Supreme Court and the States: A Focus on Administrative and Environmental Law in the Prior Term and Trends to Come
- Monday, September 13, 2021
- Online Event
Much of modern administrative and environmental law rests on longstanding precedent out of the Supreme Court. States have long relied on these doctrines to protect their rights. Now with changes in both the presidency and the Court, much hangs in the balance. This conversation between Solicitors General covered last term’s cases and the upcoming ones on the Court’s docket, and the potential impact that the cases could have on states. This program was co-hosted by the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center and the State and Local Legal Center.
Speakers
Benjamin Gutman
Solicitor General, Oregon Attorney General
Ben Gutman serves as the solicitor general in the Oregon Department of Justice. Ben and his team represent the state in cases on appeal in the United States and Oregon Supreme Courts. Before becoming the solicitor general, Ben was the chief administrative judge and western regional director for the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. He also was a member of the federal government’s senior executive service. Earlier in his career, he served as deputy solicitor general for the State of New York and as an appellate attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Ben has a B.A. magna cum laude in math and philosophy from Yale College and a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as executive editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Mithun Mansinghani
Partner, Lehotsky Keller LLP; Former Solicitor General, Oklahoma Attorney General
Mithun Mansinghani is Partner at Lehotsky Keller LLP. He served as Solicitor General for the State of Oklahoma. He was appointed by Attorney General Mike Hunter in 2017 after serving for the prior two years as Deputy Solicitor General. As Solicitor General, Mr. Mansinghani led litigation on behalf of the State in appeals, constitutional matters, and relations with the federal government and other states. This included representing the State in cases before the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to joining the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Mansinghani was a lawyer for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., specializing in appeals and administrative law cases. Mr. Mansinghani also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jerry E. Smith on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He received his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in both political science and policy studies from Rice University and his law degree with honors from Harvard Law School, where he served as editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Lindsay See
Solicitor General, West Virginia Attorney General
Lindsay See is currently the Solicitor General for West Virginia, where she manages appellate and high-stakes litigation for the State of West Virginia in both state and federal courts. Her work also focuses on regulatory and administrative law issues, as well as leading and working with multi-state coalitions on a variety of national issues. Before moving to West Virginia, Lindsay clerked for the Hon. Thomas B. Griffith on the D.C. circuit, then spent several years practicing appellate and administrative law with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C.
Steven Wu
Chief of Appeals, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office; Former Deputy Solicitor General, New York Attorney General
Steven C. Wu is Chief of Appeals at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Previously, he served as Deputy Solicitor General in the New York State Office of the Attorney General. He joined the office in 2008 and previously served as an Assistant Solicitor General and as Special Counsel to the Solicitor General. Before joining the Attorney General’s Office, he was an associate in the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice of the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington, D.C., and a law clerk to Judge Diana Gribbon Motz on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School. As Deputy Solicitor General, Steven’s practice focused on appellate litigation in both federal and state courts. He regularly appeared in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the New York Court of Appeals (the highest court in New York), and has also argued in the U.S. Supreme Court, the D.C. Circuit, the First Circuit, and the Fourth Circuit.
Kirti Datla
Director of Strategic Legal Advocacy, Earthjustice
In her role at Earthjustice, Kirti leads efforts to anticipate and shape trends in judicial doctrine outside the environmental arena. This includes legal doctrines affecting justiciability, jurisdiction, the scope of federal power, and judicial review of agency actions. Immediately prior to joining Earthjustice, Kirti worked in the Supreme Court and Appellate practice group at Hogan Lovells US LLP. There, she briefed and argued appeals before federal circuit courts and substantive motions before federal district courts. She also briefed cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. Earlier in her career, Kirti served as an attorney-adviser in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, where her work focused on federal environmental and land statutes. There, she reviewed the legality of presidential orders; advised federal agencies on major questions of constitutional, statutory, and administrative law; and examined pending legislation for constitutional issues. Kirti has served as a law clerk at all levels of the federal judiciary: for Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and Judge Amul R. Thapar, then of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky (now of the Sixth Circuit). She received her B.A. in environmental engineering from Rice University and her law degree from the NYU School of Law.