News & Announcements

Pace Environmental Law Review releases Kheel Special Edition

The Pace Environmental Law Review recently released Volume 27.1, a Kheel Center Special Edition of the law review entitled Environmental Interest Dispute Resolution: Changing Times-Changing Practice. The Kheel Center collaborated to publish this special edition, which features articles by practitioners, academics, and Pace Law School students. This themed issue of the Pace Environmental Law Review is devoted to an examination of skills with which lawyers can equip themselves to meet the needs of a changing society whose legal system has traditionally been centered around an adversarial practice. The edition also contains article by advisors to the Kheel Center and noted ADR specialists.

Click here to download articles from the edition online.
If you are interested in obtaining a printed version of this book, please contact the Pace Environmental Law Review: pelr@law.pace.edu.


Awards Given at Sustainable Development Law Conference

Academics and attorneys from across the region gathered at Pace Law School on October 22nd for the Kheel Center & Land Use Law Center conference “Rediscovering Sustainable Development Law.” Congresswoman Nita Lowey was in attendance to receive an award in recognition of her work to support sustainable development. Speakers presented on the existing legal framework supporting sustainable development and the quick expansion of this emerging field. With renowned arbitrator, mediator, and founder of the Kheel Center, Ted Kheel in attendance, last year’s Kheel Center “Founder’s Award” recipient, Pamela Esterman, passed the Award to New York Times Dot Earth Blogger Andrew Revkin who presented on communication problems with regard to climate change.

Click here to access the conference video recording and materials


Professor John R. Nolon Invited to Participate in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Expert Meeting

Professor John R. Nolon, Director of the Kheel Center and Counsel to the Land Use Law Center, has been invited to participate again in the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Expert Meeting on Human Settlements and Infrastructure, which will be held this spring in Calcutta, India. The meeting will be part of Professor Nolon’s involvement with the IPCC, assisting on a study of human settlements and climate change as a member of the expert group for the Panel’s Fifth Assessment Report scheduled to be released in 2014.


Kheel Center Welcomes New Arrivals!

The Kheel Center on the Resolution of Environmental Interest Disputes is pleased to welcome Meg Byerly as the 2010-2011 Graduate Fellow and Sam Capasso as the first Kheel LL.M. Research Scholar. The Center would also like to welcome to Lily Jacqueline Zezula as the newest member of the Kheel Center family. Lily Jacqueline made her appearance at 5:19 pm on March 26, 2010, weighing 9 pounds, 4 ounces, and measuring 21 inches. She is the daughter of Tiffany Zezula, Senior Managing Attorney for the Kheel Center.


New Training Program:
Kheel Center Announces Sea Level Rise Training Program

Pace's Kheel Center and Land Use Law Center have been awarded a grant from the National Sea Grant Law Center to conduct a sea level rise training program in the Hudson Valley. The program will be the first of its kind in the region. The selected communities will represent municipalities that are under increasing pressures from sea level rise and storm hazards that threaten community character, sustainable coastal development, and coastal ecosystems. The program will involve and educate the land use board members from Planning, Zoning, and Conservation Commissions, as well as other key community leaders representing local landowners, developers, Sea Grant extension agents, fishermen, coastal managers, chamber of commerce leaders, business leaders and civic and environmental group representatives. The curriculum for the program will emphasize the relationship between these coastal communities, the health and well being of the Hudson River and non-point source activities, technical assistance on land use law, innovative approaches to sea level rise adaptation, economic development, hazard mitigation, and natural resource protection to strengthen community planning, regulation and informed decision-making. Best management practices to maintain water quality and low impact development techniques will also be highlighted.
Click here for program details


Kheel Center Works with Masters Students at Yale to Develop Climate Change Tools

Working with masters students at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the Kheel Center is compiling information on cutting edge tools and techniques used by state and local governments to manage climate change. As part of the Land Use Planning Practice course, taught by Professor John R. Nolon, Director of the Kheel Center, the students’ research projects cover nearly two dozen topics, including adaptation to sea level rise, building communities that are resilient to natural disasters, enhanced transit oriented development zoning, energy efficient buildings, developing sustainable buildings on sustainable sites, and green infrastructure.


New resource:
Click here for a List of Helpful Links to EDR Related Organizations, Publications, and Mediators. More to come!


Kheel Center Attorney Featured on ACResolution Teleconference

Tiffany Zezula, Senior Managing Attorney for the Kheel Center, presented for the ACResolution Teleconference on Climate Change on January 14, 2010 to discuss her article and the work of the Kheel Center. The teleconference focused on themes from the publication’s recent issue in which Tiffany co-authored a piece with the Kheel Center’s Jessica A. Bacher entitled “Managing Climate Change Through Land Use: Creating the Human Infrastructure for Collaborative Decision-Making at the Local Level.”


Kheel Center Cover Story in Alumni Magazine

The Kheel Center was the focus of the cover story for Pace Law School's Spring 2009 Alumni Magazine. The article, Resolving Mankind's Greatest Challenges: Pace Law School Charts a Path to End Environmental Disputes, features the work of Ted Kheel, his vision for solving the climate crisis, and the work of the Kheel Center in carrying out this vision. "One of the most powerful and compelling voices on the environment and its legal ramifications belongs not to some legal eagle poised at a bank of microphones on the courthouse steps, or even to Al Gore, but to a nonagenarian named Theodore W. Kheel.... 'Climate change is the most serious problem we face today,' said Kheel, 'and resolution between the environment and development is absolutely essential to survival of life on this planet.'" See the cover and read the full article, found on page 20.


Center Builds Collection of Local Government ADR Regs on Land Use Conflicts

Working in collaboration with the Consensus Building Institute, the Kheel Center has begun to collect local laws and policies intended to encourage or require the non-adversarial resolution of land use and environmental disputes. A very special thank you to all of you who contributed to this effort by telling us about initiatives in your community and elsewhere. View a list of the ADR laws the Kheel Center has collected thus far from across the country, soon to be posted on our Database.


Kheel Center at Association for Conflict Resolution Conference

The Kheel Center was selected to present at the Association for Conflict Resolution's (ACR) 2009 Environment & Public Policy Section Conference, Managing Climate Change Through Collaborative Governance: Addressing Policy Challenges Globally & Locally in Denver, Colorado.  The Kheel Center's Director, Professor John R. Nolon, and Senior Managing Attorneys Jessica Bacher and Tiffany Zezula, delivered a successful presentation on “Training Stakeholders, Creating Forums, and Paving the Way for the Mediation of Climate Change Conflicts.”


Kheel Center featured in Green Law Journal

Kheel Center Trains Lawyers in the Resolution of Environmental Interest Disputes, the article in Green Law, the Journal of the Pace Environmental Law Programs, featured the work of the Kheel Center and its role at Pace Law School. The article also detailed the success of the Kheel Center's 2008 "Kheel Summit" and the Law School's commitment to the growth and achievement of the Kheel Center. Read the article, found on page 18.