Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Meredith Hankins and Nicholas Bryner

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Meredith Hankins is a Shapiro Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law for 2017-2019. She previously clerked for the Honorable Michael D. Wilson of the Supreme Court of Hawaiʻi. Hankins earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from USC, and her J.D. from UC Davis School of Law. At UC Davis, she was elected to the Order of the Coif and received certificates in Environmental Law and Public Interest Law. She also served as Co-Editor in Chief of Environs Environmental Law and Policy Journal, Co-Chair of the Environmental Law Society, and as a research and teaching assistant. Prior to law school, she worked as an air quality engineer for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, where she worked on petroleum refinery permitting and enforcement programs under the Clean Air Act and other federal, state, and local air quality regulations. Nicholas Bryner is an Assistant Professor at Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center, where he teaches courses in environmental, natural resources, and administrative law. He previously worked as an Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law and as Visiting Associate Professor and Environmental Law Fellow at George Washington University Law School (August 2014-June 2016). Bryner received his B.A. magna cum laude in Political Science from the University of Utah, with minors in Latin American Studies and Chemistry. He also earned joint degrees (J.D. / M.A.) in law and Latin American and Hemispheric Studies from The George Washington University Law School and Elliott School of International Affairs. At GW, Bryner was elected to the Order of Coif, received the Pro Bono Service Award and the Patton Boggs Foundation Public Policy Fellowship, and was a Presidential Merit Scholar. In addition, he served as an Articles Editor for The George Washington Law Review. Bryner has written several articles on environmental, energy, and natural resources law, including: “People of the Sun: Leveraging Electricity Reform to Promote Renewable Energy and Climate Change Mitigation in Mexico,” Natural Resources Journal (forthcoming 2016); “Public Interests and Private Land: The Ecological Function of Property in Brazil,” Virginia Environmental Law Journal (2016); and “Brazil’s Green Court: Environmental Law in the Superior Tribunal de Justiça (High Court of Brazil),” Pace Environmental Law Review (2012). He has also co-edited the volumes on Decision Making in Environmental Law and Environmental Compliance and Enforcement in Edward Elgar’s Encyclopedia of Environmental Law series. Bryner has spoken at major conferences in the United States and Brazil, in Portuguese and English, on topics including Brazilian environmental law, environmental human rights, and international environmental law. He is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law and served as program coordinator for the 1st IUCN World Environmental Law Congress in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in April 2016.

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