Irma Russell joined the faculty at UMKC in the fall of 2015 as the Edward A. Smith Missouri Endowed Chair in Law, the Constitution, and Society. Prior to coming to UMKC, she was Dean of The University of Montana School of Law (from 2009 to 2014) and as the NELPI Professor and Director of the National Energy-Environment Law & Policy Institute at the University of Tulsa College of Law. Professor Russell is a former chair of the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources, the AALS Section of Natural Resources and Energy Law, and ABA Section of Professional Responsibility. She currently serves as the Liaison of the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources to the Center for Professional Responsibility and the Publications Board of ABA Section on Dispute Resolution. She has served as the chair of the Professionalism Committee of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar and as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism and the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. She has also served as chair of the AALS Section on Socio-Economics, and as a member of the Publications Board of the Center for Professional Responsibility. In practice, Russell represented potentially responsible parties, government entities, lenders, and others on issues arising under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), wetlands designation, site mitigation, and other environmental issues. She was founding Chair of the Environmental Law Section of the Memphis Bar Association and as Chair of the Tennessee Bar Association Environmental Section. Professor Russell is an elected member of the American Law Institute, the Judicial Conference for the Tenth Judicial Circuit, and the American College of Environmental Lawyers. Professor Russell earned her J.D. from the University of Kansas. She clerked for The Honorable James K. Logan, United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and engaged in private practice in Kansas, Missouri, and Tennessee.
Work Phone:
(816) 235-6486
Email:
russelli@umkc.edu
Website:
https://law.umkc.edu/profiles/faculty-directory/irma-russell.html
EPA Region:
Region 7 - (IA, KS, MO, and NE)
Year of induction:
2012
Degrees:
University of Kansas
BA, BS, MA, JD.
Admissions:
Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee.
Court Admissions:
US District Court Kansas, Tennessee
Professional Societies and Organizations:
Elected member of the American Law Institute,
Judicial Conference for the Tenth Judicial Circuit,
The American College of Environmental Lawyers
ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources,
ABA Section of Professional Responsibility
ABA Center for Professional Responsibility
ABA Section on Dispute Resolution
ABA Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar
ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism
ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility AALS Section on Socio-Economics
AALS Section of Natural Resources and Energy Law
Other Environmental Career Experience:
*represented potentially responsible parties, government entities, lenders, and others on issues arising under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), wetlands designation, site mitigation, and other environmental issues.
*founding Chair of the Environmental Law Section of the Memphis Bar Association
*Chair of the Tennessee Bar Association Environmental Section.
Representative Publications:
PUBLICATIONS
BOOK A LEADERSHIP GUIDE TO SUSTAINABILITY IN LAW PRACTICE (AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION PRESS FORTHCOMING 2021) (WITH JOHN DERNBACH AND MATTHEW BOGOSHIAN).
Chapter co-author (with Joan Macleod Heminway) Ethical Considerations Corporate Social Responsibility and the 21st Century Lawyer, in Corporate Social Responsibility The Corporate Governance of the 21st Century, Wolters Kluwer (2020), edited by Roger Martella, GE, General Counsel-Environmental (peer-reviewed publication).
Chapter Listening to the Silence Implementing Constitutional Environmentalism in the United States, in J.R. May & Erin Daly, IMPLEMENTING ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTITUTIONALISM CURRENT GLOBAL CHALLENGES (Cambridge Univ. Press 2018, Eds.). See httpwww.cambridge.orggbacademicsubjectslawenvironmental-lawimplementing-environmental-constitutionalism-current-global-challengesformatHBV256sZAIZ37bQIOXR.97
Book Co-editor (with Vicki Wright), ETHICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICE A LAWYERS GUIDE, (2017) (peer-reviewed publication).
Chapter Co-author (with Joan Heminway), Representing the Organizational Client on Environmental Matters, in ETHICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICE A LAWYERS GUIDE (2017) (peer-reviewed publication) ABA Publishing.
Articles and Blogs
Co-author, with John Dernbach and Matthew Bogoshian, Advocating for the Future (lead feature article) THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM, (forthcoming 2021).
*Co-author with Roger Martella, Corporate Social Responsibility and Multinational Corporations Emerging Vehicle for Doing Public Good, Natural Resources & Environment (peer-reviewed publication) (Fall 2020).
*Juliana v. United States Debating the Fundamentals of the Fundamental Right to a Sustainable Climate, 45 Fla. St. L. Rev. Online 1 (2018) Posted 20 Jan 2019, with Erin Ryan, Mary C. Wood, Jim Huffman, Irma S. Russell and Richard Frank
*Climate Change Litigation A Way Forward, (co-authored with Katie Killen) Natural Resources & Environment (peer-reviewed publication) (Summer 2019).
*Amicus Brief filed by Zero Hour on behalf of more than 30,000 young people to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Judicial Circuit in the case of Juliana v. United States, filed March 1, 2019. (See OCT press release on this amicus brief and those of other organizations httpsstatic1.squarespace.comstatic571d109b04426270152febe0t5c79c034f9619a578fe6f51815514829326192019.03.01JulianaAmicusFilingPressRelease.pdf)
*The Art and Science of the (Survival) Deal The Role of Administrative Agencies in Protecting the Public against Unreasonable Risks, UMKC Law Review, Symposium Edition, Spring 2019.
*Introduction, Symposium on Administrative Law, UMKC Law Review, Symposium Edition, Spring 2019.
*The Green Economy A Marketplace of Ideas about Our Common Future, Introduction, UMKC Law Review, Symposium Edition, Winter 2018.
*Wait, Wait, Dont Tell Me Accountability, Plausible Deniability, Model Rule 1.13, and the Role of Corporate Counsel in an Age of Enhanced Monitoring, 7 G.W. J. Energy & Envtl. L. 67 (Winter 2016).
*The Use and Preservation of Grasslands The Logic of Hard Lessons, 26 KS J. Law & Public Policy Symposium on Grassland Preservation 359 (2017).
*Emergency Lawyering in Environmental Law Today, Nat. Resources & Env't, Fall 2016, at 56 (peer reviewed journal that goes to a subscription list of nearly 10,000 lawyers in the environmental field).
*New Enforcement Policy Targets Individuals, Nat. Resources & Env't, Spring 2016, at 53 (co-authored with two students, Isaac W. Straub, Traci Hayes in peer reviewed journal that goes to a subscription list of nearly 10,000 lawyers in the environmental field).
*Regulations Propose Definitions of U.S. Waters, Nat. Resources & Env't, Spring 2015, at 60.
*Restating Environmental Law, 40 COLUM. J. OF ENVTL L. (with co-authors Tracy Hester, Robert Percival, Victor Flatt, and Joel Mintz (2015).
*Restating Environmental Law, 33 The Envtl Forum issue 1 (JanFeb 2015) (with Professors Tracy Hester, Robert Percival, Victor Flatt, and Joel Mintz).
*The Evolving Balance of Transparency and Privacy in Open Government, International Journal of Open Governments, S.l., 123 (2016).
*The Evolving Regulation of the Legal Profession The Costs of Indeterminancy and Certainty, Professional Lawyer, Vol. 137, 2008, University of Tulsa Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2009-08
*Introduction - 21st Century Law, Technology, and Ethics The Lawyer's Role as a Public Citizen, University of Memphis Law Review, Vol. 35, p. 619, 2005