Madeline June Kass

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Madeline Kass
Emeritus Faculty
M.E.S., Yale University;
J.D., University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall);
B.S., Tufts University, magna cum laude

Prior to joining the TJSL faculty in the fall of 2003, Professor Kass practiced law for close to a decade in the Seattle offices of Preston Gates & Ellis (now K&L Gates) and Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe where her practice focused primarily in the areas of land use and environmental compliance and litigation. Prior to entering private practice, she conducted immunology research at Harvard Medical School, served as the Research Editor of the Berkeley Women’s Law Journal and clerked for the Massachusetts State Superior Court.

She currently serves on the Editorial Board of the ABA publication National Resources & Environment, on the Executive Committee of the AALS Natural Resources & Energy Section, on the Board of Directors and legal committee of the Puget Soundkeepers Alliance, on the Washington State Board of Bar Overseers, and as a Vice-Chair of the ABA’s Endangered Species and International Environmental and Resources Law committees. She is also a frequent visiting professor at Seattle University School of Law where she serves as a faculty advisor for the Seattle Journal of Environmental Law.

In past years, she has also served on the Editorial Board of the Washington State Bar Association Environmental and Land Use Law Newsletter, as Chair of the ABA’s Endangered Species Committee, as Chair of the AALS Natural Resources & Energy Section, and as Chair of the Public Interest Grant Selection Committee of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Bar Association of Washington (QLaw). While at Thomas Jefferson, she also served on the Ethics Committee and as a faculty advisor for the Environmental Law Society, Animal Rights, and Outlaw student organizations.

Her primary areas of teaching and scholarship are environmental and natural resources law and torts.

Courses include:
Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law, Comparative US/EU Environmental Law, Wildlife & Marine Life Law, Torts I & II, Professional Responsibility, and Scholarly Legal Writing

Editorships

Issue Editor, Natural Resources & Environment Volume 28:2 (Fall 2013), 28:1 ABA Natural Resources & Environment  (2013) (with Laurie Ristino)

Issues Editor (2002-present), Natural Resources & Environment (American Bar Ass’n Section of Environment, Energy and Resources)

Articles, Book Chapters, And Article-Length Works

The Buzz: EU Steps Up on Bee Protections, 32 Nat. Resources & Env't 52 (2017)

Make Them Cry: Using Public Service Announcements to Teach Environmental Law, in Teaching Law With Popular Culture (Christine Corcos ed., Carolina Academic Press, forthcoming 2017)

Strategic Dodging of ESA Listing Determinations, 29 Natural Resources and Environment 54 (2015)

TSCA, the Anti-TSCA & TSCA Reform, 28 Natural Resources and Environment 53 (2014)

Hubris and Humility in Environmental Law, 2 Geo. Wash. J. Energy & Envtl. L. (2011)

Educating the Next Generation of Environmental Lawyers, 25 Nat. Resources & Env’t. 52 (2010)

A NEPA-Climate Paradox: Taking Greenhouse Gases into Account in Threshold Significance Determinations, 42 Ind. L. Rev. 47 (2009)

A Least Bad Approach for Interpreting ESA Stealth Provisions, 32 Wm. & Mary Env. L. & Pol'y Rev. 427 (2008)

Is the Atmosphere Half Empty or Half Full?, 22 Natural Resources & Env. 52 (Spring 2008)

Little NEPAs Take on Climate Goliath, 23 Natural Resources & Env. 40 (Fall 2008)

Vantage Point, 22 Natural Resources & Env. (Fall 2007)

Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act: A for Effort, 21 Natural Resources & Env. 52 (Spring 2007)

The National Park Service Management Policies Controversy, 20 Natural Resources & Env. 68 (Spring 2006)

Vantage Point, 19 Natural Resources & Env. (Winter 2005), with Arnold Lum

Wetlands Turnabout, 18 Natural Resources & Env. 62 (Spring 2004)

Threatened Extinction of the Plain Vanilla Rule?: The Emergence of Complex 4(d) Rules and Local Government Response, 16 Natural Resources & Env. 78 (2001)

The Puget Sound Salmon 4(d) Rule, in the American Bar Association, Endangered Species Committee Newsletter (November 1999)

The Statewide Strategy to Recover Salmon: A Work in Progress, Washington State Bar Association Environment & Land Use Law Newsletter (Winter 1999)

Brownfields: Where the Market Makes Green, Natural Resources & Env. 345 (1998), with Bridgen and Lee

Special Committee on Climate Change and Sustainable Development 1997 Annual Report, Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law: The Year in Review (1997), with Kosloff, Hodas, Fang, Miller, Goldberg and Kirkpatrick

The Future of Environmental Law and Regulation, a background paper for Thinking Ecologically: The Next Generation of Environmental Law and Policy, Yale Univ. Press (1997)

Land Use: So You Really Think You Can Get This Project Approved, written for a legal education seminar sponsored by the King County Bar Assoc. & the Univ. of Washington Law School (1997)

New Source Review and BACT, written with R. Macfarlane for a legal education seminar on the Clean Air Act, Seattle, Washington (1993)

New Federal CFC Labeling Regulations, Environmental Litigation and Practice Group Update (June 1993)

Download a list of Shorter Work for Professor Kass

Key Note Speaker, Seattle Journal for Environmental Law Annual Banquet and Volume Launch, Seattle Law School, Seattle, WA (April 16, 2015)

"Death by Plastic," Seattle University Sullivan Leadership Day, Seattle University, Seattle, WA (January 19, 2013)

Moderator, Wind, Water, Weather & Endangered Species Act, ABA's 20th Fall Section Meeting on Environmental, Energy, and Resources Law, Austin, TX, October 11, 2012

An invited speaker at a Professors' Workshop titled: Curriculum Adaptation: Teaching Environmental Law in an Era of Climate Change and Other Global Challenges, Pace Law School, New York

Introduction to Legal Analysis and Writing in the United States, UCSD English Language Program, San Diego, CA, Dec. 2004

Panel Moderator, The Endangered Species Act at 30, Conference at Lewis & Clark School of Law, Portland, OR, 2004

The Thomas Jefferson School of Law faculty is highly prolific in the field of legal scholarship and our professors are in demand as speakers and panelists at legal events in the U.S. and abroad.


Retiring Faculty

Thomas Jefferson School of Law Awards Emeritus Status to Retiring Faculty

June 4, 2016

Thomas Jefferson School of Law today announced that emeritus status has been granted to 9 newly retired members of the faculty by the school's...

Prof. Kass in Austin

Professor Kass Moderates ABA Energy Panel in Texas

October 23, 2012

Professor Madeline Kass moderated a panel presentation at the ABA's 20th Fall Section Meeting on Environmental, Energy, and Resources Law in...

Promotions & Tenure

Promotion & Tenure for TJSL Professors

June 9, 2011

The Thomas Jefferson School of Law Board of Trustees has approved recommendations to grant tenure to three TJSL law professors and to promote a...

Environmental Law

Personal Injury

Torts