Janice Weis

Biography

Ms. Weis has served as Associate Dean and Director of the Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Program since 1994.  She oversees all aspects of the program for JD, LLM, joint JD-LLM, and MSL students as well as external events and trainings. Ms. Weis also chairs the Lewis & Clark Sustainability Council which serves all three campuses at LC, and is co-chair of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation (RMMLF) Natural Resources Law Teachers Committee.

Prior to joining Lewis & Clark, she was an attorney in the Natural Resources and Public Law Department of Best, Best & Krieger in Riverside, California where she served as co-chair of the natural resources practice group.  Her practice included transactional and litigation work in the areas of the California Environmental Quality Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, water quality, water rights, federal and state Endangered Species Acts, wetlands, and land use.

Weis was also a Member and Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of the California State Bar Environmental Law Section from 1992 to 1994. She also served as a Member of the Legislation and NAFTA/GATT Subcommittees and Vice-Chair of the CEQA Review Committee, and was a contributing author to the Environmental Law Section’s “CEQA Assessment and Recommendations,” submitted to the California legislature in 1994.

During law school, Weis served as a law clerk for the Conference of Western Attorneys General, an extern for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in Denver, Colorado, and a law clerk with Sheppard Mullin. She authored Federal Reserved Water Rights in Wilderness Areas, Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly (Winter 1987).

Other Publications include: contributing author, California Water (Solano Press 1995, chapters on endangered species and water transfers); and co-author, “Coping with Shortages: Managing Water in the 1990s and Beyond,” (American Bar Association’s Natural Resources and Environment Magazine, Spring 1991), reprinted in The Natural Resources Law Manual (ABA 1995).

She has taught numerous seminars, including annual trainings for USDA Forest Service personnel and trainings for federal judges on environmental law.

Specialty Areas and Course Descriptions

• Endangered Species Act: A Practical Primer (ESA) for Decision Makers, Biologists and Staff Specialists – Introduction to Legal Process and Administrative Law
• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
• Natural Resources Law and Policy Seminar

Academic Credentials

• BS, high honors, 1984 University of California, Berkeley
• JD, 1988 University of California, Hastings College of Law