Extinction’s Opposing Counsel<\/h1>\nWhat Drives Matt Bishop to Protect Predators<\/h2>\n
Wildlife attorney Matt Bishop has dedicated his career to fighting extinction. He focuses on predators \u2013 keystone species whose importance to ecosystem health can\u2019t be overstated. Likewise, Matt\u2019s success in defending those species has had an outsized impact across the West. Matt\u2019s fellow WELC attorney Laura King wrote this profile on Matt, offering a look inside our Montana office and what drives extinction\u2019s opposing counsel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Extinction’s opposing counsel – tablet” background_layout=”dark” header_font=”|||on|” header_font_size=”66px” header_letter_spacing=”2px” text_font_size=”17″ text_line_height=”1.4em” custom_margin=”10px|50px|0px|50px” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” custom_css_main_element=”text-shadow: 1px 2px 2px #000;” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” disabled_on=”on||on” disabled=”off”]<\/p>\n
Extinction’s Opposing Counsel<\/h1>\nWhat Drives Matt Bishop to Protect Predators<\/h2>\n
Wildlife attorney Matt Bishop has dedicated his career to fighting extinction. He focuses on predators \u2013 keystone species whose importance to ecosystem health can\u2019t be overstated. Likewise, Matt\u2019s success in defending those species has had an outsized impact across the West. Matt\u2019s fellow WELC attorney Laura King wrote this profile on Matt, offering a look inside our Montana office and what drives extinction\u2019s opposing counsel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – extinction’s opposing counsel – smartphone” background_layout=”dark” header_font=”|||on|” header_font_size=”54px” header_letter_spacing=”2px” text_font_size=”17″ text_line_height=”1.4em” custom_margin=”10px|30px|0px|40px” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” custom_css_main_element=”text-shadow: 1px 2px 2px #000;” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” disabled=”off” disabled_on=”|on|on”]<\/p>\n
Extinction’s Opposing Counsel<\/h1>\nWhat Drives Matt Bishop to Protect Predators<\/h2>\n
Wildlife attorney Matt Bishop has dedicated his career to fighting extinction. He focuses on predators \u2013 keystone species whose importance to ecosystem health can\u2019t be overstated. Likewise, Matt\u2019s success in defending those species has had an outsized impact across the West. Matt\u2019s fellow WELC attorney Laura King wrote this profile on Matt, offering a look inside our Montana office and what drives extinction\u2019s opposing counsel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” custom_padding=”30px||30px|”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” parallax_method_1=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – extinction’s opposing counsel part 1″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
![\"matt](\"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Matt-Stucco.jpg\")
Matt repairs an adobe church in Picuris Pueblo in 1999. Photo: Dina Gonzales.<\/p><\/div>\n
Wildlife attorney Matt Bishop\u2019s office is covered in pictures, with almost no white space in between. Redolent with incense and anchored by several Buddhas, his office feels like a kind of temple, if temples chugged with funky, soft music and had elderly canine rugs that lifted their heads for occasional pets. It\u2019s a Friday afternoon, and Matt has agreed to sit down with me for an interview in the Helena, Montana office of the Western Environmental Law Center, where we both work.<\/h4>\nAs he finishes tapping arguments into his computer (\u201cmay delist only if the best available science shows,\u201d \u201cmust provide a reasoned explanation for disregarding facts\u201d), I check out his cheering section: posters of Ed Abbey, whose gaze insists courage needs no apology; Bob Dylan, eyes lowered as if sighting down the barrel of truth; John Muir, hands clasped behind his back, at home in Yosemite\u2019s vast rightness; and wolverines and lynx, caught by remote camera, but ready to stride out of obscurity on the path of Matt\u2019s typed page.<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” custom_padding=”30px||10px|” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”||50px|” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – extinction’s opposing counsel part 2″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Matt-Newspaper-640.jpg\")
Reading the coverage of the grizzly hunt injunction after oral argument the previous day (August 21, 2018). Photo: John Mellgren.<\/p><\/div>\n
A RECORD OF SUCCESS
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\nLeaving his computer, Matt joins me in a pair of upholstered armchairs next to case files stacked some 5 feet high and 9 feet wide\u2014a monument of hard work. He\u2019s tall, with a face that\u2019s seen weather and a beard just this side of scruffy. Setting his large hands on his long legs, he has the disarming air of a gentle giant\u2014an impression his actions confirm: When he\u2019s not at his computer, he might be found cutting lilacs for our conference room table or offering empathy and ideas to the struggling restaurateur across the way. But like mild-mannered Clark Kent, his secret is he\u2019s a force of nature. Since 1998, Matt has won almost all of the 50-some cases he has brought as lead counsel in federal (and occasionally state) court, saving lynx, wolverine, Sonoran Desert tortoises, bull trout, and Mexican wolves from trophy hunting, trapping, and paltry protections, and saving special places from intrusions like logging and off-road vehicles. In one of his latest wins, he and his co-counsel reinstated Endangered Species Act protections for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” background_image=”https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Grizzly-Bears-Mountains-Tall.jpg” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Extinction’s opposing counsel part 3″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”20px|50px|20px|50px” background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.75)”]<\/p>\n
CLIMATE & WILDLIFE: WE’VE GOT TO DO BOTH<\/strong><\/h1>\nMatt disagrees that work to restore wildlife in an era of climate change is like shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do both,\u201d he says, his blue eyes steady behind black-rimmed glasses. \u201cIf you save the ship, make sure there are still deck chairs there.\u201d When I ask about his vision for his work, Matt describes an ideal future where wild ecosystems are interwoven with human communities. \u201cI\u2019d love to see bears in Colorado and across the Sierras,\u201d he says, his hands marking the air with goalposts. Bears are on his mind today, with appeal briefs in the grizzly suit scheduled to arrive this afternoon, but they\u2019re just one example of the \u201cteeth in the scenery\u201d Matt would like to see\u2014a phrase from Doug Chadwick\u2019s Wolverine Way<\/em>. He quotes the full passage with near-perfect memory: \u201cIf the living systems we choose to protect aren\u2019t large and strong and interconnected, then we aren\u2019t really conserving them. Not for the long term. Not with some real teeth in the scenery. We\u2019re just talking about saving nature while we settle for something less wild.\u201d The crickets and birds seem to chorus their agreement from Matt\u2019s open office door.<\/h4>\nMatt\u2019s respect for wildlife has been with him all his life. He doesn\u2019t know quite where it comes from, but he remembers his tears as a small boy on fishing trips when a fish was caught and its head smashed, and his resonance with his family\u2019s agreement to let a snag hang over their house because it was good woodpecker habitat.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” background_image=”https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Predator-Squares-Matt-Profile.jpg” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” background_image=”https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Common_Pheasant_Plume.jpg” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Extinction’s opposing counsel part 4″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|phone” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px” background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.84)”]<\/p>\n
NO HUNTER’S GENE
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\nWhat\u2019s striking about Matt is that his big heart for animals hasn\u2019t been dimmed or confounded by growing up in a world ambivalent about wildlife. On the one hand, there\u2019s his mother, an avid birdwatcher who learned to love birds during summers spent as a child in a cabin in Bolinas, on the Northern California coast. On the other hand, growing up in Montana, he has seen his share of what he calls ego hunting, fueled by boast and competition. But he also grew up among conservationist hunters, including family friends whose patriarch, Jim Posewitz, is the author of several books that eloquently champion ethical hunting. Matt himself doesn\u2019t have the \u201chunter\u2019s gene\u201d (or even the angler\u2019s gene), he has come to understand. As a child, plucking the sleek feathers from the first pheasant he shot, he remembers thinking he would rather just know the bird was out in the wild, raising young. And yet, as a wildlife attorney, he has found some of his closest allies in hunters like Posewitz and his wife, biologist Gayle Joslin, of Helena Hunters and Anglers.<\/h4>\nOn a recent field trip he took with Gayle to a roadless area threatened by logging, he was struck by her intimate knowledge of the area\u2014gained, in part, from the close attention and significant investment of time she has paid to the landscape by scouting its many miles on foot or squatting in its shadows with a gun or bow in her hands. That knowledge will be key in arguing the case he has brought to protect the area\u2014which provides habitat for elk, deer, bear, lynx, and wolverine\u2014including to rebut the Forest Service\u2019s claim that it is merely improving existing roads to access trees. In fact, as Matt and Gayle ground-truthed, the \u201croads\u201d that the Forest Service wants to \u201cimprove\u201d in the roadless area are just threadlike animal trails.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Extinction’s opposing counsel part 5″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px”]<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Matts-dog-Truman.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/h1>\nTRUMAN THE ELDER<\/strong><\/h3>\nOn cool mornings, one of our resident animals, Matt\u2019s dog, Truman, can be found sitting in front of the rock outcrop across the sidewalk from Matt\u2019s office, his regal head lifted. Truman has been the elder in our two-dog office, as Matt has been the elder in our three-human office. Together, Matt and Truman balance the puppy enthusiasm emanating from the office\u2019s younger quarters with the slow burn of commitment.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” background_image=”https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Rio-Grande-Gorge-Brian-Pocius.jpg” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”1″ allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_3=”off” parallax_method_3=”off”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Extinction’s opposing counsel part 6″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px” background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.75)”]<\/p>\n
VAN LIFE, DEBT, AND DEDICATION
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\nMatt seems almost surprised to find himself an elder. A 21-year veteran of environmental lawyering, Matt carries his beginnings with him. When he was hired as a volunteer lawyer in the Taos, New Mexico office of WELC in 1998, he lived out of his \u201987 pop-top Volkswagen. Mornings before coming into the office, he communed with the subject of his work by splashing his face with the water of the Rio Grande. Meanwhile, he racked up $10,000 in credit card debt and worked without boundary\u2014pulling all-nighters, sometimes, to get a brief done. That wasn\u2019t his style, but a senior attorney\u2019s. Now, he carefully plans his time on a paper desk calendar, buttoning up all volatility except the flares\u2014unexpected motions or appeals\u2014that are an inescapable part of litigation.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”1″ custom_padding=”0px||0px|” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” parallax_method_3=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Extinction’s opposing counsel part 6.5″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px”]<\/p>\n
HOME TO HELENA
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\n![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Matt-Helena-Office-500.jpg\")
Matt founded our current office in Montana after 10 years in Taos. Currently housed in old gold miner\u2019s quarters, the office has no central heat or AC, yet Matt\u2019s space is always the coolest of our offices in summer and the coziest in winter. Although this could be just a bit of climatic good fortune, it\u2019s actually a product of good systems, I think\u2014which is emblematic of Matt. Whether it\u2019s windows and fans or facts and the law, his magic is that he has identified what works and uses it. His list of victories is long because his list of must-dos is short (not to say easy): spend lots of time with the facts, call on scientific experts, avoid hypertechnical gotchas, and tell a simple, compelling story.<\/h4>\nMany of Matt\u2019s cases turn on striking revelations from agency emails, as in his recent wolverine listing case. There, the emails gave (as they often do) an account of agency wrongdoing: Agency biologists evaluated the relevant \u201cthreat factors\u201d and communicated that the wolverine qualified for listing. Others in the agency field office confirmed the decision to list. And then came an eleventh-hour decision from upper management not<\/em> to list. Untethered from the scientists\u2019 findings, that last-minute decision was clearly political, illegal\u2014a \u201cflip-flop.\u201d<\/h4>\nBut revelations like these are becoming harder to see under a new government policy to exclude emails from the record. Transparency is essential to justice under our environmental laws, as are opportunities, currently under fire, for lawyers to recover their fees under statutes and caselaw designed to incentivize \u201cprivate attorneys general.\u201d \u201cOtherwise, only the wealthy get to take it to the courthouse,\u201d Matt says.<\/h4>\n![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Photo-1.jpg\")
Waiting out a thunderstorm on the Continental Divide in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness, one of the last remaining places still occupied by wolverine in the lower 48. Matt, in orange, is with his close childhood friend, Jamul Hahn. Photo: John Bennett.<\/p><\/div>\n
SUE THE KING\u2014AND SEE SOME REAL RESULTS<\/strong><\/h1>\nBut despite the current administration\u2019s efforts to undermine it, U.S. law still provides the legal framework that allows citizen Davids to stand up in court against the government Goliath. One of Matt\u2019s first and favorite clients were two jewelry makers, a couple, who sold their wares on a bridge spanning the Rio Grande Gorge and complained of a sand and gravel mining operation that the government had approved on the rim of the Gorge, marring the spectacular view in violation of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Matt remembers the couple\u2019s palpable relief and profusion of thanks when they learned he would take their case\u2014for free. Matt concluded the case in a settlement requiring the removal of the mine operation and the re-seeding of the site. It\u2019s a case that stands out to him because it shows how U.S. law empowers anyone to \u201csue<\/em> the king\u2014and see some real results,\u201d he says, his voice tinged with the sense of agency that the law confers.<\/h4>\n
Matt disagrees that work to restore wildlife in an era of climate change is like shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do both,\u201d he says, his blue eyes steady behind black-rimmed glasses. \u201cIf you save the ship, make sure there are still deck chairs there.\u201d When I ask about his vision for his work, Matt describes an ideal future where wild ecosystems are interwoven with human communities. \u201cI\u2019d love to see bears in Colorado and across the Sierras,\u201d he says, his hands marking the air with goalposts. Bears are on his mind today, with appeal briefs in the grizzly suit scheduled to arrive this afternoon, but they\u2019re just one example of the \u201cteeth in the scenery\u201d Matt would like to see\u2014a phrase from Doug Chadwick\u2019s Wolverine Way<\/em>. He quotes the full passage with near-perfect memory: \u201cIf the living systems we choose to protect aren\u2019t large and strong and interconnected, then we aren\u2019t really conserving them. Not for the long term. Not with some real teeth in the scenery. We\u2019re just talking about saving nature while we settle for something less wild.\u201d The crickets and birds seem to chorus their agreement from Matt\u2019s open office door.<\/h4>\nMatt\u2019s respect for wildlife has been with him all his life. He doesn\u2019t know quite where it comes from, but he remembers his tears as a small boy on fishing trips when a fish was caught and its head smashed, and his resonance with his family\u2019s agreement to let a snag hang over their house because it was good woodpecker habitat.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” background_image=”https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Predator-Squares-Matt-Profile.jpg” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” background_image=”https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Common_Pheasant_Plume.jpg” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Extinction’s opposing counsel part 4″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|phone” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px” background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.84)”]<\/p>\n
NO HUNTER’S GENE
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\nWhat\u2019s striking about Matt is that his big heart for animals hasn\u2019t been dimmed or confounded by growing up in a world ambivalent about wildlife. On the one hand, there\u2019s his mother, an avid birdwatcher who learned to love birds during summers spent as a child in a cabin in Bolinas, on the Northern California coast. On the other hand, growing up in Montana, he has seen his share of what he calls ego hunting, fueled by boast and competition. But he also grew up among conservationist hunters, including family friends whose patriarch, Jim Posewitz, is the author of several books that eloquently champion ethical hunting. Matt himself doesn\u2019t have the \u201chunter\u2019s gene\u201d (or even the angler\u2019s gene), he has come to understand. As a child, plucking the sleek feathers from the first pheasant he shot, he remembers thinking he would rather just know the bird was out in the wild, raising young. And yet, as a wildlife attorney, he has found some of his closest allies in hunters like Posewitz and his wife, biologist Gayle Joslin, of Helena Hunters and Anglers.<\/h4>\nOn a recent field trip he took with Gayle to a roadless area threatened by logging, he was struck by her intimate knowledge of the area\u2014gained, in part, from the close attention and significant investment of time she has paid to the landscape by scouting its many miles on foot or squatting in its shadows with a gun or bow in her hands. That knowledge will be key in arguing the case he has brought to protect the area\u2014which provides habitat for elk, deer, bear, lynx, and wolverine\u2014including to rebut the Forest Service\u2019s claim that it is merely improving existing roads to access trees. In fact, as Matt and Gayle ground-truthed, the \u201croads\u201d that the Forest Service wants to \u201cimprove\u201d in the roadless area are just threadlike animal trails.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Extinction’s opposing counsel part 5″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px”]<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/h1>\nTRUMAN THE ELDER<\/strong><\/h3>\nOn cool mornings, one of our resident animals, Matt\u2019s dog, Truman, can be found sitting in front of the rock outcrop across the sidewalk from Matt\u2019s office, his regal head lifted. Truman has been the elder in our two-dog office, as Matt has been the elder in our three-human office. Together, Matt and Truman balance the puppy enthusiasm emanating from the office\u2019s younger quarters with the slow burn of commitment.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” background_image=”https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Rio-Grande-Gorge-Brian-Pocius.jpg” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”1″ allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_3=”off” parallax_method_3=”off”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Extinction’s opposing counsel part 6″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px” background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.75)”]<\/p>\n
VAN LIFE, DEBT, AND DEDICATION
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\nMatt seems almost surprised to find himself an elder. A 21-year veteran of environmental lawyering, Matt carries his beginnings with him. When he was hired as a volunteer lawyer in the Taos, New Mexico office of WELC in 1998, he lived out of his \u201987 pop-top Volkswagen. Mornings before coming into the office, he communed with the subject of his work by splashing his face with the water of the Rio Grande. Meanwhile, he racked up $10,000 in credit card debt and worked without boundary\u2014pulling all-nighters, sometimes, to get a brief done. That wasn\u2019t his style, but a senior attorney\u2019s. Now, he carefully plans his time on a paper desk calendar, buttoning up all volatility except the flares\u2014unexpected motions or appeals\u2014that are an inescapable part of litigation.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”1″ custom_padding=”0px||0px|” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” parallax_method_3=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Extinction’s opposing counsel part 6.5″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px”]<\/p>\n
HOME TO HELENA
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\nMatt founded our current office in Montana after 10 years in Taos. Currently housed in old gold miner\u2019s quarters, the office has no central heat or AC, yet Matt\u2019s space is always the coolest of our offices in summer and the coziest in winter. Although this could be just a bit of climatic good fortune, it\u2019s actually a product of good systems, I think\u2014which is emblematic of Matt. Whether it\u2019s windows and fans or facts and the law, his magic is that he has identified what works and uses it. His list of victories is long because his list of must-dos is short (not to say easy): spend lots of time with the facts, call on scientific experts, avoid hypertechnical gotchas, and tell a simple, compelling story.<\/h4>\nMany of Matt\u2019s cases turn on striking revelations from agency emails, as in his recent wolverine listing case. There, the emails gave (as they often do) an account of agency wrongdoing: Agency biologists evaluated the relevant \u201cthreat factors\u201d and communicated that the wolverine qualified for listing. Others in the agency field office confirmed the decision to list. And then came an eleventh-hour decision from upper management not<\/em> to list. Untethered from the scientists\u2019 findings, that last-minute decision was clearly political, illegal\u2014a \u201cflip-flop.\u201d<\/h4>\nBut revelations like these are becoming harder to see under a new government policy to exclude emails from the record. Transparency is essential to justice under our environmental laws, as are opportunities, currently under fire, for lawyers to recover their fees under statutes and caselaw designed to incentivize \u201cprivate attorneys general.\u201d \u201cOtherwise, only the wealthy get to take it to the courthouse,\u201d Matt says.<\/h4>\nWaiting out a thunderstorm on the Continental Divide in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness, one of the last remaining places still occupied by wolverine in the lower 48. Matt, in orange, is with his close childhood friend, Jamul Hahn. Photo: John Bennett.<\/p><\/div>\n
SUE THE KING\u2014AND SEE SOME REAL RESULTS<\/strong><\/h1>\nBut despite the current administration\u2019s efforts to undermine it, U.S. law still provides the legal framework that allows citizen Davids to stand up in court against the government Goliath. One of Matt\u2019s first and favorite clients were two jewelry makers, a couple, who sold their wares on a bridge spanning the Rio Grande Gorge and complained of a sand and gravel mining operation that the government had approved on the rim of the Gorge, marring the spectacular view in violation of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Matt remembers the couple\u2019s palpable relief and profusion of thanks when they learned he would take their case\u2014for free. Matt concluded the case in a settlement requiring the removal of the mine operation and the re-seeding of the site. It\u2019s a case that stands out to him because it shows how U.S. law empowers anyone to \u201csue<\/em> the king\u2014and see some real results,\u201d he says, his voice tinged with the sense of agency that the law confers.<\/h4>\n
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\n
What\u2019s striking about Matt is that his big heart for animals hasn\u2019t been dimmed or confounded by growing up in a world ambivalent about wildlife. On the one hand, there\u2019s his mother, an avid birdwatcher who learned to love birds during summers spent as a child in a cabin in Bolinas, on the Northern California coast. On the other hand, growing up in Montana, he has seen his share of what he calls ego hunting, fueled by boast and competition. But he also grew up among conservationist hunters, including family friends whose patriarch, Jim Posewitz, is the author of several books that eloquently champion ethical hunting. Matt himself doesn\u2019t have the \u201chunter\u2019s gene\u201d (or even the angler\u2019s gene), he has come to understand. As a child, plucking the sleek feathers from the first pheasant he shot, he remembers thinking he would rather just know the bird was out in the wild, raising young. And yet, as a wildlife attorney, he has found some of his closest allies in hunters like Posewitz and his wife, biologist Gayle Joslin, of Helena Hunters and Anglers.<\/h4>\nOn a recent field trip he took with Gayle to a roadless area threatened by logging, he was struck by her intimate knowledge of the area\u2014gained, in part, from the close attention and significant investment of time she has paid to the landscape by scouting its many miles on foot or squatting in its shadows with a gun or bow in her hands. That knowledge will be key in arguing the case he has brought to protect the area\u2014which provides habitat for elk, deer, bear, lynx, and wolverine\u2014including to rebut the Forest Service\u2019s claim that it is merely improving existing roads to access trees. In fact, as Matt and Gayle ground-truthed, the \u201croads\u201d that the Forest Service wants to \u201cimprove\u201d in the roadless area are just threadlike animal trails.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Extinction’s opposing counsel part 5″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px”]<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/h1>\nTRUMAN THE ELDER<\/strong><\/h3>\nOn cool mornings, one of our resident animals, Matt\u2019s dog, Truman, can be found sitting in front of the rock outcrop across the sidewalk from Matt\u2019s office, his regal head lifted. Truman has been the elder in our two-dog office, as Matt has been the elder in our three-human office. Together, Matt and Truman balance the puppy enthusiasm emanating from the office\u2019s younger quarters with the slow burn of commitment.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” background_image=”https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Rio-Grande-Gorge-Brian-Pocius.jpg” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”1″ allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_3=”off” parallax_method_3=”off”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Extinction’s opposing counsel part 6″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px” background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.75)”]<\/p>\n
VAN LIFE, DEBT, AND DEDICATION
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\nMatt seems almost surprised to find himself an elder. A 21-year veteran of environmental lawyering, Matt carries his beginnings with him. When he was hired as a volunteer lawyer in the Taos, New Mexico office of WELC in 1998, he lived out of his \u201987 pop-top Volkswagen. Mornings before coming into the office, he communed with the subject of his work by splashing his face with the water of the Rio Grande. Meanwhile, he racked up $10,000 in credit card debt and worked without boundary\u2014pulling all-nighters, sometimes, to get a brief done. That wasn\u2019t his style, but a senior attorney\u2019s. Now, he carefully plans his time on a paper desk calendar, buttoning up all volatility except the flares\u2014unexpected motions or appeals\u2014that are an inescapable part of litigation.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”1″ custom_padding=”0px||0px|” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” parallax_method_3=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Extinction’s opposing counsel part 6.5″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px”]<\/p>\n
HOME TO HELENA
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\nMatt founded our current office in Montana after 10 years in Taos. Currently housed in old gold miner\u2019s quarters, the office has no central heat or AC, yet Matt\u2019s space is always the coolest of our offices in summer and the coziest in winter. Although this could be just a bit of climatic good fortune, it\u2019s actually a product of good systems, I think\u2014which is emblematic of Matt. Whether it\u2019s windows and fans or facts and the law, his magic is that he has identified what works and uses it. His list of victories is long because his list of must-dos is short (not to say easy): spend lots of time with the facts, call on scientific experts, avoid hypertechnical gotchas, and tell a simple, compelling story.<\/h4>\nMany of Matt\u2019s cases turn on striking revelations from agency emails, as in his recent wolverine listing case. There, the emails gave (as they often do) an account of agency wrongdoing: Agency biologists evaluated the relevant \u201cthreat factors\u201d and communicated that the wolverine qualified for listing. Others in the agency field office confirmed the decision to list. And then came an eleventh-hour decision from upper management not<\/em> to list. Untethered from the scientists\u2019 findings, that last-minute decision was clearly political, illegal\u2014a \u201cflip-flop.\u201d<\/h4>\nBut revelations like these are becoming harder to see under a new government policy to exclude emails from the record. Transparency is essential to justice under our environmental laws, as are opportunities, currently under fire, for lawyers to recover their fees under statutes and caselaw designed to incentivize \u201cprivate attorneys general.\u201d \u201cOtherwise, only the wealthy get to take it to the courthouse,\u201d Matt says.<\/h4>\nWaiting out a thunderstorm on the Continental Divide in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness, one of the last remaining places still occupied by wolverine in the lower 48. Matt, in orange, is with his close childhood friend, Jamul Hahn. Photo: John Bennett.<\/p><\/div>\n
SUE THE KING\u2014AND SEE SOME REAL RESULTS<\/strong><\/h1>\nBut despite the current administration\u2019s efforts to undermine it, U.S. law still provides the legal framework that allows citizen Davids to stand up in court against the government Goliath. One of Matt\u2019s first and favorite clients were two jewelry makers, a couple, who sold their wares on a bridge spanning the Rio Grande Gorge and complained of a sand and gravel mining operation that the government had approved on the rim of the Gorge, marring the spectacular view in violation of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Matt remembers the couple\u2019s palpable relief and profusion of thanks when they learned he would take their case\u2014for free. Matt concluded the case in a settlement requiring the removal of the mine operation and the re-seeding of the site. It\u2019s a case that stands out to him because it shows how U.S. law empowers anyone to \u201csue<\/em> the king\u2014and see some real results,\u201d he says, his voice tinged with the sense of agency that the law confers.<\/h4>\n
On cool mornings, one of our resident animals, Matt\u2019s dog, Truman, can be found sitting in front of the rock outcrop across the sidewalk from Matt\u2019s office, his regal head lifted. Truman has been the elder in our two-dog office, as Matt has been the elder in our three-human office. Together, Matt and Truman balance the puppy enthusiasm emanating from the office\u2019s younger quarters with the slow burn of commitment.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” background_image=”https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Rio-Grande-Gorge-Brian-Pocius.jpg” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”1″ allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_3=”off” parallax_method_3=”off”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Extinction’s opposing counsel part 6″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px” background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.75)”]<\/p>\n
VAN LIFE, DEBT, AND DEDICATION
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\nMatt seems almost surprised to find himself an elder. A 21-year veteran of environmental lawyering, Matt carries his beginnings with him. When he was hired as a volunteer lawyer in the Taos, New Mexico office of WELC in 1998, he lived out of his \u201987 pop-top Volkswagen. Mornings before coming into the office, he communed with the subject of his work by splashing his face with the water of the Rio Grande. Meanwhile, he racked up $10,000 in credit card debt and worked without boundary\u2014pulling all-nighters, sometimes, to get a brief done. That wasn\u2019t his style, but a senior attorney\u2019s. Now, he carefully plans his time on a paper desk calendar, buttoning up all volatility except the flares\u2014unexpected motions or appeals\u2014that are an inescapable part of litigation.<\/h4>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”1″ custom_padding=”0px||0px|” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” parallax_method_3=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text – Extinction’s opposing counsel part 6.5″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”50px|50px|50px|50px”]<\/p>\n
HOME TO HELENA
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\nMatt founded our current office in Montana after 10 years in Taos. Currently housed in old gold miner\u2019s quarters, the office has no central heat or AC, yet Matt\u2019s space is always the coolest of our offices in summer and the coziest in winter. Although this could be just a bit of climatic good fortune, it\u2019s actually a product of good systems, I think\u2014which is emblematic of Matt. Whether it\u2019s windows and fans or facts and the law, his magic is that he has identified what works and uses it. His list of victories is long because his list of must-dos is short (not to say easy): spend lots of time with the facts, call on scientific experts, avoid hypertechnical gotchas, and tell a simple, compelling story.<\/h4>\nMany of Matt\u2019s cases turn on striking revelations from agency emails, as in his recent wolverine listing case. There, the emails gave (as they often do) an account of agency wrongdoing: Agency biologists evaluated the relevant \u201cthreat factors\u201d and communicated that the wolverine qualified for listing. Others in the agency field office confirmed the decision to list. And then came an eleventh-hour decision from upper management not<\/em> to list. Untethered from the scientists\u2019 findings, that last-minute decision was clearly political, illegal\u2014a \u201cflip-flop.\u201d<\/h4>\nBut revelations like these are becoming harder to see under a new government policy to exclude emails from the record. Transparency is essential to justice under our environmental laws, as are opportunities, currently under fire, for lawyers to recover their fees under statutes and caselaw designed to incentivize \u201cprivate attorneys general.\u201d \u201cOtherwise, only the wealthy get to take it to the courthouse,\u201d Matt says.<\/h4>\nWaiting out a thunderstorm on the Continental Divide in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness, one of the last remaining places still occupied by wolverine in the lower 48. Matt, in orange, is with his close childhood friend, Jamul Hahn. Photo: John Bennett.<\/p><\/div>\n
SUE THE KING\u2014AND SEE SOME REAL RESULTS<\/strong><\/h1>\nBut despite the current administration\u2019s efforts to undermine it, U.S. law still provides the legal framework that allows citizen Davids to stand up in court against the government Goliath. One of Matt\u2019s first and favorite clients were two jewelry makers, a couple, who sold their wares on a bridge spanning the Rio Grande Gorge and complained of a sand and gravel mining operation that the government had approved on the rim of the Gorge, marring the spectacular view in violation of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Matt remembers the couple\u2019s palpable relief and profusion of thanks when they learned he would take their case\u2014for free. Matt concluded the case in a settlement requiring the removal of the mine operation and the re-seeding of the site. It\u2019s a case that stands out to him because it shows how U.S. law empowers anyone to \u201csue<\/em> the king\u2014and see some real results,\u201d he says, his voice tinged with the sense of agency that the law confers.<\/h4>\n
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Matt founded our current office in Montana after 10 years in Taos. Currently housed in old gold miner\u2019s quarters, the office has no central heat or AC, yet Matt\u2019s space is always the coolest of our offices in summer and the coziest in winter. Although this could be just a bit of climatic good fortune, it\u2019s actually a product of good systems, I think\u2014which is emblematic of Matt. Whether it\u2019s windows and fans or facts and the law, his magic is that he has identified what works and uses it. His list of victories is long because his list of must-dos is short (not to say easy): spend lots of time with the facts, call on scientific experts, avoid hypertechnical gotchas, and tell a simple, compelling story.<\/h4>\nMany of Matt\u2019s cases turn on striking revelations from agency emails, as in his recent wolverine listing case. There, the emails gave (as they often do) an account of agency wrongdoing: Agency biologists evaluated the relevant \u201cthreat factors\u201d and communicated that the wolverine qualified for listing. Others in the agency field office confirmed the decision to list. And then came an eleventh-hour decision from upper management not<\/em> to list. Untethered from the scientists\u2019 findings, that last-minute decision was clearly political, illegal\u2014a \u201cflip-flop.\u201d<\/h4>\nBut revelations like these are becoming harder to see under a new government policy to exclude emails from the record. Transparency is essential to justice under our environmental laws, as are opportunities, currently under fire, for lawyers to recover their fees under statutes and caselaw designed to incentivize \u201cprivate attorneys general.\u201d \u201cOtherwise, only the wealthy get to take it to the courthouse,\u201d Matt says.<\/h4>\nWaiting out a thunderstorm on the Continental Divide in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness, one of the last remaining places still occupied by wolverine in the lower 48. Matt, in orange, is with his close childhood friend, Jamul Hahn. Photo: John Bennett.<\/p><\/div>\n
SUE THE KING\u2014AND SEE SOME REAL RESULTS<\/strong><\/h1>\nBut despite the current administration\u2019s efforts to undermine it, U.S. law still provides the legal framework that allows citizen Davids to stand up in court against the government Goliath. One of Matt\u2019s first and favorite clients were two jewelry makers, a couple, who sold their wares on a bridge spanning the Rio Grande Gorge and complained of a sand and gravel mining operation that the government had approved on the rim of the Gorge, marring the spectacular view in violation of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Matt remembers the couple\u2019s palpable relief and profusion of thanks when they learned he would take their case\u2014for free. Matt concluded the case in a settlement requiring the removal of the mine operation and the re-seeding of the site. It\u2019s a case that stands out to him because it shows how U.S. law empowers anyone to \u201csue<\/em> the king\u2014and see some real results,\u201d he says, his voice tinged with the sense of agency that the law confers.<\/h4>\n
But revelations like these are becoming harder to see under a new government policy to exclude emails from the record. Transparency is essential to justice under our environmental laws, as are opportunities, currently under fire, for lawyers to recover their fees under statutes and caselaw designed to incentivize \u201cprivate attorneys general.\u201d \u201cOtherwise, only the wealthy get to take it to the courthouse,\u201d Matt says.<\/h4>\nWaiting out a thunderstorm on the Continental Divide in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness, one of the last remaining places still occupied by wolverine in the lower 48. Matt, in orange, is with his close childhood friend, Jamul Hahn. Photo: John Bennett.<\/p><\/div>\n
SUE THE KING\u2014AND SEE SOME REAL RESULTS<\/strong><\/h1>\nBut despite the current administration\u2019s efforts to undermine it, U.S. law still provides the legal framework that allows citizen Davids to stand up in court against the government Goliath. One of Matt\u2019s first and favorite clients were two jewelry makers, a couple, who sold their wares on a bridge spanning the Rio Grande Gorge and complained of a sand and gravel mining operation that the government had approved on the rim of the Gorge, marring the spectacular view in violation of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Matt remembers the couple\u2019s palpable relief and profusion of thanks when they learned he would take their case\u2014for free. Matt concluded the case in a settlement requiring the removal of the mine operation and the re-seeding of the site. It\u2019s a case that stands out to him because it shows how U.S. law empowers anyone to \u201csue<\/em> the king\u2014and see some real results,\u201d he says, his voice tinged with the sense of agency that the law confers.<\/h4>\n
Waiting out a thunderstorm on the Continental Divide in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness, one of the last remaining places still occupied by wolverine in the lower 48. Matt, in orange, is with his close childhood friend, Jamul Hahn. Photo: John Bennett.<\/p><\/div>\n
![\"the](\"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/The-Former-mine-1.jpg\")
![\"The](\"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Gorge-Bridge.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Bishop](\"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Photo-8.jpg\")
![\"laura](\"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Laura.jpg\")
<\/p>\n