Exploring Environmental and Public Interest Careers at AG Offices
- Wednesday, February 2, 2022
- 12:00pm–1:00pm
- Online Event
The State Energy & Environmental Impact Center hosted a discussion of environmental and public interest career opportunities in the offices of state attorneys general. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel gave opening remarks, followed by a discussion and a Q&A segment with Assistant Attorneys General from Illinois, Michigan, and New York. This event was co-sponsored by Michigan State University College of Law Career Services Office, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law Career Services Office, University of Michigan Law School Office of Career Planning, and Wayne State University Law School Office of Career and Professional Development.
Opening Remarks
AG Dana Nessel
Michigan Attorney General
Attorney General Dana Nessel is a former criminal prosecutor and civil rights attorney who has served as Michigan’s Attorney General since January 2019. Since taking office, Attorney General Nessel has been a champion of the state’s most important resource – its Great Lakes. Her environmental protection division is actively fighting to ensure clean air, water and energy for Michigan’s residents. She has also joined the battle to combat prescription drug addiction and to stem the tide of PFAS contamination. A graduate of the University of Michigan and Wayne State University Law School, Attorney General Nessel lives in southeast Michigan with her wife, Alanna Maguire, and her twin sons, Alex and Zach.
Panel Discussion
Andrew Armstrong
Chief, Environmental Bureau, Office of the Illinois Attorney General
Andrew Armstrong is Chief of the Springfield Environmental Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, supervising civil enforcement of state and federal environmental laws and regulations on behalf of the State of Illinois. He previously worked as an attorney for the Environmental Law & Policy Center and as an Assistant Attorney General in the Chicago Environmental Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (B.A. 1999) and the Northwestern University School of Law (J.D. 2004).
Gavin McCabe
Assistant Attorney General, New York State Office of Attorney General
Gavin G. McCabe is an Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office. Prior to joining the New York AG’s Office in 2018, Mr. McCabe worked for eighteen years in the Natural Resources Law Section of the California Attorney General’s Office, as an Assistant Regional Counsel in U.S. EPA’s Region 9 Office in San Francisco, and as an associate in the litigation department of a large law firm in San Francisco, and as an Assistant Regional Counsel in U.S. EPA’s Region 9 Office in San Francisco. He is a graduate of Yale University and the Georgetown University Law Center.
Liza Roberson-Young
Public Interest Counsel, Office of the Illinois Attorney General
Liza Roberson-Young is Public Interest Counsel for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. In that capacity, she coordinates the office’s federal advocacy and works on state policy issues affecting the public interest. Before joining the AG’s office, she worked for the Illinois Senate, where she was lead counsel for the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committees and the Senate Task Force on Sexual Harassment. She was also an associate at Sidley Austin LLP and a staff clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and its Law School.
Polly Synk
First Assistant, Environment, Natural Resource and Agriculture Division, Michigan Department of Attorney General
Polly A. Synk is an Assistant Attorney General working for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in the area of environmental law. She serves as the First Assistant in the Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture Division (ENRA), which represents the State of Michigan’s agencies charged with protection and management of natural resources and the environment. Ms. Synk graduated from the University of Michigan Law School, and then practiced environmental law with a private law firm in Michigan for a few years. Ms. Synk’s undergraduate degree is also from the University of Michigan.