Triple Pundit/RMLUI Blog
The Sturm College of Law and the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute have partnered with Triplepundit.com to create a land use and sustainability issues blog.
On the blog, Sturm College of Law students will report on emerging, novel and contested land use and development issues from a sustainability perspective. The foundation of the blog is the belief that the development of the American West, and indeed the entire planet, necessitates a closer and more responsible look at not only how we use natural resources but how we build our communities and economies.
We invite you to comment and engage with us over issues of interest to you. And we invite you to suggest topics for us to research and report on from our unique perspective as law students. But most of all, we invite you to take these ideas and share them with your friends and colleagues so we can all be involved in a more informed and forward-thinking discussion about our future.
Contributors:
Tripp Hall
Tripp comes to the University of Denver from western North Carolina, where he attended Appalachian State University. In college, Tripp majored in History and Secondary Education, spending most of his free time exploring the Blue Ridge Mountains. After graduation, Tripp taught school before working as a legal assistant at a private law firm in Chapel Hill, NC. Tripp’s love of nature and his passion to preserve its beauty lead him to Colorado to pursue a career in law, with his primary focus being the environment and sustainability. Tripp is currently a student attorney at the University of Denver, Environmental Law Clinic and a board member of the Land Use Law Society, where he hopes to develop and refine the skills necessary to be an effective advocate in our planet’s need for a sustainable future.
Lauren Suerth
Lauren Suerth is in the Masters in Natural Resources Studies program at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and is focusing on land use law and policy, and sustainable development law and policy. She received her B.S. in Community and Regional Planning from Iowa State University in May 2009, which emphasized the theories of spatial development, and the laws that regulate land use and public participation in such decisions. Suerth was an active member of both the Iowa State and Ames communities by leading University and city committees.
In between her masters and bachelors studies, Suerth was selected to serve in the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps program as a Corps Member. The National Civilian Community Corps is a residential community service program that provides direct service to communities across the Midwestern United States focusing on education, unmet human needs, environment, public safety and disaster relief. During her ten months of service, Suerth did everything from research agricultural land use policies in Toledo, Ohio to framing the interior of a house with Weed and Seed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
After Suerth graduated from Iowa State University, she was the Planning Department Intern for the Town of Bar Harbor in Maine. Suerth conducted a variety of activities, which included analyzing Town land use ordinance initiatives in relation to the community’s economic and environmental goals, performing GIS-based analyses for zoning amendments and organizing a regional event to discuss conservation issues.
Stephen Gruber
Steve Gruber is in his final term at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, ranked fifth in his class, and a registered Patent Agent with Marsh Fischmann and Breyfogle, LLP. His patent drafting and prosecution practice is primarily directed to electrical and computer innovations. Steve formerly prepared and prosecuted patents as a solo practitioner and before that as a member of Greenberg Traurig, a firm with over eighteen hundred attorneys globally. During an internship at Flextronics International, he helped to guide the international electronics manufacturer’s patent strategy. Steve’s studies include land use planning and intellectual property. His legal research includes patent and trademark issues as well as the interaction between information and communication technologies and sustainable land use planning. He has a bachelor’s degree in Physics, Engineering, and History from Dartmouth College. Prior to law school Steve worked with the Optoelectronics Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, designing and fabricating self-aligning single photon detectors and pulsed fiber lasers. Concurrently with that work, he completed a Master’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His publications also include Single Photon Source Characterization, published in Optics Express. At the University of Denver law school, Steve has been a moot court coach as well as a participant on several moot court teams. He is a mountaineer, soccer player, and former Division I varsity golf team captain.
John Bartholomew
John Bartholomew is a first-year JD student at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He is a 2009 graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas, where he earned a BS in Business Administration.
John is interested in natural resources law, specifically as applied to land use and sustainable development. He is a staff member of the University of Denver Water Law Review, an internationally recognized journal dedicated to analysis and coverage of a myriad of water issues. John hopes to practice in the field of water law.
Matt Brodahl
Matt Brodahl is a second year student at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He is an Articles Editor on the Water Law Review and serves as a Lawyering Process Teaching Assistant. Prior to law school, Matt attended Indiana University where he received a dual degree in Political Science and Economics. After undergraduate work, Matt worked for Advantage Health Solutions as a Policy Analyst and Consultant developing Medicare Advantage programs for implementation. During his 1L Summer, Matt interned for the Honorable Judge Christina Habas in the Colorado 2nd Judicial District. Matt’s professional interests include sustainable development, water law, and land use law. In addition, Matt has hiked the Appalachian Trail, spent a year working and travelling in New Zealand, and enjoys cooking and bike commuting.
Dave DeNovellis
Dave DeNovellis is currently a student in the Environmental and Natural Resources Graduate Program at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He is currently brainstorming ways to make renewable energy the preferred option. If you have any ideas, please feel free to collaborate.
Allison Pofit Altaras
Allison Pofit Altaras is a first year law student at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. She relocated to Denver from New Orleans, where she worked for three years as a corporate and securities paralegal at the law firm of Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrère & Denègre L.L.P. While there, she performed extensive research on such topics as corporate governance and compliance; state and federal securities regulations; anti-trust regulation; business formations and financing methods; and both the IRS and Uniform Commercial Codes. She assisted attorneys with merger and acquisition transactions in a variety of industries including telecommunications, maritime and shipping services, real estate development and oil and gas exploration. Allison has also worked as a summer Conservation Corps member for the Mile High Youth Corps, a Denver-based nonprofit that organizes teams of young people to build and maintenance trails, construct fuel breaks and perform other wildfire mitigation efforts, restore native prairie habitats and implement energy and water-efficient strategies in homes and businesses. Allison is a member of DU’s Water Law Review, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Society and Women in Law Society. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Tulane University in 2007. Originally from upstate New York, Allison is an outdoor enthusiast and is currently writing a science fiction novel with her father, Joe.
Chris Boeckx
Chris Boeckx is a former educator, and first year law student at the University of Denver. Before returning to school, Chris worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand where he focused on building educational infrastructure and training teachers in a rural village. He’s hoping to use his J.D. to focus on business and environmental law (particularly in the areas where those two disciplines overlap). Chris is intrigued by the role business can play in creating a more sustainable and equitable global culture — and he hopes to explore that line of thought in his posts to this blog.