Please join the NIU College of Law for its next Conversation, “Environmental Justice: Communities in Crisis” on March 30 at 5:30 p.m. as part of its Race and the Law Conversations Series.
Tuesday, March 30
5:30-6:45 p.m.
Registration has ended.
Professor Kakade’s presentation, “Environmental Justice under a Biden Administration” will discuss opportunities and challenges for advancing environmental justice goals in the federal executive branch. Professor Loeb’s presentation, “Advocating for Justice in an Environmentally Overburdened Community” will discuss how low income communities of color are threatened by a grossly disproportionate share of environmental burdens and how the Environmental Advocacy Center at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law has been working with these vulnerable communities to fight back against environmental injustice. The panel will be moderated by NIU Law Prof. Emeritus Mark Cordes.
About this Event
The NIU College of Law Race and the Law Conversations series provide a platform with expert panelists who will engage in much needed conversations on a wide range of racial and social justice issues including, but limited to, racial inequality, police brutality, and mass incarceration. Our inaugural Conversation on police accountability and reform was presented by Professor Sharon Fairley, ACLU Policing Policy Advisor Paige Fernandez, and NIU Law Professor Paul Cain moderated the discussion. Our second Conversation, “Combating Structural Racism in U.S. Elections” in October 2020 was led by Stanford Law Professor Pamela S. Karlan, one of the nation’s leading experts on voting rights and moderated by NIU Law Professor Jeffrey Omari.
-PANELISTS-
Professor Seema Kakade
University of Maryland School of Law
Associate Professor of Law and
Director, Environmental Law Clinic
Professor Seema Kakade joined the University of Maryland Carey School of Law in July, 2017 and is currently an Associate Professor and Director of the Environmental Law Clinic. Professor Kakade’s research interests are in the area of air pollution, climate change, and energy. She has published articles in the top environmental law journals including the Harvard Environmental Law Review and the Ecology Law Quarterly. Professor Kakade’s legal practice experience is in environmental regulation and enforcement. Her legal practice in the Clinic specifically focuses on environmental justice matters in the mid-Atlantic region. In 2018, the Clinic received the American Bar Association’s “best student program” award.
Prior to joining the law school, Professor Kakade served as a federal government attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Civil Enforcement, and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of General Counsel. At both agencies, Professor Kakade won numerous awards for her work, including several bronze and silver medals for service, and twice received the Administrator’s Award for Excellence. Before her federal government practice, she worked as a research attorney and Co-Director of the India Program at the Environmental Law Institute. She also spent time as a litigation associate in private practice.
Professor Kakade holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a JD from the George Washington University Law School. She is the recipient of the 2019 Environmental law Institute’s “Future’s Award” and is a Fellow with the American College of Environmental Law. She is also an active member of multiple organizations dedicated to serving the greater Asian American community.
Professor Nancy Loeb
Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Clinical Associate Professor of Law
Director, Environmental Advocacy Center
Professor Nancy Loeb is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and the Director of the Environmental Advocacy Clinic at Northwestern Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic. Professor Loeb also teaches classes on Energy Law and Policy and Economics and the Environment. Professor Loeb is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board and past the Chair of the Board of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. She also serves on the board of the National Women’s Law Center. She previously served as chair and as a board member of the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing of Chicago and as a member of the board of the Chicago Bar Foundation. Before joining Northwestern Law’s faculty, Professor Loeb was the General Counsel of Takeda Pharmaceuticals, N.A., and held several legal positions at Honeywell and General Electric. She was a Law Clerk to Judge Dolores K. Sloviter of the United States Court Appeals for the Third Circuit and was a Legal Fellow at Natural Resources Defense Council. Professor Loeb received her J.D. from New York University School of Law and B.A. and M.A. degrees from Johns Hopkins University.
Having spent much of her career in different forms of private practice and public interest, Professor Loeb brings a unique perspective to her role as Director of the Environmental Advocacy Center. She finds this position so rewarding because “of the excitement of the work itself, but also the excitement of working with students, helping them to learn and seeing them energized to make a difference in solving the environmental challenges we face.”
-MODERATOR-
Professor Emeritus Mark Cordes
Northern Illinois University College of Law
Professor Emeritus Mark Cordes has taught courses in property, land use controls, constitutional law, first amendment and environmental law. He was editor-in-chief of the Willamette Law Review and served as a law clerk to Justice Thomas Tongue of the Oregon Supreme Court after graduation from law school. Prior to coming to NIU, he was a teaching fellow at Stanford Law School for two years. He served as interim dean of the NIU College of Law from June 2015 to June 2016 and was appointed interim dean again from June 2017 to June 2019.
Professor Cordes is the author of more than two dozen book chapters and law review articles in the areas of property, free speech, religion, environmental law and land use controls. He was a significant contributor to the revision of Thompson on Real Property, a leading multi-volume treatise on property law. In addition to his law review articles, he also contributed five entries to the Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties.
Professor Cordes is an avid runner, having completed sixteen marathons, including eleven Chicago Marathons. Cordes served in the U.S. Army from 1970-72, including a tour in Vietnam, where he earned the Combat Infantry Badge and the Purple Heart.
