Hot Topics | Challenges of Barcelona's Waste Tax in Light of the New European Requirement for Pay-As-You-Throw Systems
2025-06-26 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Virtual
Join us online for the Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, brought to you by the Environmental Law Center at VLGS. The series is free and open to the public. In addition to featuring live Q&A with the audience, each installment is eligible for Vermont Bar Association Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit.

This session, “Challenges of Barcelona’s Waste Tax in Light of the New European Requirement for Pay-As-You-Throw Systems,” will be presented by Rodolfo Boix from Pompeu Fabra University.

Tune into the livestream by clicking the button below.

Alumni Weekend 2025
2025-06-27 00:00 - 2025-06-29 23:59 | VLGS Campus, 164 Chelsea Street, South Royalton, Vermont, 05068
Join other Swans in South Royalton, Vermont, this summer for an exciting weekend of events! All alumni are invited to attend, regardless of your graduation year, and we’ll have special celebrations for class years ending in 0s and 5s.

For more information, including the registration link, please click here.

We can’t wait to see you!

Hot Topics | Federal Environmental Law After Trump II
2025-07-08 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Join us online for the Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, brought to you by the Environmental Law Center at VLGS. The series is free and open to the public. In addition to featuring live Q&A with the audience, each installment is eligible for Vermont Bar Association Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit.

This session, “Federal Environmental Law After Trump II” will be presented by Sean Donahue of Donahue, Goldberg & Herzog, and Robert Percival from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.

Tune into the livestream by clicking the button below.

Hot Topics | A Just Transition for Whom? Understanding the Opportunities and Limitations of a Just Energy Transition
2025-07-10 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Join us online for the Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, brought to you by the Environmental Law Center at VLGS. The series is free and open to the public. In addition to featuring live Q&A with the audience, each installment is eligible for Vermont Bar Association Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit.

This session, “A Just Transition for Whom? Understanding the Opportunities and Limitations of a Just Energy Transition,” will be presented by Mijin Cha from University of California Santa Cruz and the VLGS Distinguished Energy Law Summer Scholar.

Tune into the livestream by clicking the button below.

Hot Topics | Universal Ownership, Systematic Stewardship: Whatever You Call It, Where Do We Stand?
2025-07-15 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Join us online for the Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, brought to you by the Environmental Law Center at VLGS. The series is free and open to the public. In addition to featuring live Q&A with the audience, each installment is eligible for Vermont Bar Association Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit.

This session, “Universal Ownership, Systematic Stewardship: Whatever You Call It, Where Do We Stand?”, will be presented by Madison Condon from Boston University School of Law and the VLGS Distinguished Climate Law Summer Scholar.

Tune into the livestream by clicking the button below.

Hot Topics | One Big Beautiful Bill and How it Will Disrupt the Clean Energy Transition
2025-07-17 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Join us online for the Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, brought to you by the Environmental Law Center at VLGS. The series is free and open to the public. In addition to featuring live Q&A with the audience, each installment is eligible for Vermont Bar Association Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit.

This session will be presented by Valerie Volcovici from Thomson Reuters and a VLGS Environmental Media Fellow.

Tune into the livestream by clicking the button below.

Hot Topics | Someone
2025-07-22 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Join us online for the Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, brought to you by the Environmental Law Center at VLGS. The series is free and open to the public. In addition to featuring live Q&A with the audience, each installment is eligible for Vermont Bar Association Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit.

This session will be presented by Kristen Stilt from Harvard Law School and a VLGS Distinguished Animal Law Summer Scholar.

An assumed division between human and nonhuman animals (and most of nature) has long been baked into most of Western culture and law. As effects of the Anthropocene bring humans and animals in closer and more frequent contact, increasingly in emergency and catastrophic situations, we are beginning to see more signs of awareness that humans and animals are not only ecologically but profoundly interdependent—and that each animal should not be categorized something, but as someone.

Tune into the livestream by clicking the button below.

Hot Topics | Animal Storytelling
2025-07-24 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Join us online for the Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, brought to you by the Environmental Law Center at VLGS. The series is free and open to the public. In addition to featuring live Q&A with the audience, each installment is eligible for Vermont Bar Association Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit.

This session, “Animal Storytelling,” will be presented by Stephanie Hanes, environmental journalist and VLGS Animal Law Media Fellow.

Reporting and writing about non-human animals creates unique challenges for journalists. We can’t quote them. We can’t interview them. So how do we pick what stories to tell about them—and how do we adjust our work to ensure we are accurately and effectively communicating about our natural world? In this talk, Hanes will discuss some of the pitfalls and potential of covering animals for mainstream media.

Tune into the livestream by clicking the button below.

Hot Topics | Carbon Pricing: Issues and Challenges
2025-07-29 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Join us online for the Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, brought to you by the Environmental Law Center at VLGS. The series is free and open to the public. In addition to featuring live Q&A with the audience, each installment is eligible for Vermont Bar Association Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit.

This session, “Carbon Pricing: Issues and Challenges,” will be presented by David Talbot from École Nationale d’Administration Publique.

The presentation will cover the evolution of carbon markets and taxes worldwide. Its aim is to highlight the challenges and issues linked to carbon pricing and discuss the impact of the various policies and initiatives that have been implemented. In particular, Talbot will present comparisons between the European carbon market and the Western Climate Initiative (California and Quebec).

Tune into the livestream by clicking the button below.

Hot Topics | Climate in the Courtroom: Inside the Historic Held v. Montana Youth Climate Trial
2025-07-31 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Join us online for the Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, brought to you by the Environmental Law Center at VLGS. The series is free and open to the public. In addition to featuring live Q&A with the audience, each installment is eligible for Vermont Bar Association Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit.

This session will be presented by Dana Drugmand.

Tune into the livestream by clicking the button below.

2025 New England Legal Writing Conference
2025-09-12 08:30 - 17:00 | Vermont Law and Graduate School, 164 Chelsea St., South Royalton, VT, 05068
Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) looks forward to hosting professors from near and far for the the 2025 New England Legal Writing Conference. This year’s theme is “Legal Writing: 2035.”

Participants will be asked to imagine the promise—and peril—of the future of legal writing. What will legal writing look like ten years from now? How should legal writing professors pivot to address rapidly evolving developments in technology and society? Which core principles of legal writing should we preserve–and which should we abandon?

For conference details, including information on registration and hotel accommodations, please click here. You can view the tentative schedule below.

SCHEDULE:

8:30 – 9:30 a.m. | Breakfast (Yates Common Room)

Sponsored by Bloomberg and Carolina Academic Press

9:15 – 9:30 a.m. | Dean’s Welcome with Dean Beth McCormack (Yates Common Room)

9:30 – 10:15 a.m. | Opening Plenary Address (Yates Common Room)

Moderator: Professor Greg Johnson

Linda Anderson, Stetson University College of Law: Legal Writing Reimagined: AI, NextGen Bar, and the New Writing Process—What Every Professor Needs to Know

10:25 – 10:50 a.m. | Plenary Discussion Group (Yates Common Room)

Moderator: Professor Catherine Fregosi

Nicole Belbin, Beth Cohen, and Jessica Mahon Scoles, Western New England School of Law: The Future of Legal Writing is Now: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

10:50 – 11 a.m. | Coffee Break (Yates Common Room) Sponsored by Aspen Publishing

11 – 11:50 a.m. | Concurrent Sessions

Map Room

Moderator: Professor Michael Kovac

Anna Elbroch, Melissa Christensen, Heather Ward, Julia Pothen, and Kelsey Klementowicz, UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law: Mindful AI Integration: Designing Activities that Build Skills, Not Shortcuts

Rachel Jay Smith, University of Cincinnati College of Law: Chatbots as Tutors: Enhancing Legal Writing Education for the Future

Nina Thomas Classroom

Moderator: Professor Anna Connolly

Liz Chen, Brooklyn Law School: Rewarding Reflection

Kerry Fulham, Brooklyn Law School: Beyond Anxiety: Incorporating Creative Exercises into the Legal Writing Classroom

12 – 12:30 p.m. | Lunch (Yates Common Room) Sponsored by Thomson Reuters

12:30 – 1:50 p.m. | Keynote Speakers (Yates Common Room)

Moderator: Professor Greg Johnson

Elizabeth Berenguer, Stetson University College of Law; Lucy Jewel, University of Tennessee Winston College of Law; and Teri McMurtry-Chubb, University of Illinois Chicago School of Law: Gut Renovation: Using Critical and Comparative Rhetoric to Remodel How the Law Addresses Privilege and Power

2 – 2:50 p.m. | Concurrent Sessions

Map Room

Moderator: Professor Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff

Colin M. Black, Suffolk University Law School: The Ghost-Writer in the Machine: When Must Lawyers Disclose AI Assistance in Legal Writing?

Sarah Cansler, Campbell University, Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law: Teaching Ethical Use of AI

Nina Thomas Classroom

Moderator: Professor Jessica Durkis-Stokes

Anna Connolly, Vermont Law and Graduate School, Get Out of the Shallows: Break Up Legal Research and Writing

Stevie Leahy, Suffolk University Law School: Fifty Classrooms, One Future: Ground-Level Visions for Legal Writing in 2035

2:50 – 3 p.m. | Coffee Break (Yates Common Room) Sponsored by LexisNexis

3 – 4:30 p.m. | Concurrent Sessions

Map Room

Moderator: Professor Catherine Fregosi

Marni Goldstein Caputo and Kathleen Luz, Boston University School of Law: Professional Identity Formation in the Transactional Context: Not an Amorphous Concept

Laura D’Amato and Claire Abely, Boston University School of Law: A Transactional Simulation for a Changing Legal Education Landscape

Rebecca Chapman, Northeastern University School of Law: Transforming and Expanding Legal Writing Instruction Through Clinical Work

Nina Thomas Classroom

Moderator: Professor Michael Kovac

Patricia Winograd and Rebecca Delfino, LMU Loyola Law School: A Look at the Future . . . From a First-Generation Perspective

Krista Bordatto, Campbell Law School: Incorporating Cross-Cultural Competency and Cultural Humility into the Legal Writing Classroom—Enhancing Advocacy and Global Understanding

Afton Cavanaugh, University of Baltimore School of Law: “We Were Raised in Crisis”: Teaching Legal Writing to a Generation Formed by Upheaval

4:30 – 5 p.m. | Closing Reception (Yates Common Room)

Constitution Day 2025: "Landmark Cases in American Constitutional Law"
2025-09-17 17:00 - 18:00 | Chase Community Center, 164 Chelsea St., South Royalton, VT, 05068
In celebration of the day that the United States Constitution was adopted, the Vermont Bar Association (VBA) and Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) will host a panel presentation focused on “Landmark Cases in American Constitutional Law.”

Panelists include:

Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Reiber

Vermont Superior Court Judge Timothy Tomasi

Vermont Superior Court Judge Daniel Richardson JD’03

Vermont Superior Court Judge Bonnie Badgewick

VLGS Professor Peter Teachout

Incoming VBA President Jordana Levine JD’04 (Moderator)

This event is free and open to the public, and all in-person attendees will receive a pocket Constitution. There will be an opportunity to ask questions of panelists following the presentation.

If you are unable to join us in person, the livestream can be accessed by clicking here.

Vermont Law Review Presents: "Free Speech on Trial: Resisting Censorship in 2025"
2025-10-03 15:30 - 2025-10-04 12:30 | Chase Community Center, 164 Chelsea St., South Royalton, VT, 05068
In celebration of its 50th volume, Vermont Law Review proudly presents its annual symposium, “Free Speech on Trial: Resisting Censorship in 2025.”

This dynamic event will feature four panels examining pressing First Amendment issues—executive power and academic freedom in contemporary governance—the Pico v. Island Trees case and book banning in schools across the United States, a comparative panel with African artistic freedom of expression, and the rapidly evolving intersection of artificial intelligence and free speech in democratic societies.

The symposium is free and open to the public. Both in-person and livestream attendance options are available. The livestream links will be shared on this page prior to the event.

To view the full agenda, please see below.

You can access the livestream via the following links:

Friday, October 3 | 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. ET

Saturday, October 4 | 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET

AGENDA:

Friday, October 3

3:30 p.m. | Opening Remarks

Katie Scott JD’26, Symposium Editor, Vermont Law Review

Ilinca Johnson JD’26, Symposium Editor, Vermont Law Review

Keynote Address: Rod Smolla, Professor of Law, Vermont Law and Graduate School

4 p.m. | Break

4:05 p.m. | Panel One, “Executive Power and Academic Freedom”

Moderator: Siu Tip Lam, Interim Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Vermont Law and Graduate School

Michael Hurley, Government Affairs Counsel, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)

Ryan Kane JD’13, Deputy Solicitor General, Vermont Attorney General’s Office

Sam Abel-Palmer, Executive Director, Legal Services Vermont

Apratim Vidyarthi, Litigation Associate, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

5:20 p.m. | Break

5:30 p.m. | Panel Two, “Pico v. Island and Book Bans”

Moderator: Anna Connolly, Associate Professor of Law, Vermont Law and Graduate School

Rhiannon Hamam, Supervising Attorney, Mithoff Pro Bono Program, University of Texas School of Law, and Co-host, 5-4 Podcast

Michael Liroff, Creator and Co-host, 5-4 Podcast

6:45 p.m. | Social Hour

Saturday, October 4

8:30 a.m. | Check-in and Breakfast

9 a.m. | Opening Remarks

Ilinca Johnson JD’26, Symposium Editor, Vermont Law Review

9:05 a.m. | Panel Three, “African Artistic Freedom and Censorship”

Moderator: Emily Gould, Lawyer, Mediator, and Executive Coach

Sam Brakarsh, Chair, Pan-African Network on Artistic Freedom Summit

Adaobi Egboka, Director, Africa Initiative, Human Rights and Access to Justice Program, Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice

Muleta Kapatiso, Activist, Lawyer, and Development Practitioner

Lisa Sidambe, Independent Human Rights and Development Consultant

10:20 a.m. | Break

10:25 a.m. | Panel Four, “AI and the First Amendment”

Moderator: Benjamin Varadi, Associate Professor of Law, Vermont Law and Graduate School

Esha Bhandari, Deputy Director, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project

John Coleman, Legislative Counsel, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)

Ilan Kogan, Associate, Litigation, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

11:45 a.m. | Closing Remarks

Katie Scott JD’26, Symposium Editor, Vermont Law Review

Ilinca Johnson JD’26, Symposium Editor, Vermont Law Review

"What We Can Do: A Climate Optimist’s Guide to Sustainable Living" Book Talk
2025-11-06 12:45 - 14:00 | Vermont Law and Graduate School, 164 Chelsea St., South Royalton, VT, 05068
Join us for an engaging book talk with Charlie Sellars, director of sustainability at Microsoft and author of the #1 best-selling climate book, “What We Can Do: A Climate Optimist’s Guide to Sustainable Living.”

In this empowering and practical guide, Sellars offers a data-driven framework to help readers embrace sustainability in their personal, professional, and political lives. With an optimistic perspective, “What We Can Do” reminds us that each of us has more power than we realize to create a meaningful difference in the fight against climate change.

This event is hosted by the Business Law Society, the Environmental Law Society, the Energy Law Society, the Environmental Law Center, and Offices for Alumni Relations and Development.

Planning to attend in person? Please register via the button below. Joining virtually? Access the presentation on the day of the event via this link.

2025 Community Thanksgiving Dinner
2025-11-27 11:30 - 13:30 | Chase Community Center, 164 Chelsea St., South Royalton, VT, 05068
Join us to celebrate Thanksgiving with our community! This free dinner is sponsored by the South Royalton/Royalton community, businesses, churches, Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS), the Royalton and Area Lions Club, and residents of surrounding towns.

If you would like to attend or have a meal delivered, please contact:

Courtney Potter (VLGS) at communitythanksgiving@vermontlaw.edu or 802-831-1238; or Carol Greene (Royalton and Area Lions Club) at 802-291-3750

Food donations (chocolate, apple, and pumpkin pies; other desserts) will be accepted from November 24-26 in Chase Community Center on the VLGS campus. Monetary donations are gratefully accepted and can be dropped off at VLGS with Courtney Potter (Debevoise Hall, 3rd Floor). Please make checks payable to Vermont Law and Graduate School.

Learn More

Alumni Weekend 2026
2026-06-26 08:00 - 2026-06-28 17:00
Stay tuned for more details!
