For our clients, in almost every instance we work with clients who are confronted with a situation where they, often for the first time, are realizing that their own government will not protect them. It doesn't take much for the implicit trust that we have in our institutions to turn into a sense of panic and hopelessness. Many, if not all, of our clients come to us in that shocked state. We knew long before the election that the belief in our nation's systems working for our clients had faded. And that's what is important: that we acknowledge and accept that our system of justice, our system of opportunity, and our system of advocacy have to work for everyone. Fair Shake is about tilting those systems toward working for all in our everyday work and in our model of the practice of law.

Many of us have been there before. You pull into a parking spot on a hot summer day, only to find a dog left unattended in the car next to you. You may be worried about what could happen if you simply move on with your day. According to the Humane Society, when it is 72 degrees Fahrenheit outside, the temperature inside a vehicle can heat up to 116 degrees Fahrenheit within an hour. When it is 80 degrees Fahrenheit outside, the temperature inside your car can heat up to 99 degrees Fahrenheit within 10 minutes. Further, rolling down the windows has been shown to have little effect on the temperature inside a car. Unlike humans, our pets do not have the ability to sweat to reduce their body temperatures. Being left in a vehicle can lead to a “painful, horrible death.” For example, once a dog’s body temperature exceeds 105 or 106 degrees, their cells start dying, which can lead to seizures or even mass organ failure and death.

Knowing the dangers to the animal, you may even be wondering how people can still do this after we see the same stories every year. As you sit there wanting to help, you may also be left to wonder what you can do in the moment, legally speaking. As with many legal issues, the answer is dependent upon the state in which you live.

Two recent studies by the U.S. Geological Survey, Duke University, and the University of Missouri have demonstrated that fracking wastewater injection disposal sites can lead to contamination of surface waters in nearby streams.  Of particular concern, the studies found endocrine-disrupting activity in the streams at levels high enough to lead to adverse health effects in aquatic life. Where potential or actual public underground drinking water sources are affected, citizens suits under the Safe Drinking Water Act may provide a way for people to defend their environment from contamination by wastewater injection.

In the past decade, a lot of attention has been paid to modern hydraulically-fractured and horizontally drilled oil and gas wells that have increasingly populated Pennsylvania and Ohio. It can be easy to forget that this is not the first (or even second) round of energetic well drilling in the area. Many people deal with old wells on their property, some of which were drilled 50 or 60 years ago. Old wells - and old pipes, fittings, valves, tanks, and other infrastructure pieces - can be unreliable or even outright dangerous. Wells that provide "sour gas" - natural gas which is naturally rich in hydrogen sulfide, a chemical which corrodes metal, causes respiratory problems, blindness and death - can cause serious public health crises if they are not properly maintained. Even properly operating wells can go dry or nearly dry - leaving you with noisy and intrusive oil and gas equipment on your property with little to no royalties for the inconvenience.

This presentation on Food Waste was part of our 2015 Community Fair and is an introduction to the issue of food waste. Even as people continue to struggle with food insecurity, massive amounts of food are wasted during production, distribution, and by consumers. This presentation examines these issues and takes a look at some creative solutions to the problem of food waste at local, regional, and national levels. 

There is a pervasive myth in America that individualized estate planning is only available to the very wealthy. For some, the message has even been that these services are only appropriate for the rich. Still others may know that individual planning is available, but believe that they and their loved-ones cannot benefit. They believe that because they do not have sufficient assets, nothing can be done.

This presentation, recorded as part of Fair Shake’s 2015 Community Fair, provides an introduction to my practice as a sharing economy lawyer. The sharing economy is a general trend towards sustainable economic and community development in a way that facilitates community ownership, localized production, cooperation, small-scale enterprise, and the regeneration of economic and natural abundance.

Looking at environmental concerns through a reproductive justice lens (and looking at reproductive concerns through an environmental justice lens) can help attorneys articulate needs that might otherwise go unaddressed and unnoticed in conversations about legal concerns and potentially available remedies. Recent statements from the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics on environmental justice, concerns surrounding the spread of Zika virus, and the impact of black lung on Appalachian families all demonstrate the unique way our environment impacts our reproductive health and the impact that has on our ability to plan and provide for our families.  These scenarios demonstrate the way an individual’s ability to exercise their reproductive rights and gain access to reproductive healthcare can contribute to how successfully that individual navigates the environmental concerns they may be facing.  They also demonstrates the way economic and social factors impact an individual’s exposure to harm and access to justice.  

A fellow attorney once told me that what I am saying boils down to “nothing happens in a vacuum.”  However, I think working at the intersection of environmental and reproductive justice means much more than that.  As an attorney committed to serving modest-means clients and an attorney committed to addressing the environmental legal concerns of women and families in particular, using these lenses to tackle a legal problem brings unique counseling and fact-gathering skills and provides an opportunity for novel approaches to legal action.