The Growing Storm: The Ethics of Representing Clients In Matters Impacting Climate Change

Margaret’s practice focuses on climate change risk management and environmental litigation. She advises energy companies, financial institutions and funds on climate risk analysis and disclosure. The other significant component of Margaret’s practice focuses on translational science. She advises clients on a broad range of litigation and regulatory matters in which there are significant scientific or technical issues that require the use of outside experts. She also has extensive experience representing clients in the notice and comment process on a broad array of federal environmental regulations.

Margaret also serves as V&E’s Lead Sustainability Partner. In this role, she engages with clients on sustainability expectations and evaluates the firm’s current impact and how to better support ecological, human, and economic health and vitality through engagement with all V&E staff.

Prior to joining Vinson & Elkins, Margaret completed her Ph.D. in environment at Duke University, where she wrote her doctoral dissertation on legal and policy issues associated with sea-level rise adaptation. Margaret has written extensively on climate change, environmental law and environmental shareholder activism, including a published book titled Adapting to Rising Sea Levels: Legal Challenges and Opportunities.

Professor Victor B. Flatt returned to the University of Houston in 2017 as the Dwight Olds Professor of Law and is the Faculty Co-Director of the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources (EENR) Center. He also holds an appointment as a Distinguished Scholar of Carbon Markets at the University of Houston’s Gutierrez Energy Management Institute. He was previously the inaugural O’Quinn Chair in Environmental Law at UHLC from 2002-2009.

Professor Flatt is a recognized expert on environmental law, climate law, and energy law, and the intersection of these areas. Since 2019, he has created and taught the first law school courses in the country concerning how law relates to sustainability planning and ESG policies in corporations, offering the courses at UHLC, Vermont Law School, and University of Utah Law School.

His research focuses on environmental legislation and enforcement, with particular expertise in the Clean Air Act, NEPA, and Climate. He is co-author of a popular environmental law casebook, and has authored more than 50 law review articles, which have appeared in journals such as the Notre Dame Law Review, Ecology Law Quarterly, The Ohio State Law Journal, Washington Law Review, Houston Law Review and the Carolina Law Review. Seven of his articles have been recognized as finalists or winner of the best environmental law review article of the year, and one was recognized by Vanderbilt University Law School and the Environmental Law Institute as one of the three best environmental articles of 2010, leading to a seminar and panel on the article in a Congressional staff briefing.

Professor Flatt’s teaching career began at the University of Washington’s Evins School of Public Affairs, and he has previously taught at Georgia State University College of Law, and most recently at the University of North Carolina School of Law, where he was the inaugural Taft Distinguished Professor in Environmental Law and the Director of the Center for Climate, Energy, Environment, and Economics (CE3). He has been a Visiting Law Professor at the University of Georgia Law School, the University of Washington Law School, and Seattle University School of Law. He has been honored as a Distinguished Environmental Scholar in Residence at Vermont Law School, Pace Law School (Elisabeth Haub Distinguished Scholar), and Widener University Delaware Law School.

Professor Flatt has served on the AALS committees on Natural Resources and Environmental Law, and was chair of the AALS Teaching Methods Section. He has served on many other board and committees in his career including the national board of Lambda Legal, and the Law School Admission Council’s Gay and Lesbian Interests section. He is currently a member of the ABA’s Section on Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Law Congressional Liaison Committee, and a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform.

Professor Flatt received his B.A. in Chemistry and Math from Vanderbilt University where he was a Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Scholar, and his J.D. from Northwestern University, where he was a John Henry Wigmore Scholar. After graduating from Northwestern, Professor Flatt clerked for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs of the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Shawn Harpen has led teams in legal, business, professional, and non-profit organizations for the last 25 years. She most recently served as Chief Legal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer, and General Counsel of Patr?n Spirits International AG and The Patr?n Spirits Company. Before joining Patr?n, she was a partner at the international law firms of Jones Day and, prior to that, McDermott Will & Emery LLP, where her practice focused on complex commercial and shareholder litigation, as well as corporate governance.

Shawn is a member of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Professional Regulation and has served as a past Chair of both the State Bar of Nevada’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and the State Bar of California’s Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct. She also is a member of the Local Rules Advisory Committee of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America.

She serves as a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Audit Committee for the Starlight Children’s Foundation and is a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps. Prior to joining the legal profession, Shawn was a communications professional, serving as Manager of Dana Communication Services at Dana Corporation. She also has served as a writer/producer, and as an executive director of a non-profit organization.

Shawn is admitted to practice in California and before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and several United States District Courts. She has a Bachelor of Arts in communications, with a focus on broadcasting, from The University of Toledo College of Arts and Sciences, where she graduated summa cum laude, and a Juris Doctor from The University of Toledo College of Law, where she graduated magna cum laude. In addition, she has a Public Leadership Credential from Harvard Kennedy School, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Environmental Policy and International Development from Harvard University Extension School, where she presently is a master’s degree candidate in sustainability.