The Florida State University College of Law Environmental and Land Use Program has been recognized by multiple sources as one of the nation’s best.   U.S. News & World Report has ranked the Law School’s environmental and land use program as the third best in the South (behind Duke and Tulane) and as the nineteenth program nationally.  This year, the respected Educational Quality Ranking of law schools prepared by Professor Brian Leiter of the University of Texas Law School recognized FSU's environmental and administrative law faculty as among the top 25 in the nation, based on a survey of leading law faculty, affirming the Ranking’s previous recognition of FSU as one of less than 20 schools with a faculty that is “strong” in environmental and administrative law.    Another independent study ranked our Journal of Land Use & Environmental Law fourteenth out of all the environmental and land use law journals published nationally. 

     These rankings bear out the significant steps the College of Law has taken to  strengthen its environmental and land use program.   In recent years, it has:

·      Established a Certificate Program so that students who take the required number of courses and meet other requirements are recognized for their work and accomplishments.  

·      Significantly strengthened the traditional curriculum so that we now offer over a dozen courses, including basic courses in environmental and land use law, and other courses that cover important parts of an environmental practice, such as Environmental Law in Business Transactions, Ocean and Coastal Law, Natural Resources Law, and Growth Management.

·      Enhanced students’ opportunities to develop real-world experience in the practice of environmental law and in the development of environmental policy by expanding our Externship program.   Our students have terrific opportunities for exposure to state environmental issues through externship with state agencies such as the DEP, DCA, and Florida Wildlife Commission.   They also work with environmental groups such as LEAF, Earthjustice, and 1000 Friends.  Externship options also exist throughout the State with County offices and various City governments.   

·      Supported student extracurricular opportunities in the environmental field, which helps our students to refine editing, writing, and advocacy skills, and strengthens their substantive knowledge of environmental law, through the College of Law’s nationally ranked student-edited journal, the Journal of Land Use & Environmental Law, and a student environmental moot court team that was a finalist in the 2002 National Environmental Moot Court Competition and a semi-finalist in the 2003 Competition.

·      Created an Environmental Alumni Group that we hope will enable us to do a better job of meeting the needs of our alumni, and also provide existing students with networking and other opportunities.   Leading environmental and land use lawyers Thomas Pelham (former Secretary of the DCA), Mary Smallwood (former General Counsel of the DEP), and Vivian Garfein (Regional Director for the DEP) are serving as co-chairs of this Group.

·      Initiated an Environmental Forum Series that is intended to educate the public and improve public policy by providing a forum for discussion of timely environmental issues.    For example, our inaugural Forum, held in April 2003, focused on protection of the manatee and featured panelists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the State’s Fish and Wildlife Commission, the Save the Manatee Club, and the Marine Industries Association.   

·       Expanded our Distinguished Lecturer Series, which exemplifies the College of Law’s commitment to cutting edge scholarship, by bringing leading scholars in environmental and land use issues to the law school to discuss their scholarship and to interact with faculty and students.   Professor Dan Tarlock, Distinguished Professor at Chicago-Kent and a leading authority on water and land use law, will be the lecturer this October.

The Law School’s faculty is on the cutting edge of legal scholarship in the environmental and land use field.   Two of FSU's environmental law faculty are ranked among the 50 most cited faculty to enter law teaching since 1992, according to the Environmental Quality Ranking survey.   This is a signal of the strength of FSU's faculty overall, as FSU is the only law school in the Southeast and one of only 15 schools nationwide with two or more faculty members on this prestigious list.

     Professor Donna Christie, Elizabeth C. and Clyde W. Atkinson Professor of Law and Associate Dean for International Programs, is known for her work on ocean and coastal management.   Professor Christie is the co-author of leading student books in the field such as Ocean Law in a Nutshell (West Pub., 2d ed. 1999) and Coastal and Ocean Law (West Group 1998), and is also a member of the American Law Institute.  

     J.B. Ruhl, Matthews & Hawkins Professor of Property, is a leading scholar on endangered species law and recently co-authored The Law of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management with Foundation Press.   One of the most recognized environmental law scholars in the country, Professor Ruhl is among the 10 most-cited environmental law scholars in the U.S., and is among the top 15 most cited scholars in all fields hired by any U.S. law school since 1992, according to Professor Brian Leiter.

     David Markell, Steven M. Goldstein Professor, is known for his work on compliance and enforcement and federal/state relations.  His book on administrative law received the 1995 ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Award for Scholarship, and an article on environmental enforcement was named one of the best environmental law articles published in 2000.   Professor Markell recently co-authored Reinventing Environmental Enforcement & the State/Federal Relationship, and will have two other books out this summer, Environmental Protection: Law and Policy (4^th ed. Aspen)(a law school casebook), and Greening NAFTA (on North American environmental governance).   He has worked with the U.S. EPA and U.S. DOJ and as a state environmental policy maker, and with the NAFTA environmental commission. 

     Jim Rossi, Harry M. Walborsky Professor of Law, recently returned from the University of North Carolina School of Law, and will serve as the College of Law’s Associate Dean for Research.  Professor Rossi is coauthor of Energy, Economics and the Environment (Foundation Press 2000), the leading energy law casebook used in law schools.  In the past 10 years, he has published more than two dozen journal articles on regulatory and state and federal administrative law.  Recently, he served as an expert witness on regulatory and antitrust issues surrounding municipal utility access to hydro power in the PG&E bankrutpcy.  He has served as a member of the executive council of the American Bar Association's Section on Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice. 

     Mark Seidenfeld, Patricia A. Dore Professor of Administrative Law, is one of the leading scholars of administrative law in the country.  He currently serves as Chair of the ABA's Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Committee on Judicial Review, Vice-Chair of that Section's Committee on Rulemaking, and Chair of the American Association of Law School's Section on Administrative Law.  Professor Seidenfeld's scholarship that most directly applies to environmental law uses economic and institutional perspectives to analyze interest group participation in environmental regulatory processes.

     Because of our location in Tallahassee, the College of Law is fortunate to have an extraordinarily talented and accomplished body of adjunct professors, including: David Powell, a partner with Hopping Green & Sams, Cathy Sellers, a shareholder with Moyle Flanigan Katz Raymond & Sheehan, Steven Pfeiffer, Assistant Secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs, Scheffel Wright, of Landers & Parsons, Fred Dudley, of Akerman, Senterfitt, and Eidson, and Thomas Pelham, of Fowler White Boggs Banker.   The willingness of these leading members of the Bar to share their time and expertise with our students substantially enriches the curriculum and educational experience at the College of Law.

     For more information on our program, and to learn about upcoming activities and events, please see our environmental and land use program website at http://www.law.fsu.edu/academic_programs/environmental/