Coal Committees of the American Bar
Association, and as a member of the governing Council of the Section on
Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law. He participated in the
permitting/licensing of three mine/mill complexes, was project manager of a
six billion ton coal project, and successfully litigated five water rights
cases before the Idaho Supreme Court. He has represented clients at hardrock
Superfund sites in Colorado, Idaho and Montana.
He represented clients who undertook voluntary cleanups throughout the
United States. He currently is a special assistant attorney general with the
State of Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Remediation Division,
in Helena, Montana, representing the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program
in reclamation of abandoned coal and non-coal mined lands. He is admitted to
practice law in the states of Montana, Illinois and Colorado, the Seventh,
Ninth and Tenth Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal, and the United States
Supreme Court.
Alexander
“Alec”
R. Rothrock is a shareholder
with the Greenwood Village, Colorado law firm of Burns, Figa & Will, P.C. He
received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of
Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1981 and a Juris Doctor degree from DePaul
University College of Law in Chicago in 1984. Mr. Rothrock practices in the
areas of legal ethics and the law of practicing law. Mr. Rothrock is the
author of the book, Essays on Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct in
Colorado (Continuing Legal Education of Colorado, Inc. 2003) and a
former chair of the Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee.
Luke J. Russell
has over 25 years of national and international environmental, mining, and
project management experience. He is currently the VP Environmental Services
for Coeur d’Alene
Mines. He is responsible for project permitting, negotiating environmental
agreements, compliance and environmental management systems as well as
project closure planning. His experience also includes serving as a CERCLA
remedial project manager with the State of Idaho. His education includes a
Master of Science in Land Rehabilitation/Soil Science from Montana State
University and a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from the
University of Wisconsin
–
Madison.
He
and his family enjoy cowboy poetry and Idaho whitewater rafting.
Elizabeth A. Schulte is a member of
Parsons Behle & Latimer’s Environmental, Energy and Natural Resources
department and concentrates her practice on water law and environmental and
natural resources litigation. She is currently serving as the chair for the
Environmental Committee of the Utah State Bar's Energy, Natural Resources
and Environmental Law Section. She graduated with a J.D. degree from the
University of Utah, where she was a Dewsnup Fellow, received the Stegner
Certificate in Environmental Law and was editor-in-chief of the Journal of
Land Resources and Environmental Law. In 1997, she graduated with a master’s
degree in natural resources sociology from Utah State University and
received an Environmental and Natural Resources Policy Certificate. She
graduated from Hobart & William Smith Colleges with a bachelor’s degree in
sociology in 1990. Ms. Schulte’s professional experience includes four
years of management/director work at The Nature Conservancy of Utah. She
also worked as an environmental consultant at BIO/WEST, Inc.
Al Trippel is a Partner with
Environmental Resources Management (ERM) and is based in Midland, Michigan.
He earned his M.S. Geology in 1985 from Colorado State University and B.S.
Geology in 1981 from Michigan State University.
Mr. Trippel has over 25 years of experience in the mining industry and
environmental consulting field working with
mining, chemical, manufacturing, and government clients in North America and
globally.
In the mining industry, he managed metallic mineral exploration,
development, mining, and environmental issues for future, current, and
legacy mine sites. His
consulting expertise includes EHS and Sustainability management for mine and
industrial site permitting, environmental and social impact assessments,
compliance resolution, remediation, closure and reclamation, financial
assurance, environmental management systems, sustainability programs,
stakeholder relations, government relations, media management, and
legislative support.
Patricia J. Winmill is a
shareholder in the Environmental, Energy & Natural Resources Department of
Parsons Behle & Latimer, a Salt Lake City based law firm, with offices in
Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pat’s
practice focuses on public land, mining, title and access issues.
Pat has represented clients in the hardrock mining, coal, and oil and gas
industries for over 25 years. Pat is a graduate of Idaho State University
(B.A., with highest honors, 1976) and the University of Utah (J.D. 1980),
where she was a member of the Utah Law Review and Order of the Coif.
Before joining Parsons Behle & Latimer in 1981, Pat clerked for the
Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals. She was the Mining Chair of the 53rd
Annual Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute, and is a past chairman of the
Mining Committee of the Energy and Natural Resources Section of the Utah
State Bar.
Pat is a past president and currently an emeritus member of the Alumni Board
of Trustees of the S. J. Quinney University of Utah College of Law.
In 2006, she was named the Alumna of the Year by her law school alma mater.
Pat is a trustee at large of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, a
past Contributing and Updating Author for the American Law of Mining II and
the Federal Mining Reporter for Rocky Mountain’s
Mineral Law Newsletter.
She has presented a number of papers at past Rocky Mountain annual and
special institutes and MALRI seminars on the subjects of the Mining Law,
mining claim regulations, environmental institutional controls, access
issues, public lands, natural resource condemnation issues, title
examination and title curative issues.
