Faculty
Melinda Taylor is the executive director of the Center. Prior to joining the faculty, she was the director of the Ecosystem Restoration Program at the Environmental Defense Fund, where she managed a staff of attorneys, scientists, and economists engaged in projects to protect endangered species and water resources across the United States. Taylor has also served as deputy general counsel of the National Audubon Society in Washington, D.C., and was an associate at Bracewell & Patterson in Washington, D.C.
Alan Rau is one of the nation’s leading experts on arbitration, the author of a widely-used alternative dispute resolution casebook and of numerous scholarly articles, and an active arbitrator. He serves on the Commercial Panel of the American Arbitration Association, and has been a visiting faculty member at the University of Toronto, China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, Willamette University College of Law, the University of Geneva; and the Universities of Paris I and II.
Ernest Smith is a specialist in oil, wind, and gas law. Professor Smith is coauthor of the leading casebook Oil and Gas Law, a book on international petroleum transactions, and the leading treatise Texas Law of Oil and Gas. He teaches in the areas of property, international petroleum transactions, and wind energy law, and is coauthor of a widely used text, Cases and Materials on Property. A former dean of the Law School, Professor Smith has also been a visiting professor at several law schools, including Harvard.
John Dzienkowski is a specialist in oil and gas taxation and international energy transactions. Professor Dzienkowski is a coauthor of leading casebooks on Natural Resources Taxation, International Energy Transactions, and a treatise on Oil and Gas Law and Taxation. He has taught energy-related courses in Innsbruck, Austria; Ithaca, New York; Paris, France; Oxford, United Kingdom; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He began his teaching career as the director of the Energy Law Program at Tulane Law School in New Orleans.
Wendy Wagner is a leading authority on the use of science by environmental policy-makers. She received a Master of Environmental Studies degree in 1984 and her law degree in 1987, both from Yale, where she was senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Journal of Regulation. Before entering teaching, she practiced law in the Enforcement Division of the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and as pollution control coordinator with the Department of Agriculture’s Office of the General Counsel.
David Adelman is an expert in environmental law, science, and patent law. In addition to a law degree, he holds a PhD in chemical physics and has written extensively on the relationship between regulations and innovations in technology, especially in the biotechnology field. He serves on the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Advisory Board.
Professor Spence’s research and teaching focuses on business-government relations and the regulation of business, particularly energy and environmental regulation. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Duke University, and his J.D. from the University of North Carolina. Professor Spence has taught as a visitor at the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment, the Vanderbilt Law School, the Cornell Law School, Harvard Law School, IMADEC University in Vienna, Austria, and the Bren School of the Environment at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Gerald Torres is former president of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). A leading figure in critical race theory, Torres is also an expert in agricultural and environmental law. He came to UT Law in 1993 after teaching at The University of Minnesota Law School, where he also served as associate dean. Torres has served as deputy assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and as counsel to then U.S. attorney general Janet Reno. More info.
Jane Cohen practiced law extensively before joining the faculty of the Boston University School of Law. There, she founded and co-directed the Program in Legal Ethics and taught family law, federal income taxation, law and literature, property, professional responsibility, and a seminar on the human genome project. Professor Cohen left Boston and joined the University of Texas in fall, 2002. She has written extensively in the areas of family law, feminist legal theory, cultural accommodation, and genetic discrimination. Her articles have appeared in two books and in a variety of legal publications including the Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, and theYale Law Journal. More info.
Kelly Haragan is a clinical professor and Director of the Environmental Clinic. Kelly joined the faculty in 2008. Prior to joining the Clinic, Kelly worked as legal counsel for national nonprofits including: the Environmental Integrity Project in Washington DC, Environmental Defense Fund in Austin, and Public Citizen’s Austin office. She also worked at the Austin firm Henry, Lowerre, Johnson, Hess & Frederick, representing citizen and environmental groups in permitting and enforcement matters. Kelly specializes in Clean Air Act permitting and enforcement. More info.
Other leading practitioners also teach specialized courses in their respective fields.
