News
Clinical Professor Brad Bernthal, former director of the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic and now Director of Silicon Flatirons at Colorado Law, reflects on his 18 years leading the clinic and discusses his new role. Known for his annual bowling
Colorado Law is thrilled to announce our newest Associate Dean, along with our Professorship/Chair Holders and Directors. These five individuals already bring their valuable expertise, leadership, and scholarship to our faculty, and we look forward to the impact they will have in the following roles. Please join us in extending our sincerest congratulations to them.
With the academic year quickly approaching, Colorado Law is looking forward to welcoming the incoming class of new students. Over the next few weeks, we will be highlighting some of our incredible 1Ls through a series of brief profiles! Next up, we have Lucas Granillo (he/him).
University of Colorado Law School student Victoria (Tori) Matson ('26) is this year’s David Harrison Innovations in Water and Energy Law & Policy Fellow. The Fellowship, initiated in 2010 by partners of the law firm of Moses, Wittemyer, Harrison and Woodruff, P.C. in honor David L. Harrison (Law ‘71), is awarded each year to a Colorado Law student on the basis of academic performance, commitment to public service, and interest in the study of water and energy law and policy.
The GWC is delighted to announce that Riley Varner has received the 2024 Gary C. Bryner Award. Gary Bryner served as Director of what was then called the Natural Resources Law Center. He came to Colorado after a successful career as a Professor of Political Science at BYU, and while he left the Center’s Director position in 2001 he remained a regular presence at Center events, even serving a sabbatical year at the Center
The Getches-Wilkinson Center is thrilled to announce that Sierra Meggitt received the 2024 Natural Resources Law Outstanding Student Award. Sierra is a rising 3L who has demonstrated a commitment to environmental and natural resources law and made significant contributions to the work of GWC, and she has a particular interest in the intersection of public lands and American Indian Law.
The Colorado River Research Group (CRRG), founded and again chaired by the GWC’s Doug Kenney, resumed activities this Spring, headlined by the publication in May of its latest policy brief entitled: Imagining the River We Deserve: How the Post-2026 Rulemaking is Only One Step Towards Sustainability.
On June 6-7, a record crowd of 365 in-person and 100 online registrants assembled for the 44th Annual Colorado Law Conference on Natural Resources. “Next Chapters on the Colorado River: Short-Term Coping, Post-2026 Operations, and Beyond” was co-convened this year with the Water & Tribes Initiative (WTI), marking the second year in a partnership that will extend at least through the 2025 event.
In a victory for old-growth forests and public transparency, on May 24, 2024, a federal district court found that BLM violated the law when it approved its “Integrated Vegetation Management for Resilient Lands” program in southwest Oregon. Colorado Law’s Getches-Green Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law Clinic represents Applegate Siskiyou Alliance (ASA) in its challenge to BLM’s large-scale program.
This May, Governor Polis signed into law bipartisan legislation protecting Colorado’s wetlands and streams in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision. Handed down in 2023, Sackett redefined “waters of the United States” and rolled back federal protections for isolated wetlands and ephemeral and intermittent streams, which are especially important in western headwater states like Colorado. By passing HB-1379, Colorado has become the first state in the country to respond to the “gap” of unprotected waters created by the Sackett decision.