Program Overview
Who Will Benefit from Attending
In-house and private attorneys, consultants, corporate managers, Tribal and governmental representatives, State Attorneys General, and others who are involved in natural resource damage claims
Why You will Benefit from Attending
The second Trump Administration has brought many significant changes and reversals from the Biden Administration's environmental policies and priorities. We are very pleased to have Jordan Diamond this year to share her insights into the implications for federal pursuit of recovery for natural resource damages. You also will hear her analysis of specific actions at the EPA and the federal government broadly that are transforming the regulatory environment.
We have several panels dedicated to evolving work, standards, and tools used in natural resource damages assessment. You will hear about the new "Type A" assessment rules issued by the Department of Interior. You also will hear experts discuss hear how assessments are being performed with fewer federal resources, and how artificial intelligence and other tools are being deployed to streamline natural resource damages assessment work.
The Supreme Court, appellate courts, and trial courts are addressing the significant shifts at the federal level, along with other key legal issues underpinning natural resources law. Leading practitioners will discuss how the courts are responding to environmental challenges and how industry is dealing with the shifting landscape.
In response to changes in federal priorities and actions, states have moved quickly to prioritize environmental protection and NRD recovery. We will have a panel of State trustee counsel and attorneys general offices discussing their priorities and policies given the evolution of federal activity. For states, protecting scarce water resources remains the primary natural resource demanding protection. Likewise, tribal trustees are moving to protect their interests, and you will hear from a panel of experts on Tribal claims and damages.
We are pleased this year to have a panel dedicated to examining successful restoration projects, lessons learned, and notable outcomes from NRD matters around the country.
We hope you will join us, either in person or remotely, for what promises to be an exceptionally important and informative day and a half in Santa Fe! We are happy to also have an entire day dedicated to PFAS matters on September 23rd, which you can also attend at a discount.
For those attending in person, plan to stay for the reception at the end of the first day on September 24th.
La Fonda is holding a block of rooms for our participants. Register for the conference early and make your hotel reservation as soon as possible to take advantage of La Fonda's special conference rate. Sleeping rooms sold out quickly last year.
~ Sarah Peterman Bell, Esq. of Farella Braun + Martel and William J. Jackson, Esq. of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, Program Co-Chairs
What You Will Learn
- Protection of natural resources at the federal level
- How reductions in federal trustee resources are affecting damage recovery
- Trends in state pursuit of NRD damage claims
- New developments in Tribal pursuit of claims
- NRD and environmental litigation update
- Restoration case studies
- The potential for Artificial Intelligence to streamline NRD assessments
What Participants Have Said About Similar Programs
- I must give my compliments to the course team! It went wonderfully smooth and was a great experience.
- Really enjoyed everything - very useful!
- LSI always includes incredible experts who provide diverse perspectives and unique experience. I always learn so much from these seminars.
- A great conference. Excellent speakers and very useful content.
- I love the La Fonda venue
- This is my first year attending - I really enjoyed it all! Lots of useful info and presenting really well. Very professional.
Agenda Day 1
9:00 am
Introduction & Overview
Sarah Peterman Bell, Esq.
, Program Co-Chair
Farella Braun + Martel / San Francisco, CA
William J. Jackson, Esq.
, Program Co-Chair
Kelley Drye & Warren / Houston, TX
9:15 am
Given Federal Policy Changes and Cutbacks, Who is Doing What at the Federal Level to Protect our Natural Resources?
What are the implications and long term impacts of cuts to institutional environmental protection programs and necessary staffing at federal agencies and the ENRD section of the DOJ plus rules pulling back federal protections and jurisdiction?
Jordan Diamond
, President
Environmental Law Institute / Washington, DC
9:45 am
The latest Developments on the Calculation of Economic Impacts and Loss of Use Damages
Are changes at the federal level impacting the approach or viability of economic and loss of use damage claims in natural resource damages cases? What are the latest tools and models? Are there any lessons learned from the latest case law developments?
Ryan Stifter
, Principal, Economic & Complex Analytics
Roux Associates / Oakland, CA
Eric Horsch
, Principal
Industrial Economics, Incorporated (IEc) / Cambridge, MA
10:30 am
Break
10:45 am
What are States Doing to Fill the Void?
Are State trustees and Attorneys General stepping forward to assess and restore their resources? What are the States priorities, challenges and opportunties in light of shrinking federal engagement?
William J. Jackson, Esq.
, Program Co-Chair, Moderator
Kelley Drye & Warren / Houston, TX
Spotlight on New Mexico
Kate Girard, Esq.
, Executive Director
Office of the Natural Resources Trustee / Albuquerque, NM
Spotlight on Texas
Katie B. Hobson, Esq.
, Assistant Attorney General
Texas Attorney General / Austin, TX
Julie Kuspa, Esq.
, Deputy Principal Counsel
Office of the Attorney General / Baltimore, MD
Spotlight on New Jersey
Paul Stofa, Esq.
, Deputy Director, Environmental and Clean Energy
(inv)
Department of Law and Public Safety / Trenton, NJ
12:00 pm
Lunch (on your own)
1:30 pm
NRD and Environmental Litigation: The Latest Significant Decisions with a Forecast of the Critical Issues Ahead
The year's most important Supreme Court, Appellate and Trial decisions impacting natural resource damages law and a look at critical fights ahead
John M. Ugai, Esq.
Farella Braun + Martel / San Francisco, CA
Laura W. Duncan, Esq.
Kelley Drye & Warren / Houston, TX
Amanda G. Halter, Esq.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman / Houston, TX
3:00 pm
Break
3:15 pm
Restoration Case Studies
Restoration and replacement of injured natural resources as the goal for NRD actions across the country: Case studies of restoration projects and the postive impacts they have had on resources, services, and surrounding communities across the country
Gold King Mine
Rebecca Roose, Esq.
, Natural Resources Trustee
New Mexico Office of Natural Resources Trustee / Santa Fe, NM
The Bunker Hill mine rails-to-trails project in northern Idaho
Rebecca Stevens
, Restoration Coordinator
Coeur d'Alene Tribe / Coeur D Alene, ID
Passaic River/Riverfront
William J. Jackson, Esq.
, Program Co-Chair
Kelley Drye & Warren / Houston, TX
Lower Duwamish River
Jon Sloan
, Senior Manager of Environmental Programs
Port of Seattle / Seattle, WA
5:00 pm
Reception for On Site Faculty and Attendees
Graciously sponsored by the law firms of Farella Braun + Martel and Kelley Drye & Warren LLP
Friday, September 25, 2026
9:00 am
New Developments in Tribal NRD Assessments and Pursuit of Claims
Valuing cultural resources and other Tribal uses: Legal update on recoverability and technical perspective on how Tribal uses are quantified and valued
Paul Dayton, Esq.
Ogden Murphy Wallace / Seattle, WA
Adam Stack, Ph.D.
, Senior Associate
Industrial Economics Incorporated / Cambridge, MA
10:00 am
DOI's New NRDA Regulations
The Department of Interior has issued significant revisions to the "Type A" procedures for conducting natural resource damage assessments for hazardous substance releases
Brian D. Israel, Esq.
Paul Hastings / Los Angeles, CA
10:30 am
Break
10:45 am
Use of Artificial Intelligence in NRD Assessments: Use of AI for Geospatial and Satellite Analyis, Ecological Modeling, Economic Valuation, and Reporting and Compliance
Does AI have the potential to streamline NRDA by accelerating ecological and economic data analysis and facilitating faster, more accurate restoration planning?
What are the pros and cons of key applications and their uses? What are the limitations on AI and how do we ensure high quality science?
Sarah Peterman Bell, Esq.
, Program Co-Chair, Moderator
Farella Braun + Martel / San Francisco, CA
Andy Deines, Ph.D.
, Managing Scientist
Exponent / Bellevue, WA
Jamie Holmes
, Senior Scientist
Biodiversity Research Institute / Portland, ME
Heather M. Summers
, Senior Consultant
Integral Consulting / Leonardtown, MD
12:30 pm
Evaluations and Adjourn
Faculty Bios
Sarah Peterman Bell,
Program Co-Chair, is a partner at Farella Braun + Martel focusing on environmental and natural resources litigation in state and federal courts. Her practice includes environmental enforcement actions, cost recovery, citizen suits, water quality, and complex toxic tort matters.
William J. Jackson,
Program Co-Chair, is a partner in the national Environmental Practice Group at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. He currently serves as counsel for over a dozen states and US territories, in addition to private-sector clients, in significant remediation and natural resource damages cases across the country.
Paul Dayton,
a member of Ogden Murphy Wallace, represented the Colville Tribe in Pakootas v. Teck Cominco Metals in which the 9th Circuit found that United States environmental law applies to cross-boundary pollution. In the most recent phase of that litigation, he represented the Colville Tribe on the issue of whether the Tribe is entitled to recover for lost Cultural Resources.
Andy Deines, Ph.D.
is Managing Scientist at Exponent. As a quantitative ecosystem and fishery scientist, he has worked on environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques for the detection of supply chain contamination.
Jordan Diamond
is President of the Environmental Law Institute. She previously served as Executive Director of UC Berkeley's Center for Law, Energy & the Environment and co-directed the Law of the Sea Institute at UC Berkeley. From 2018-2023 she served on the California Ocean Protection Council.
Laura W. Duncan
is a partner at Kelley Drye & Warren where she represents clients in high stakes disputes under federal and state law, including matters involving CERCLA. Her experience spans resource and property contamination disputes, and natural disaster and emergency response litigation. She previously served at the US Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division, where she led high-value, complex litigation nationwide.
Kate Girard is Executive Director at the Office of the Natural Resources Trustee. She manages environmental injury evaluations, structures damage compensation settlements, and coordinates large-scale habitat restoration programs across New Mexico.
Amanda G. Halter
is the Managing Partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman's Houston office and a nationally recognized authority on environmental and natural resources law and policy. She co-leads the firm's multidisciplinary Minerals, Metals and Materials Supply Chains and Canada practice teams. Amanda and her team developed the NRD Map (www.thenrdmap.com), a regularly updated compendium of federal natural resource damages sites and consent decrees under CERCLA and the Oil Pollution Act.
Katie B. Hobson
is an Assistant Attorney General in the Texas Attorney General's office focusing on environmental and administrative law. She previously worked on environmental issues in private practice.
Jamie Holmes
is a Senior Scientist and Co-Director of the NRDA Consulting Group at the Biodiversity Research Institute. He focuses on contaminant fate and transport analyses, surface and groundwater assessments, ecological effects assessments, and natural resource restoration planning. This includes work on evaluation of injuries and damages, injury quantification, equivalency analyses, and geographic information systems (GIS) spatial analyses.
Eric Horsch
is a Principal at Industrial Economics, Incorporated (IEc), specializing in environmental valuation, recreational use visitation, and natural resource damage assessment. He has applied a variety of revealed and stated preference nonmarket valuation methods and is experienced in several survey methods to support his work.
Brian D. Israel
is Co-Chair of the Environmental Litigation practice at Paul Hastings. He served as lead counsel to BP in the Deepwater Horizon NRD claim and as one of the trial attorneys for the Deepwater penalty trial. He is a principal author of 'Natural Resource Damages: A Guide to Litigating and Resolving NRD Cases', the definitive treatise on NRD claims.
Julie Kuspa
is Deputy Principal Counsel in the Maryland Office of the Attorney General representing the Department of the Environment. She formerly worked in private practice.
Rebecca Roose
is the Natural Resources Trustee for the State of New Mexico. Prior to her current role, she served as Senior Infrastructure Advisor to Governor Lujan Grisham after several leadership positions at the New Mexico Environment Department. Before joining state government in 2019, she spent 13 years leading national environmental programs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Jon Sloan is Senior Manager of Environmental Programs at the Port of Seattle where he works on Port initiatives to accelerate the pace and scale of sustainability. This includes work on the Duwamish River cleanup. Before joining the Port, he served as a Senior Ecologist for King County and as a Biologist for the Squamish Tribe.
Adam Stack is a S
enior Associate at Industrial Economics Incorporated. He specializes in analysis of the cultural impacts of environmental harm. With a background in cultural anthropology and archaeology, his expertise includes applied social science, qualitative inquiry into human-environment interactions, and collaborative mixed-methods research.
Rebecca Stevens
is the Restoration Coordinator for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. In 2009, she was co-author of the Coeur d'Alene Lake Management Plan. She also represents the Tribe in the Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Superfund Site remedial work.
Ryan Stifter
is Director of Economics & Complex Analytics at Roux Associates. He leads quantitative economic research and analysis into issues arising in litigation, insurance claims, environmental regulation and enforcement, natural resource management, and business decisions affected by contingent liabilities.
Paul Stofa
is Deputy Director for Environmental and Clean Energy Practice Group at the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety. The group includes the Environmental Enforcement & Environmental Justice, Environmental Permitting & Counseling, and Public Utilities sections. He previously served as the Chief Advisor for Legal & Regulatory Affairs at the Department of Environmental Protection
Heather M. Summers,
a Senior Consultant at Integral, is a toxicologist and risk assessor with technical leadership experience in ecological and human health risk assessment. She specializes in bioaccumulation and toxicity of metals and PCBs.
John M. Ugai,
Farella Braun + Martel, represents clients in high-stakes multi-party remedial cost recovery actions. He also advises clients on the complexities of federal and state environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, CEQA, NEPA, Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act, CERCLA, and Extended Producer Responsibility laws.
Continuing Education Credits
Live credits: This program qualifies for 9.00 NM MCLE, 9.25 CA MCLE, 9.00 TX MCLE, 9.00 WA MCLE, and 9.00 ABCEP environmental professional credits. Upon request, we will help you apply for CLE credits in other states and other types of credits.
I appreciate LSI's seamless segue from registration, an informative seminar, to end result.
In-Person Location
La Fonda on the Plaza Hotel
100 E. San Francisco Street in Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 982-5511
Remote Access to the Live Program
The day before the program, we will email you a link to the materials and one to log into the broadcast. Fill out the Zoom "Registration" form by entering your name and email address. That will log you in.
Register or Purchase a Replay
Tuition
Regular tuition for this program is $1195 with a group rate of $1075 each for two or more registrants from the same firm. For government employees, we offer a special rate of $895. For Tribal members, public interest NGO's, students, and people in their job for less than a year, our rate is $597.50. All rates include admission to all program sessions and course materials.
If you register for both this conference and the PFAS seminar on Wednesday, September 23, you will receive an additional 10 percent discount for both programs. Email registrar@lawseminars.com for details or to register for both programs or the second one.
Make checks payable to Law Seminars International. As a value-added bonus, you will receive access to audio and video recordings of the program at no extra charge.
Financial aid is available to those who qualify. Contact our office for more information.
Replays
Audio and video replay files, with course materials, are available for download or on a flash drive at the same price as live attendance. Files are available for downloading five business days after the program or from the date we receive payment. Flashdrive orders are sent via First Class mail within seven business days after the program or from the date we receive payment. The course materials alone are available for $100.
Cancellation & Substitution
You may substitute another person at any time. We will refund tuition, less a $50 cancellation fee, if we receive your cancellation by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, September 18, 2026. After that time, we will credit your tuition toward attendance at another program or the purchase of an audio or video replay.
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Purchase a Replay
The web link option allows you to stream or download. The flash drive option includes both audio and video files. Both include materials.