Author: Richard Camilleri LAW '17

Looking Ahead at Climate Change and Federal Policy

It has been a rough six months for climate change advocates. The policy changes from former President Obama to the new Trump Administration have been like night and day. In an effort to help digest these changes, Temple Law School’s Sheller Center for Social Justice hosted its fourth lecture in a series titled Making Sense of the Legal Headlines, focusing this time on Climate Change and Federal Policy. Temple Law Professor Amy Sinden facilitated the lecture, with assistance from third year law student Alec Zucker. Professor Sinden and Mr. Zucker did an excellent job at summarizing the major concerns associated with the current climate change crisis while bringing the audience up to speed regarding recent policy changes from our nation’s capital. With regard to the climate crisis, the bad news is that global temperatures are continuing to rise in the aggregate (2016 was the hottest year globally on record), and the change goes beyond warming. It includes both more extreme and more unpredictable weather patterns—droughts, floods, snow storms, heat waves, wildfires and so on. As …

Presidential Transition Lecture Series: David Thornburgh, Committee of Seventy CEO

Leading through Law – Our Civic Duty in Today’s Society  Lawyers are leaders.  As citizens, we all have civic responsibilities to participate in our democratic institutions of governance.  As lawyers, these responsibilities are heightened as we have the knowledge to better navigate these systems and the collective impact of our work inevitably shapes our society.  Through its current Presidential Transition Lecture Series, Temple Law School is seeking to engage and motivate its future attorneys to have an informed awareness that promotes deliberate and strategic positive action.  Mr. David Thornburgh, President and CEO of the Committee of Seventy, presented the second lecture in this series, titled “Answering the Call for Political Renewal.” Mr. Thornburgh’s message was one of encouragement, challenging us as lawyers to utilize the current energy associated with the recent national election to create positive action that strengthens our democratic institutions both locally and nationally.  While I whole-heartedly agree with this directive, I was surprised to find myself at odds with his initial statements regarding his motivations in deciding not to attend law school.  …