April 19, 2007
Champion of the environment: Law school’s Bill Rodgers to be celebrated Earth Day weekend
By Shari Ireton
Law School
It probably comes as no surprise that the person regarded as a pioneering leader in environmental law has spent most of his career in Seattle. And, it probably is not surprising that, in this city known for top notch litigators and attorneys, he became a leader in the movement by pushing policy reform and giving heated testimonies before Congress. What is surprising is that he is UW law Professor William (Bill) Rodgers, a quiet and unassuming man with smiling blue eyes.
“At the time environmental law was getting started, Bill was clearly one of the pioneers,” said Bud Walsh, an environmental law attorney in Davis Wright Tremaine’s San Francisco office and a former student of Rodgers. “There is no question that Bill is a unique person in the movement.”
The law school is celebrating Rodgers’ 40 years of contributions to the field, as well as his teaching and scholarship, with a symposium and reception in his honor
April 20-21. His career highlights include publishing the Handbook of Environmental Law and the first of a two-volume treatise, Environmental Law in Indian Country, litigating the first of many smelter cases, and his involvement with the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill “reopener” (more about this later).
His career closely follows the history of the environmental movement. Rodgers graduated from Columbia University Law School in 1965 at a time that the environment (and protecting it) was on the minds of many Americans. Growing up on a farm in Massachusetts, Rodgers said he has always been close to nature. The farm was “a swamp on one side with no end, woods on one end that had no end, and cow pastures on the other with no end. It was like heaven.”
When he was 10 years old, the farm was reclaimed so that a highway could be built, an influential event in Rodgers’ life. In law school, he realized he could use the law “to fix things.” After graduation, Rodgers joined the UW law faculty, where he gained the reputation as Seattle’s Ralph Nader — the little guy who took on the big guy. He said he learned how to testify from Nader. “Nader taught me that you start your testimony by going 100 mph: ‘Thank you for inviting me to testify today…on the worst scandal ever to plague our nation,’ and you’re off!” recalls Rodgers, laughing.
In his research on smelters and for what would later be called the Clean Water Act, Rodgers made Freedom of Information Act requests for minutes from meetings for advisory committees set up by smelter companies.
“I was focused on how they were working to impair the pollution controls law,” said Rodgers. That investigative research, though, often meant he knew more about certain issues than anyone else in DC. “I’d get hold of these documents that government agencies would want to see, so that put me in the hot seat.”
The minutes he had requested contained details that showed, among other things, that officials in the Nixon Administration were using the National Industrial Pollution Control Council (NIPCC) to raise funds for the president’s re-election committee, a fact that became part of the Watergate controversy.
Rodgers passes on his experience to his students today. UW law student Joe Shaughnessy was recently involved with a case in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals: “I’d approach Professor Rodgers and say, ‘I’d like to say this to the court.’ He would look at me and say, ‘Can you do it in less than two sentences?'”
Walsh, the San Francisco attorney, also experienced the Rodgers approach. When he was a graduate student enrolled in the environmental law program, Walsh said Rodgers stopped him in the hall one day and said, “Gee, Bud, all this work you’re doing is really academic. If you want to effect change, get involved in a lawsuit.”
“The things I’ve learned from Rodgers have been a powerful tool in analyzing the law,” said Mickey Gendler with the Seattle firm of Gendler & Mann, who also had Rodgers as a professor. “He taught me to analyze things in a way that I’ve continued to use in my work, and the analyses are not limited to the environment.”
“The funny thing about Professor Rodgers is that he has this strong reputation as a litigator,” said law student Rob Hatfield. “But I’ve learned that he’s responsible for writing a lot of statutes, which is the flip side of litigation.”
And Rodgers is just as comfortable staying behind the scenes. Three years ago, he challenged his environmental law class to examine a little known clause in the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) settlement that would allow Alaska and federal government agencies to seek an additional $100 million from Exxon Mobil, Corp. The clause, known as the “reopener,” provided that additional money could be sought for damages that were unforeseen or unknown at the time of the EVOS settlement.
UW law students and faculty traveled to Alaska to inspect the spill zone and meet with members of native tribes and others still affected by the spill 17 years later. In early May, 2006, several native Alaska tribes and organizations filed a petition, drafted by faculty and students with the UW Berman Environmental Law Clinic. The petition called for the government to consult with the tribes and organizations on the question of whether the U.S. would pursue the reopener funds. On June 2, 2006, the Department of Justice and state of Alaska announced they would seek an additional $92 million from the oil company.
Asked if he has any advice to law students today who are thinking about a career in environmental law, Rodgers says: pursue it.
“Taking action is very hard to do and there are always a lot of reasons not to do it. Many times, you don’t win. But, in the bigger scheme of things, you at least get movement or confirm a position. You may find out that the courts can’t help you, but maybe the legislature can. It’s easy to do safe things, but I’m a believer in action, no matter how hard it is.”
