S.J. Quinney College of Law

Lingxi Chenyang

Publications:

• Lingxi Chenyang, Food Antidemocracy, 99 S. CAL. L. REV. __ (forthcoming 2026).

Lectures and Keynote Addresses:

•  “Food Antidemocracy,” Law, Environment & Animals Program, Yale Law School (April 2025).
•  “The Egalitarian Roots of the Public Trust Doctrine,” Burke Environmental Law Center Junior Faculty Workshop (May 2025). One of nine junior faculty selected on the basis of a scholarly work in progress as well as past accomplishments and future promise.

Jorge Contreras

Publications:

• Jorge L. Contreras, The Prospects for Green Patent Commons in THE ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE COMMONS: CASES AND LESSONS FOR KNOWLEDGE SHARING, Anjanette Raymond, Scott Shackelford, Jessica Steinberg, and Michael Mattioli, eds. (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2025).
• Jorge L. Contreras, Genetic Patents and the Sustainable Development Goalsin THE ELGAR COMPANION TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS, Matthew Rimmer, Caroline B. Ncube & Bita Amani, eds. (Edward Elgar, 2024).

Brig Daniels

Publications:

• Brig Daniels, Great Salt Lake and the New Water Security, 58 UC DAVIS L. REV. 2581 (2025) with Beth Parker and Brian Steed.
• Brig Daniels, Great Salt Lake, Environmental Crises, and Securities Liability, 55 ENVTL. L. REP. 10186 (2025) with Beth Parker, Abigail Allen, and Corrine Doerner.
• Brig Daniels, Great Salt Lake and the Future of Environmental Law, 96 U. COLO. L. REV. 741 (2025) with Beth Parker, Karrigan Börk, Andrew Follett, and Danny Dudley.
• Brig Daniels, The Limits of Awards for Anti-corruption: Experimental and Ethnographic Evidence from Uganda, 43 J. POL’Y ANALYSIS & MGMT. 1079 (2024) with Mark T. Buntaine, Alex Bagabo, Tanner Bangerter, and Paul Bukuluki.

Lectures, and Keynote Addresses:

• “Water Policy” (panelist), The Water Commons: Living Legacies of Utah Waterways, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (Sept. 2025).
• “The Great Salt Lake Economy,” People’s Great Salt Lake Summit (Aug. 2025).
• “The Dust Bowl? Air Pollution, Great Salt Lake, and Utah’s Critical Challenge” (panelist), Wallace Stegner Center 30th Annual Symposium, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, Salt Lake City, Utah (Mar. 2025).
• “Great Salt Lake 2025 Legislative Update” (panelist), Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources & the Environment Green Bag, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, Salt Lake City, Utah (Mar. 2025).

Awards and Other Activities:

• Received the College of Law's 2025 Faculty Research Award for launching an academic agenda focused on saving Great Salt Lake, including policy work growing out of the Stegner Center's Great Salt Lake Project.
• Co-launched “Lawyers for the Lake,” a pro bono partnership between the Stegner Center’s Great Salt Lake Project and Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, to develop and advance legal policy measures for preserving the Great Salt Lake (with Beth Parker).
• As part of the Lake Leaders Initiative (launched in 2025 with Beth Parker), partnered with the Great Salt Lake Advisory Council and the Utah Division of Water Resources to assist in the rollout of the Great Salt Lake Water Conservation Toolbox, a resource to help cities adopt water-saving ordinances and practices (with Beth Parker).

Lincoln Davies

Publications:

• Lincoln Davies, The Politics of Climate Hope and Despair, 103 TEXAS LAW REVIEW ONLINE 113 (2024).
• Lincoln Davies, Remaking the Western Grid, 58 UC DAVIS LAW REVIEW ONLINE 61 (2025) with Stephanie Lenhart and Anne Ralph.

Lectures and Keynote Addresses:

• “Policy Landscape,” Utah Energy Week, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (Sept. 16, 2025).
• “Remaking the Energy Landscape Through Executive Order: A Primer and Policy/Legal Discussion,” 2025 EBA Energy Forum, Energy Bar Association, Washington, D.C. (Sept. 15, 2025).
• “Emerging Markets in the Western Grid,” Energy Roundtable, Business Council for Sustainable Energy and the Abundance Institute, Salt Lake City, Utah (Aug. 19, 2025).
• “The Energy Dominance Plan – A ‘Fireside Chat’ on Emerging Energy Law and Policy Under the Trump Administration,” 71st Annual Natural Resources and Energy Law Institute, Foundation for Natural Resources & Energy Law, Whistler, Canada (July 17, 2025).
• “Navigating Energy Law and Policy in 2025 and Beyond,” IES Energy Symposium 2025, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (May 20, 2025).
• “Understanding Electricity Markets,” IEEE PES Energy & Policy Forum, Washington, D.C. (Apr. 16, 2025).
• “Remaking the Western Grid,” RTO Gov Spring Workshop, Carnegie Mellon University, Washington, D.C. (Feb. 24, 2025).
• “The Clean Energy Transition: A U.S. Perspective,” Inaugural Elizabeth Evatt Fellow Lecture, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Sydney, Australia (Dec. 12, 2024).
• “Reimagining the Clean Energy Transition” (keynote), Journal of Law and Public Policy Symposium: The Path to an Equitable Energy Transition, University of St. Thomas School of Law, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Nov. 8, 2024).
• “Agency Deference after Loper Bright,” Utah Bar Association, Salt Lake City, Utah (Nov. 5, 2024).
• “Understanding the Clean Energy Transition: A View from the United States,” Seoul National University School of Law, Center for Energy & Environmental Law and Policy, Seoul, South Korea (Sept. 26, 2024).
• “Emerging Markets in the Western Electricity Grid,” WIRED Grid Resilience Symposium, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (Sept. 12, 2024).

Other activities:

• Named editor-in-chief of the ABA's publication, Administrative & Regulatory Law News.

Leslie Francis

Publications:

Leslie Francis, STATES OF HEALTH: THE ETHICS AND CONSEQUENCES OF POLICY VARIATION IN A FEDERAL SYSTEM (Oxford University Press, 2024) (with John G. Francis).  The book contains a chapter on state-level approaches to public health. Since publishing, Francis has continued to work on issues in U.S. federalism, particularly the extent to which states may reach out beyond their borders to affect what happens to their residents elsewhere.

Robert Keiter

Publications:

• Robert Keiter, CONSERVING NATURE IN GREATER YELLOWSTONE: CONTROVERSY AND CHANGE IN AN ICONIC ECOYSTEM (University of Chicago Press, 2025).
• Robert Keiter, Revisiting “The Marks of Human Passage”: Lessons from the Dinosaur and Bears Ears National Monument Controversies in WALLACE STEGNER'S UNSETTLED COUNTRY: RUIN, REALISM, AND POSSIBILITY IN THE AMERICAN WEST, Mark Fiege et al., eds. (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2024).
• Robert Keiter, Foreword in A WATERSHED MOMENT: THE AMERICAN WEST IN THE AGE OF LIMITS, Robert Frodeman et al., eds. (Univ. of Utah Press, 2024).
• Robert Keiter, Law, Politics, and Outdoor Recreation on Public Lands: An Addendum to Professor Lin’s Analysis, 104 BOSTON U. L. REV. 421 (2024).

Lectures and Keynote Addresses:

• “From the Great Society to the Climate Challenge: Examining 60 Years of Change in Public Land Law," Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law 71st Annual Institute, Whistler, British Columbia, July 2025.

Other activities:

• In March 2025, Keiter concluded his tenure on the National Park System Advisory Board that included service on the Committee on Recognizing Women’s History, which presented a report entitled "Final Recommendations in Response to Executive Order 14121" to the Secretary of the Interior and National Park Service Director, setting forth numerous suggestions for improving how women and their accomplishments can be better represented within the national park system and on other public lands and places.

Nancy McLaughlin                         

Publications:

• Nancy A. McLaughlin, Donor Standing in the 21^st Century, __ REAL PROP. TR. & EST. L.J. __ (forthcoming 2025).

Lectures and Keynote Addresses:

• McLaughlin organized and presented (with four other national experts) at the Trying Times: Conservation Easements and Federal Tax Law 2025 conference, which was streamed live to a national audience of over 400 registrants.

Tom Mitchell

Publications:

• Tom Mitchell, EO 14241—Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production: El Dorado or Bust? 55 ENVTL. L. REP __ (forthcoming 2025) with Wesley Peebles.

Ruhan Nagra

• Elected to a three-year term on the board of directors of the Clinical Legal Education Association.
• Quoted in The Guardian, and her work was featured in Reuters and Scientific American.

Beth Parker

Publications:

• Elisabeth Parker, Great Salt Lake and the New Water Security, 58 UC DAVIS L. REV. 2581 (2025) with Brigham Daniels and Brian Steed.
• Elisabeth Parker, Great Salt Lake, Environmental Crises, and Securities Liability, 55 ENVTL. L. REP. 10186 (2025) with Brigham Daniels, Abigail Allen, and Corrine Doerner.
• Elisabeth Parker, Great Salt Lake and the Future of Environmental Law, 96 U. COLO. L. REV. 741 (2025) with Brigham Daniels, Karrigan Börk, Andrew Follett, and Danny Dudley.
• Elisabeth Parker, The Reform of Prior Appropriation and the Fate of Great Salt Lake, __ ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF GEOGRAPHERS __ (forthcoming 2025) with Christopher Lant and Rocky Seeley.
• Elisabeth Parker, Environmental Law and Policy and Indigenous Peoples, in COMPARATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW RESEARCH HANDBOOK, Tseming Yang, Anastasia Telesetsky, Sara K. Phillips, eds. (Edward Elgar, 2025) with Heather Tanana.

Lectures and Keynote Addresses:

• “Water Policy” (panelist), The Water Commons: Living Legacies of Utah Waterways, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (Sept. 2025).
• “Policy Solutions to Restore Great Salt Lake,” Interfaith Summit on Great Salt Lake (Sept. 2025).
• “The Great Salt Lake Economy,” People’s Great Salt Lake Summit (Aug. 2025).
• “The Dust Bowl? Air Pollution, Great Salt Lake, and Utah’s Critical Challenge” (panelist), Wallace Stegner Center 30th Annual Symposium, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, Salt Lake City, Utah (Mar. 2025).
• “Great Salt Lake 2025 Legislative Update” (panelist), Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources & the Environment Green Bag, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, Salt Lake City, Utah (Mar. 2025).
• “Healthcare Issues in Indian Country” (panelist), Indian Law Section Annual Meeting, Indian Law Section, Utah State Bar (Oct. 2024).

Other Activities:

• Co-launched “Lawyers for the Lake,” a pro bono partnership between the Stegner Center’s Great Salt Lake Project and Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, to develop and advance legal policy measures for preserving the Great Salt Lake (with Brigham Daniels).
• As part of the Lake Leaders Initiative (launched in 2025 with Brigham Daniels), partnered with the Great Salt Lake Advisory Council and the Utah Division of Water Resources to assist in the rollout of the Great Salt Lake Water Conservation Toolbox, a resource to help cities adopt water-saving ordinances and practices (with Brigham Daniels).

Wesley Peebles

Publications:

• Wesley Peebles, EO 14241—Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production: El Dorado or Bust? 55 ENVTL. L. REP. __ (forthcoming 2025) with Tom Mitchell.

• Wesley Peebles, Failure of U.S. Critical Mineral Policy: Why Aren’t Miners Producing What America Needs?, 16 WAKE FOREST J. L. & POL’Y __ (forthcoming 2025) with John Ruple.
• Wesley Peebles, The U.S. Critical Minerals List: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, __ FORDHAM ENV’T L. REV. __ (forthcoming 2025).
• Wesley Peebles, Longleaf Pine Restoration: Leveraging Federal Legal Mechanisms for Landscape Conservation Across the Southeast, 26 VT. J. ENV’T L. 2010 (2025).

Other activities:

• Joined the Wallace Stegner Center as a research associate in the Law and Policy Program.

Jamie Pleune

Publications: 

• Jamie Pleune, The Trump Administration’s Self-Inflicted Problem: Why Repealing CEQ Regulations Will Delay Infrastructure and Energy Development,55 ENVT’L L. REP. 10378 (July 2025) with John Ruple and Justin Pidot.
• Jamie Pleune, Dispelling the Myths of Permit Reform and Identifying Effective Pathways Forward, 55 ENVT’L L. REP. 10038 (Feb. 2025) with David Adelman, Sommer Engels, and Andrew Mergen.
• Jamie Pleune, The BLM Public Lands Rule and “Periodic Adjustments in Use to Conform to Changing Needs and Conditions” under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, 42 PACE ENVT’L L. REV. 101 (Nov. 2024).

Lectures and Keynote Addresses:

• “Permitting for the Energy Transition,” Special Institute on Law & Policy of Critical Minerals, Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law (May 2025). 

Other activities:

• Over the past year, Pleune has been developing the Stegner Center's Permitting Research Initiative for Sustainable Minerals (PRISM), a five-year pilot project generously supported by the Wilburforce Foundation. PRISM will focus on scholarship and education that supports a fair and transparent regulatory environment for mineral development. PRISM promotes best-of-kind practices that respect the rule of law, incorporate the best available science and information, and promote meaningful community engagement.

Danya Rumore

Publications: 

• Authored ten EDR blogs on topics ranging from how to find and work with a professional third-party facilitator to how to use emotions as data when dealing with conflict to how to run effective meetings.

Lectures and Keynote Addresses:

• “Conflict Management,” Lex Con (Nov. 2024).
• “Conserving What We Love Most About the Wood River Valley,” Think Globally Act Locally Speaker Series (Mar. 2025).
• “How to Stay a Community Amid Growth and Change,” Giving Thought Speaker Series (Mar. 2025).
• “Conflict Competence,” Women in Leadership Spring Summit (Apr. 2025).
• “What is Conflict Competence,” Utah League of Cities and Towns Mid-Year Conference (Apr. 2025).
• “Why All the Conflict,” Utah American Planning Association Conference (May 2025).
• “Planning for Conflict,” Utah American Planning Association Conference (May 2025).
• “Let’s Talk about Collaboration.” Utah Clinical and Translational Science Institute Fall Retreat (Sept. 2025).

Other activities:

• Over the past year, Rumore received the 2025 Peacekeeper Award from the Utah Council on Conflict Resolution and trained more than 1000 professionals in the skills of conflict competence and collaboration. Her work and ideas were featured in media outlets including NPR Marketplace, High Country News, and KUER.

John Ruple

Publications:

• John Ruple, Not So Fast: Why the Council on Environmental Quality’s NEPA Regulations Will Live On Following Their Repeal, ___ PUB. LAND L. REV ___ (forthcoming 2026).
• John Ruple, Failure of U.S. Critical Mineral Policy: Why Aren’t Miners Digging What America Needs? __ WAKE FOREST J. OF LAW & POLICY __ (forthcoming 2025) with Wesley Peebles.
• John Ruple, The Trump Administration’s Self-Inflicted Problem: Why Repealing CEQ Regulations Will Delay Infrastructure and Energy Development, 55 ENVTL. L. REP. 10378 (July 2025) with Jamie Pleune and Justin Pidot.

Presentations:

• “Selling Federal Public Lands and ‘Smart Growth,’ Do They Go Together?,” Council of State Governments – South (Sept. 2025).
• “What Does ‘Environmental Review’ Mean Today? Navigating a Post-Held, Post-CEQ World,” University of Montana Public Land & Resources Law Review 41st Public Land Law Conference (Sept. 2025).
• “Environmental Litigation Arising Out of Actions of the Trump Administration,” National Association of Appellate Court Attorneys (July 2025).
• “Eagle County, NEPA, and the Impacts of Deregulation: Environmental Review Under the New Administration,” American Law Institute (July 2025).

Other activities:

• Quoted in Republicans considering selling off federal land to pay for Trump's domestic agenda, National Public Radio (May 6, 2025).
• Quoted in Trump rescinded a half-century of environmental rules. Here’s what that could mean, Vox (Jan. 27, 2025).

Jeff Schwartz

Publications:

• Jeff Schwartz, Transnational ESG: The Impact of EU Sustainability Directives on US Law and Policy, 5 J. LAW & POLITICAL ECONOMY 352 (2025).