IIT Chicago-Kent Baum Fellowships awarded to 12 students for public interest work in the Chicago Environmental Law Clinic
Twelve students in IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law's Program in Environmental and Energy Law are completing their term as Spring 2011 Baum Fellows. The Baum fellowship program was established at Chicago-Kent and is supported by the Alvin H. Baum Family Fund. Fellows are selected each semester by Chicago-Kent's dean and the director of the law school's Program in Environmental and Energy Law. Selection is based on the students' work in the Chicago Environmental Law Clinic, a collaboration between Chicago-Kent and the Chicago Legal Clinic.
"Chicago-Kent's environmental law clinic, run by the Chicago Legal Clinic, is one of the three major components -- along with classroom instruction and externships -- of our highly regarded program. The Baum fellowships allow us to recognize outstanding student work in the clinic and create an incentive for students to participate in the clinic," said Distinguished Professor A. Dan Tarlock.
The Spring 2011 Baum Fellows are Kyle Carlson, Kathleen Cochrane, Ashley Crettol, Sarah Fanto, Orijit Ghoshal, Brandon Hamada, Amanda Kimmel, Elizabeth Meyer, Rishi Nair, David Shin, Sodiqa Williams and Megan Ziolkowski.
The Baum Fellows work under the direction of adjunct Professor Keith Harley, co-director of Chicago-Kent's Program in Environmental and Energy Law. Professor Harley, who has been teaching at Chicago-Kent since 1994, is an attorney with more than 20 years' experience practicing environmental law in the Chicago area. He is the founder and director of the Chicago Environmental Law Clinic, a partnership between the Chicago Legal Clinic Inc. and Chicago-Kent College of Law. Professor Harley recently completed a four-year tenure as chair of the Chicago Bar Association's Environmental Law Committee. He earned his J.D. with a certificate in environmental and energy law from Chicago-Kent in 1988.
Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in engineering, psychology, architecture, business, design and law. In the mid-1980s, Chicago-Kent established one of the first specialty programs in energy and environmental law, and has long been recognized as a leader in the field. The Chicago Environmental Law Clinic, launched in 1999, provides access to justice to clients who would be unrepresented in urban environmental matters that directly affect the health, safety and welfare of their families and communities.
