Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Professor James W. Coleman is a scholar of energy law. He specializes in North American energy infrastructure, transport, and trade. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute focused on energy policy.
Professor Coleman has testified before Congress on steps to speed up energy infrastructure permits. He also worked with a team of experts as part of Alberta's Royalty Review to revise the Canadian province's management of its vast oil and gas resources.
Before joining Minnesota, Professor Coleman taught at Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, the University of Calgary’s law and business schools, and Harvard Law School. Earlier, he practiced environmental and appellate law at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and clerked for the Honorable Steven M. Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Professor Coleman received two degrees from Harvard University—a J.D. (cum laude) and B.A. in biology (magna cum laude with highest honors in the field). As a result of his undergraduate thesis on butterfly genetics, which required fieldwork in Central Asia, a species of lycaenid butterfly was named after him—Agrodiaetus ripartii colemani.
Associate Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School
Sharmila L. Murthy is an Associate Professor at Suffolk University Law School, where she teaches and writes on issues of property law, environmental law, international environmental law, poverty, and human rights. A list of her scholarly publications is available.
Professor Murthy is active with the American Association of Law Schools. She currently serves as Chair of the International Human Rights Section, as Chair-Elect of the Environmental Law Section, and on the Executive Board of the Law and South Asia Studies Section. In 2017, she received the Woman of the Year: Faculty Division from the Suffolk Law Women of Color Law Student Association.
Previously, Professor Murthy was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she served as the lead investigator for water for the Project on Innovation and Access to Technologies for Sustainable Development through the Sustainability Science Program. She also co-founded the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation Program as a Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. In addition, Professor Murthy has taught as part of the Water Diplomacy Workshop since 2013. In 2014, Professor Murthy was selected as a finalist for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Professor Murthy began her legal career as a public interest poverty lawyer. She was awarded a Skadden Fellowship to work with the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, where she created the Refugee and Immigrant Partnership Program for Legal Empowerment and litigated predatory lending and foreclosure rescue scam cases. For these efforts, she received the New Advocate of the Year award from the Tennessee Alliance of Legal Services. Professor Murthy also litigated complex and class action cases as an associate with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, where she represented members of the public in mortgage fraud and natural resource cases.
Professor Murthy received her JD from Harvard Law School, her MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and her BS in Natural Resources from Cornell University. She clerked for the Honorable Martha Craig Daughtrey on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She was also a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in India, where she studied the rural microfinance program of the Self-Employed Women’s Association.
Professor Murthy also volunteers with several civic and legal organizations. She currently serves on the Massachusetts State Board of the Conservation Law Foundation, on the Scientific Committee of WaterLex, and on the Steering Committee of the Boston Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society (ACS). Previously, she was the President of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and the founding President of the Nashville ACS Chapter.
Partner, Baker Hostetler LLP
David Rivkin is a member of the firm's litigation, international and environmental teams and is co-leader of the firm's national appellate practice. He has extensive experience in constitutional, administrative and international law litigation and has been involved in numerous high-profile cases. With his prior experience in the government sector, David draws on a wealth of knowledge when providing compliance advice to companies and handling enforcement proceedings before government agencies on issues arising out of multilateral and unilateral sanctions, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), anti-boycott issues, bankruptcy and financial fraud matters, and environmental and energy issues.
David has developed and implemented legislative, regulatory and litigation initiatives for two presidential administrations. Over the years, he has published hundreds of articles, op-eds, book reviews and book chapters on a variety of international, legal, constitutional, defense, arms control, foreign policy, environmental and energy issues for various newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today and The Los Angeles Times, and has been a frequent commentator and guest on TV and radio shows including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, NPR and PBS.
Partner, Baker & Hostetler LLP
Mark DeLaquil is a first-chair trial and appellate advocate who focuses on complex environmental and regulatory proceedings, First Amendment practice and political law.
Mark has been recognized by Chambers USA for environmental litigation (2015 to 2024) and has been named by Law360 as one of the "Top 5 Environmental Attorneys Under the Age of 40" on two occasions.
Deep Dive Episode 92 – The Constitutionality of California’s Cap and Trade Agreement with Quebec
James W. Coleman, Sharmila L. Murthy
The state of California and the Canadian province of Quebec have agreed to link their...
Newly Proposed CO2 Rules - Podcast
David B. Rivkin, Mark DeLaquil
In an effort to address air pollution and global warming, on June 2, 2014, the...