In addition to her active environmental law practice, Miriam Villani is a member of the Executive Committee of The Environmental Law Section of the New York State Bar Association. Miriam also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Section's newsletter. In this interview, Miriam explains her devotion to the profession and her leadership role in the Bar Association.
When did you get involved in the Section? I was a student member of the NYSBA Environmental Law Section in law
school and then continued my membership once I started practicing. I
got involved as an active member after a few years of practice. I had
been attending Section CLE programs with my EPA colleagues, and liked
the camaraderie of the Section. Soon after I entered the private
sector, I was nominated as an Executive Committee member-at-large
by one of my law school professors and mentors, Phil Weinberg. A year
or so later, I was invited to chair the Section's environmental law
essay contest. I still chair that contest. In 2000, I was nominated as
an Officer and continued through the five-year term of officer from
Secretary to Section Chair. I became the Editor-in-Chief of the
Section's journal at the end of my term as Officer and have continued
in that role since.
As Editor-in-Chief and as a former Chair of the Section, I remain on
the Executive Committee.
What motivated you to assume a leadership role on the Executive
Committee and to devote efforts to publish the Section's newsletter? Both the mission of the Section and the members who sit on the Executive Committee have been my motivation for devoting time and
energy to the Section's business.
How has your work for the Section benefitted you, and what have you
learned from this experience? My involvement in the Section has added depth to my career and
experience. I learn from my Section colleagues and benefit from having
the state's, and probably the country's, leading environmental lawyers
and legal minds available for discussing emerging issues and
developing law.
How has your work helped your colleagues, and, most importantly, how
has your work helped further the goals of the Section and benefit
the interests of those members who practice environmental law? I assist my colleagues at the Firm by providing a unique expertise to
assist with the Firm's clients' matters. A part of the Section's
mission is to educate the bar in the field of environmental law. My
work as Editor-in-Chief helps facilitate this goal by getting out to
the membership a scholarly publication with articles and columns that
inform about the latest developments in environmental law.
Lastly, what advice do you have for law students, and newly admitted
lawyers who want to practice environmental law? Law students who want
to practice environmental law should take all the classes offered by
the school that have a connection to environmental law; join the
school's environmental law society; write for the school's
environmental law publication; join the environmental law section of
at least one bar association as a student member; submit an essay to
the NYSBA Environmental Law Section's essay contest; and do
clinical/internship work at one or more of the environmental
regulatory agencies. A newly admitted lawyer should become an active
member of at least one bar association environmental law section by
offering to co-chair a committee; get to know the members of that
section; and, if not in an office where environmental law is practiced
regularly, offer to do some pro bono work in the field in order to
start building some experience.
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