The internationally recognized non-partisan Environmental Law Institute (ELI), a research center working to strengthen environmental protection by improving law and governance worldwide, has selected EPIC’s Mark Templeton to serve on its Board of Directors. Templeton, a Clinical Professor of Law, is also the director of the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School. He was selected as one of five new members to the Board.
“I am truly honored to be selected to the board and to be following in the footsteps of some of the greatest legal minds in environmental law,” Templeton says. “The Environmental Law Institute has been profoundly instrumental in developing many of the environmental laws that we have today. To be a small part of that mission and history is a real privilege, and I hope to be able to add to its legacy.”
In its more than 50-year history, ELI has become both a clearinghouse and a town hall, providing common ground for debate on important environmental and energy issues and delivering insightful and impartial analysis to opinion makers, including government officials, environmental and business leaders, academics, members of the environmental and energy bar, and journalists. Templeton is one of only a handful of advisors from academia to serve on ELI’s currently 44-member board, and the only law school clinician and Midwesterner.
As director of the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic, Templeton works with approximately 20 law students each quarter to litigate cases challenging illegal pollution, ineffective enforcement, and inadequate standards and to develop and promote innovative policies to improve the environment, public health, and equity.
Templeton previously served as Trustee and Executive Director of the Office of Independent Trustees for the $20 billion Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust, and as the cabinet-level Director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. From 2005 to 2009, Templeton served as Associate Dean and Chief Operating Officer at Yale Law School. From 2001 to 2005, he developed environmental and sustainability strategies at McKinsey & Company, among other projects.
Templeton has also served as Special Assistant and Senior Adviser to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and as an adviser to the U.S. Delegation to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. He was a Financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs from 1994 to 1996. Templeton earned an AB, magna cum laude, in Social Studies from Harvard College and a JD from Yale Law School.