University of Utah : S.J. Quinney College of Law

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Nancy Assaf McLaughlin

Nancy Assaf McLaughlin

Robert W. Swenson Professor of Law

Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development

Professor McLaughlin received her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1990 and a B.S. honors degree in psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1987, where she was a Commonwealth Scholar and elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Her scholarship focuses on conservation easements and nonprofit conservation organization governance issues, and she writes and lectures extensively on these issues. In 2006-2007 she was awarded research fellowships by the University of Utah and the Tanner Humanities Center in recognition of the quality of her scholarship and the uniqueness and importance of her work. In 2007 she was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and as a fellow of The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws amended the comments to the Uniform Conservation Easement Act citing to her scholarship. Among other professional activities, she served as a member of the Land Trust Alliance's Conservation Easement Amendment Policy Group, which assisted the Alliance in drafting its recently published report on amending conservation easements; she serves on the Land Trust Alliance's Conservation Defense Advisory Council; she serves on the advisory board of Utah Open Lands and Vital Ground; she serves as a member of the Habitat Protection Advisory Committee of the Wildlife Land Trust; and, since 2000, she has served as a professional editor of the American Bar Association's Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Journal.

Professor McLaughlin teaches Federal Income Tax, Trusts & Estates, Estate Planning, Gift & Estate Tax, Private Land Conservation, and a course on Conservation Easements.

Scholarship Highlights


Amending and Terminating Perpetual Conservation Easements, co-authored with Mark Benjamin Machlis, 23 Probate & Property 52 (2009)

In Defense of Conservation Easements: A Response to The End of Perpetuity, co-authored with W. William Weeks, 9 Wyo. L. Rev. 1 (2009)

Protecting the Public Interest and Investment in Conservation: A Response to Professor Korngold’s Critique of Conservation Easements, co-authored with Mark Benjamin Machlis, 4 Utah L. Rev. 1561 (2008) (available on SSRN)


Condemning Conservation Easements: Protecting the Public Interest and Investment in Conservation, 41 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1897 (2008)


Condemning Open Space: Making Way for National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (Or Not) , 26 Va. Envtl. L.J. 399 (2008)

Conservation Easements: Perpetuity and Beyond, 34 Ecology L.Q. 673 (2007)

Could Coalbed Methane be the Death of Conservation Easements? 29 Wyoming Lawyer 18 (2006)

Amending Perpetual Conservation Easements: A Case Study of the Myrtle Grove Controversy, 40 U. Rich. L. Rev. 1031 (2006) (symposium)


Conservation Easements - A Troubled Adolescence, 26 J. Land, Resources & Envtl. L 47 (2006) (symposium)

Rethinking the Perpetual Nature of Conservation Easements, 29 Harvard Environmental Law Review 421 (2005)

Conservation Easements in the West, Rocky Mt. Min. L. Inst., Chapter 22 (2005)

A Constructive Reformist''s Perspective on Voluntary Conservation Easements, Editorial, Ecosystem Marketplace (2005)

Questionable Conservation Easement Donations, 18 Probate & Property 40 (2004)

Increasing the Tax Incentives for Conservation Easement Donations - A Responsible Approach, 31 Ecology Law Quarterly 1 (2004)

Why Environmental Lawyers Should Know (and Care) About Land Trusts and Their Private Land Conservation Transactions, co-authored with Professor Federico Cheever, 34 Environmental Law Reporter 10223 (2004)

The Role of Land Trusts in Biodiversity Conservation on Private Lands, 38 Idaho Law Review 453 (2002) (symposium)

Honors and Awards

2007 Early Career Teaching Award, University of Utah 

Spring 2007 Virgil C. Aldrich In-Residence Research Fellowship in the Humanities, Obert C. & Grace Tanner Humanities Center, University of Utah

Fall 2006 Faculty Fellow Award, University Research Committee, University of Utah

2006 Peter W. Billings Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law 

2005 American Agricultural Law Association's Professional Scholarship Award for Rethinking the Perpetual Nature of Conservation Easements, 29 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 421 (2005)

2004 Probate & Property Editors' Excellence in Writing Award for Questionable Conservation Easement Donations, 18 Prob. & Prop. 40 (2004)

Talks & Presentations

Chicago-Kent College of Law, ACTEC Academic Symposium on Philanthropy in the 21st Century, October 2009

Commentator on Donor Intent Panel


ALI-ABA Conference on Sophisticated Estate Planning Techniques, Boston, Massachusetts, September 2009

Conservation Easements: Federal Tax Incentives & The Meaning of Perpetuity


2009 Berkeley Workshop, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Pocantico Hills, New York, July 2009

Land Conservation and Energy Infrastructure:  Threats and Opportunities


International Right of Way Association Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, Indiana, June 2009

Conservation Easements: Condemnation & Valuation


National Conference on Conservation Easements: Advanced Legal Issues, Land Trust Alliance and CLE International, Denver, Colorado, June 2009

Conservation Easements & Eminent Domain


Douglas W. Conner 30th Annual Advanced Estate Planning and Administration Seminar, Hot Springs, Virginia, April 2009
Conservation Easements: Interpretation, Enforcement, and Legislating Against Perpetuity


American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, Annual Meeting, Rancho Mirage, California, March 2009

Emerging Legal Issues in the Conservation Easement Context


Stanford Law School, Woods Institute for the Environment, February 2009

Roundtable on Private Conservation Instruments and Policy in a Changing Climate

Florida State University College of Law, October 2008
Legislating Against Perpetuity in the Conservation Easement Context


Land Trust Alliance National Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 2008

Condemnation of Conservation Easements


Idaho State Bar, Annual Meeting, Sun Valley, Idaho, September 2008

Conservation Easements: Estate Planning and Emerging Issues


Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Conference on Land Policies and Property Rights (June 2008)

        Commentator on Professor Gerald Korngold’s work on
        conservation easements

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Symposium on Modifying and Terminating Perpetual Conservation Easements (Feb. 2008)
        The Meaning and Consequence of Perpetuity

Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington, Faculty Colloquium (Jan. 2008)

Conservation Easements: An Experiment in Land Preservation

 
University of Virginia School of Law, Virginia Environmental Law Journal Symposium, Condemning Open Space (Nov. 2007)
        Condemning Conservation Easement Protected Land

 

Land Trust Alliance National Conference, Denver, Colorado (Oct. 2007)
Condemning Conservation Easements
Fiduciary Obligations of Charitable Conservation Organizations
 
Harvard Law School and the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations (Kennedy School of Government) seminar on the Nonprofit Sector & Philanthropy (April 2007)
        Nonprofit Land Conservation Organizations - Rights,
        Responsibilities, and Emerging Issues

Douglas W. Conner 28th Annual Advanced Estate Planning and Administration Seminar, Hot Springs, Virginia (April 2007)
        Conservation Easements in Estate Planning

Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark Law School Faculty Workshop (Nov. 2006)
        Perpetual, Term, and Tradable Conservation Easements: Perpetuity as a Matter of Degree

9th Annual Georgetown Regulatory Takings Conference, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Boalt Hall (Oct. 2006)
        Panel on Conservation Easements

Land Trust Alliance National Conference, Nashville, Tennessee (Oct. 2006)
        Leadership Retreat - Conservation Easement Defense 

Georgetown University Law School Environmental and Land Use Workshop (Oct. 2006)
        Conservation Easement Modification and Termination

Georgetown University Law School Roundtable (Sept. 2006)
        Coordinating Incentive-Based and Regulatory Land Protection Measures

University of California, Berkeley, Land Conservation Lunch Series (April 2006)
        Amending Perpetual Conservation Easements: A Case Study of the Myrtle Grove Controversy

Stanford Law School Environmental Workshop Seminar (April 2006)
        Perpetual Conservation Easements in a Changing Landscape. Can We Adjust? Who Decides?

Utah Annual Appellate Court Conference, Moab, Utah (April 2006)
        Conservation Easements: Emerging Legal Issues

Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, University of Oregon School of Law (March 2006)
        Conservation Easement Reform

Law Review Symposium on Borrowing the Land: Cultures of Ownership in the Western Landscape, University of Denver College of Law (Feb. 2006)
        Panel on Acquiring Land for Conservation, Culture, and Sovereignty

Conference of State Planning Directors in the West, University of Montana Public Policy Research Institute & Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Oct. 2005)
        Approaches to Private Land Conservation

Yosemite Environmental Law Conference, Yosemite, California (Oct. 2005)
        Conservation Easements vs. Regulatory Reform

Land Trust Alliance National Conference, Madison, Wisconsin (Oct. 2005)
        Advanced Legal Roundtable on Extinguishment of Conservation Easements
        Interpreting and Amending Conservation Easements
        Panel on Conservation Easement Compliance and Abuse

Florida State University College of Law (Oct. 2005)
        Faculty Workshop on Responding to Changed Conditions in the Conservation Easement Context
        Seminar Lecture for Certificate Program in Environmental and Land Use Law

51st Annual Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute, Portland, Oregon (July 2005)
        Conservation Easements in the West

13th Biennial Natural Resources Law Teachers Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico (June 2005)
        Rethinking the Perpetual Nature of Conservation Easements

Land Trust Alliance Southwest Conference, Durango, Colorado (May 2005)
        Modifying and Terminating Conservation Easements
        Panel on Conservation Easement Compliance and Abuse

10th Annual Symposium, Wallace Stegner Center, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law (March 2005)
        Conservation Easements - A Troubled Adolescence

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Feb. 2005)
        Roundtable on Conservation Easement Legal Reform


Contact

Phone: (801) 581-5944
Fax: (801) 581-6897
Email: nancy.mclaughlin@law.utah.edu

Office: 206

S.J. Quinney College of Law
University of Utah
332 S. 1400 E., Room 101
Salt Lake City, UT 84112

Secretary/Assistant: Mary Wheeler


Education

B.S., University of Massachusetts (1987)

J.D., University of Virginia (1990)


Curriculum Vitae


Courses


In The Media