Fowler to discuss water dispute resolution during American Bar Association program

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Lara Fowler, senior lecturer at Penn State Law, will discuss the growing concerns of water allocation in the eastern United States and how dispute resolution tools used in water disputes in the west might serve as a model in the east on an American Bar Association teleconference this week.

“Dividing the Water: Lessons Learned from Using Dispute Resolution Tools in Western Water Disputes and the Potential Application to the Eastern United States” is scheduled for 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. EDT on April 27.

In addition to Fowler, speakers include Alf Brandt, executive director of Dividing the Waters, and Greg Hobbs, retired judge, Colorado Supreme Court. Brandt will describe the Dividing the Waters Program that has been used effectively in the western U.S. to train judges to address water related conflicts and Hobbs will highlight lessons learned from water conflicts in Colorado.

The program will be moderated by Matt Draper of Draper & Draper LLC, who will comment on the need for dispute resolution tools in complex water cases.

A Q&A with the panelists will follow the prepared remarks.

The teleconference is sponsored by ABA Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources and its Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, Environmental Litigation and Toxic Torts Committee, and Water Resources Committee. Registration is free for section members and $20 for nonmembers.

Fowler, who co-chairs the ABA Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources’ Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, holds a joint appointment with Penn State Law and the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment, where she is working on questions related to water, the Chesapeake Bay, and energy.

Prior to joining Penn State, she was an attorney at Gordon Thomas Honeywell LLP in Seattle, where she focused on mediation and dispute resolution of complex natural resource issues, as well as representing clients facing regulatory hurdles in the environmental and energy fields. She has worked on issues such as who is entitled to store groundwater in the greater Los Angeles area, flooding issues in the Chehalis Basin (Washington State’s second largest river basin), and energy issues in the Pacific Northwest. Before pursuing a legal career, she was a senior water resources coordinator with the Oregon Water Resources Department.