Stanford Law Creates Luke Cole Professorship

Stanford has created the Luke Cole Professorship in Environmental Law and Directorship of the Environmental Law Clinic.  Deborah Sivas, who has been director of Stanford's environmental clinic since 1997, is the first Cole Professor.

From the story on Stanford's website:

In a Reunion Homecoming ceremony filled with emotion, friends and family dedicated a new Law School professorship to the late Luke Cole, a noted environmental activist who died in a car accident in Uganda this summer at age 46...

Being named the first holder of the Luke Cole chair is especially meaningful for me," said Sivas. "Luke was a contemporary and a colleague whose advocacy on behalf of underserved communities was truly pathbreaking and whose vision of environmental and social justice continues to be so inspiring to all of us who knew him."

"I think Luke would be pleased to know that a gift in his memory will help train and prepare a new generation of lawyers to carry the flame of environmental justice that he lit and kept burning for so many years," Sivas added.

While I never knew Luke Cole, I have read and admired his work since we started an environmental justice caseload three years ago.  I also know Deb Sivas through meetings of the environmental clinicians, and I think she does tremendous work.  It's nice to see her receive an endowed chair, and the stability this professorship brings should also be good for her clinic.

Jamie Baker Roskie