Fall 2001 Torts Seminar/CLE:
Using Torts as an Alternative to the Enforcement of Environmental Regulations

Photograph: Kenneth Abraham.Kenneth Abraham
Photograph: Tom McGarity.Tom McGarity
Photograph: Keith Hylton.Keith Hylton
Photograph: Allan Kanner.Allan Kanner

Washburn University School of Law hosted the Ahrens Advanced Torts Seminar continuing legal education program (CLE) on Saturday, September 21, 2001. For the first time the CLE was held in conjunction with the School of Law's fall Advanced Torts Seminar. The CLE was given in a presenter/responder format.

Presenters

Presentations were made by professors from three American law Schools and a practitioner:

Responders

Photograph: John Watson.
John Watson
responding to
Kenneth Abraham

Following each presentation, defendants and plaintiff practitioners responded from a practical point of view. Such ideas as whether the tort system is inefficient, unpredictable and unfair to torts being a better alternative to underfunded, captured agencies were put forth. Responders included:

Audience

The audience, comprised of law students in the Advanced Torts Seminar and invited lawyers with substantial experience in the environmental and torts arenas, weighed into the debate by questioning the presenters and responders and providing their own insights and comments.

Photograph: A portion of the audience at the CLE.A portion of the audience at the CLE

Roundtable Discussion

The formal portion of the continuing legal education program concluded with a roundtable discussion. Participants on the roundtable summed up the day's discussion. The panel consisted of:

Photograph: Roundtable panelists.
Roundtable panelists: Michaud, Howarth, Cane, Ahrens, Rathbun

Social Function

Photograph: Dinner at the Kansas State Historical Society.The day culminated with a dinner held at the Kansas State Historical Society. A continuation of the day's discussion could be heard at many of the tables.

Publication of Papers

Many of the presenter papers and responder comments are scheduled for publication in volume 41, issue 3 of the Washburn Law Journal, due late spring 2002.

The Fall 2002 Seminar/CLE
The success of the format of combining scholarly presentations with practitioner experience will continue at Fall 2002 Ahrens Tort CLE. The theme will be "Genomic Torts." Professor Smith will begin the process of organizing the next CLE in January 2002.

The Ahrens Advanced Torts Seminar/CLE is made possible by the Ahrens Chair in Tort Law created by funds contributed to Washburn University School of Law in 1986 by the Wichita law firm of Michaud, Cordry, Michaud, Hutton and Hutton and is named in honor of Professor James Ahrens.

The Seminar is organized by Professor Charlene L. Smith, Washburn University School of Law.

Photograph: Gerald Michaud, Charlene Smith, and James Ahrens.Gerald Michaud, Charlene Smith, and James Ahrens.

See below for further information about the presenters/responders and the promotional materials created for the seminar/CLE.

Seminar Faculty
Seminar Schedule

Advanced Torts graphic: Skull and crossbones on drinking glass.
Prof. Peter Cane
Prof. David Howarth
Prof. Kenneth Abraham
Prof. Keith Hylton
Prof. Tomas McGarity
Jan Schlichtmann
John Parisi
John Leonard Watson
Allan Kanner
Eric Watt Wiechmann
Randy Rathbun

Seminar organized by Professor Charlene L. Smith, Washburn University School of Law.

The Advanced Torts Seminars are made possible by the Ahrens Chair in Tort Law created by funds contributed to Washburn Law School in 1986 by the Wichita law firm of Michaud, Cordry, Michaud, Hutton and Hutton.

The Washburn University School of Law Fall 2001 Advanced Torts Seminar will be conducted over two one-week periods during Fall 2001 semester. The seminar provides students and faculty the opportunity to interact with world-renown guest scholars. The first fall session from September 14-22, 2001 is titled Using Torts as an Alternative to the Enforcement of Environmental Regulations. In addition to the scheduled class sessions for students, a continuing legal education (CLE) symposium will be offered on September 22, 2001.

The format of the CLE symposium will be interactive. After short presentations of position papers, practitioners will act as responders and engage the presenters in debating their suggestions. Next, discussion will be opened to an audience composed of invited lawyers with substantial experience in the topic's field. Afterwards, there will be a round table discussion comprised of international tort scholars and practitioners, including faculty from Australia and the United Kingdom.

Faculty

Faculty for the first session of the Ahrens Torts Seminar are:

Professor Peter Cane, Australian National University, Head of Law Program, has also taught at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, UK. He is author of Tort Law & Economic Interests, The Anatomy of Tort Law, and The Law of Torts in Australia. His work on environmental law includes a recent article entitled "Are Environmental Harms Special?" His main research interests lie in the law of obligations (especially tort law), and in public law (especially administrative law.)

Professor David Howarth, teaches tort law and economic analysis of law at Clare College, Cambridge, U.K. He is the co-author of the leading case took on English tort law, Tort: Cases and Materials. His publications include articles on comparative law, tort law and legal philosophy. His knowledge of environmental issues includes direct experience of local government; he is currently majority leader on the Cambridge City Council.

Professor Kenneth Abraham is the Class of 1962 Professor of Law and Albert C. Tate, Jr., Research Professor at the University of Virginia Law School and is the author of four books and more than forty articles in the tort area. He is a member of the Council of the American Law Institute and a winner of the American Bar Association's Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award given for "outstanding contributions to tort and insurance law."

Professor Keith Hylton teaches at Boston University Law School. His research in torts has ranged from economic modeling of the incentive effects of liability to detailed positive analysis of tort doctrine. One of his most recent publications on torts is "Property Rights and the Human Body." He is the editor of The Social Science Research Network's Torts, Products Liability and Insurance Law Abstracts Journal.

Professor Tomas McGarity holds the W. James Kronzer Chair in Trial and Appellate Advocacy at the University of Texas School of Law. He has served as an attorney-advisor in the Office of General Counsel of the Environmental Protection agency in Washington, D.C. He has written widely in the areas of Environmental Law and Administrative Law including a book which describes and critiques the implementation regulations during the Carter and Reagan Administrations.

Jan Schlichtmann, of counsel to the firm of Lieff, Cabraser, Heiman & Bernstein, Massachusetts, specializes in complex civil litigation including environmental and tort litigation. In the 1980's, he represented eight Woburn, Massachusetts families accusing W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods of contaminating the city water supply. Jonathan Harr's book, A Civil Action, was based on the controversy.

John Parisi is a partner in the law firm of Shamberg, Johnson & Bergman, Kansas, where he handles environmental law cases. Prior to obtaining his law degree, Mr. Parisi was a professional archaeologist. As a lawyer, he has used skills developed as an archaeologist, particularly in environmental law, where his knowledge of geology, geomorphology and hydrology has proved to be valuable.

John L. Watson is the ABA chair of Toxic Torts and Environmental Litigation and is also a partner in Moye Giles O'Keefe Vermeire & Gorrell, Denver. He has been a trial lawyer for over 25 years in the areas of complex toxic tort, environmental, safety and health, natural resources, insurance coverage, as well as environmental white collar criminal defense. He has written extensively on these subjects and also taught environmental law for five years at the University of Denver college of Law.

Allan Kanner is a member of Allan Kanner & Associates, P.C. with offices in New Orleans, LA, where he specializes in environmental, toxic tort, class action, and complex business litigation, and environmental compliance counseling. He is past chair of ATLA's Environmental and Toxic Tort Litigation Section. He publishes widely in the environmental law and tort area and also has taught at Texas, Duke and Tulane law schools.

Eric Watt Wiechmann, is managing partner of the Connecticut office of Cummings & Lockwood. He specializes in sophisticated civil litigation, including toxic tort cases. Mr. Wiechmann is currently national coordinating counsel for a major refiner/chemical company's toxic tort litigation. He has written and lectured around the country on numerous toxic tort, product liability, trade regulation, and litigation subjects.

Randy Rathbun, at Depew & Gillen, Kansas, specializes in environmental law and toxic exposure. He was a United States Attorney from 1993-96 and was the chair of the Environmental Subcommittee. He has been the chapter author on Environmental Law in the Kansas Annual Survey in 1990.

The following faculty will be at Washburn for the second fall session of the Ahrens Torts Seminar from October 15-20, 2001 :

Professor Gerrit Betlam is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter (UK) Law School. His research interests focus on Dutch and comparative tort law, especially environmental liability; the interaction between private international law and European private law, in particular giving effect to EC law before national courts. Recent publications include Liability of Multinational Corporations Under International Law.

Professor Michael Anderson is the Director of Studies at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and Fellow at the London School of Economics. He specializes in research on environmental law and human rights law, particularly in Asia and Africa. He has participated in a number of trans-national tort suits involving environmental questions, including cases against Union Carbide (Bhopal gas leak). He is a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Transnational Enforcement of Environmental Law.

Professor Christopher Schroeder is Professor of Law and Public Policy Studies, Director of the Public Law Program and Co-chair of the Center for the Study of Congress at Duke University. He has written over two dozen articles on subjects including the philosophical foundations for risk liability and regulation, environmental regulation of toxics, tort theory, regulatory reform, the performance of the Environmental Protection Agency. He co-authors a leading environmental law casebook, Environmental Regulation: Law, Science, and Policy, and is publishing an edited volume, E.P.A. at Thirty.

Professor Tseming Yang is an Associate Professor of Law at Vermont Law School. His areas of legal scholarship center on civil rights and environmental law, and he teaches courses in torts, environmental justice, international environmental law, and race and the law. Before he joined the Vermont Law School faculty in 1998, he served as an attorney in the Policy, Legislation and Special Litigation Section of the U.S. Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division.

Professor Rogelio Lasso, Washburn University School of Law, received a B.S. in Chemistry from Mankato State University in 1973. He worked as a scientist and engineer before receiving his J.D. Professor Lasso interned for the Honorable Miles Lord, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota and he was in private practice in Chicago where he participated in litigation ranging from medical malpractice and products liability to business disptues and patent infringement. He is currently writing a book on Comparative Products Liability.

Seminar Schedule

Session One

September 14
An Introductory Class: Environmental Law and Science
Prof. David Pierce, Washburn University School of Law
Prof. Tom Wolf, Washburn University

September 17 & 19
A Comparative Approach to Torts and the Environment
Prof. Peter Cane, Australian National University, Australia
Prof. David Howarth, Clare College, Cambridge, UK

September 21
The American Approach
Prof. Kenneth Abraham, University of Virginia
Prof. Tom McGarity, University of Texas
Prof. Keith Hylton, Boston University

CLE PROGRAM - 6 hrs. Credit Approved by Kansas CLE Commission

September 22

8:00-8:30 -- Juice, coffee, rolls

8:30-9:00 -- Presenter
PROF. KENNETH ABRAHAM, University of Virginia
"The Relation Between Civil Liability and Environmental Regulation: An Analytical Overview"

9:00-9:30 -- Moderator: PROF. TOM McGARITY, University of Texas
Responders:
JAN SCHLICHTMANN, Attorney, "A Civil Action"
JOHN WATSON, ABA Chair of Toxic Tort and Environmental Litigation

9:30-10:00 -- Audience Participation

10:00-10:15 -- Break

10:15-10:45 -- Presenter
PROF. TOM McGARITY, University of Texas
"Beyond Buckman: Misuse of the Regulatory Process in the Common Law of Toxic Torts"

10:45-11:15 -- Moderator: PROF. KENNETH ABRAHAM, University of Virginia
Responders:
ALLAN KANNER, Attorney, Allan Kanner & Associates, P.C., Louisiana
PHIL CARLTON, Attorney, J. Phil Carlton, North Carolina

11:15-12:50 -- Lunch: International House, Washburn University

1:00-1:30 -- Presenter
PROF. KEITH HYLTON, Boston University
"When Should We Prefer Tort Law to Environmental Regulation?"

1:30-2:00 -- Moderator: PROF. PETER CANE, Australian National University
Responders:
JOHN PARISI, Attorney, Shamberg, Johnson & Bergman, Chartered, Kansas
ERIC WIECHMANN, Attorney, Cummings & Lockwood, Connecticut

2:00-2:30 -- Audience Participation

2:30-2:45 -- Break

2:45-3:15 -- Presenter
ALLAN KANNER, Attorney, Allan Kanner & Associates, P.C., Louisiana
"Continuity and Change in Toxic Tort Litigation"

3:15-3:45 -- Moderator: PROF. KENNETH ABRAHAM, University of Virginia
Responders:
MIKE PAPANTONIO, Attorney, Levin & Papantonio, et. al. PA., Florida
JOHN WATSON, ABA Chair of Toxic Tort and Environmental Litigation

3:45-4:15 -- Audience Participation

4:15-4:30 -- Break

4:30-5:30 -- Round Table Discussion
Led by LOIS SCHIFFER, Former Assistant U.S. Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources, U.S. Department of Justice

Super Responders:
PROF. PETER CANE, Australian National University, Australia
PROF. DAVID HOWARTH, Clare College, Cambridge, UK
RANDY RATHBUN, Attorney, Depew and Gillen, Kansas

GERALD MICHAUD, Law Office of Gerald Michaud and of counsel Fisher, Cavanaugh, Smith & Lemon, Kansas
PROF. JIM AHRENS, (retired) Washburn University School of Law

Session Two

October 15 & 17
A Comparative Approach Prof. Gerrit Betlam, University of Exeter law School, United Kingdom
Prof. Michael Anderson, British Institute of International and Comparative Law

October 19 & 20
An American Approach and Round Table Discussions
Prof. Christopher Schroeder, Duke University
Prof. Tseming Yang, Vermont Law School
Prof. Rogelio Lasso (moderator) Washburn University School of Law