Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Speak at U of A

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will speak about the environment and the future at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 8, in the Arkansas Union Ballroom. The event is sponsored by the Law School, the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, the Hartman Hotz Trust and the Environmental Law Society.

Kennedy, a renowned environmental activist, will discuss environmental issues affecting Northwest Arkansas and the surrounding area, according to Associate Professor of Law Steve Sheppard. The speech is titled "A Contract With Our Future"

"Our hope is for greater awareness of significant environmental laws and environmental management in our daily lives," Sheppard said.

To prepare Kennedy to speak on a local level, environmental law students spent the winter preparing briefing papers on local environmental issues for Kennedy to address, such as the controversy surrounding the Illinois River watershed and attorney generals’ opinions concerning the matter in both Arkansas and Oklahoma.

"It’s our strong belief that there’s a lot of work to be done," Sheppard said. "We’re all for growth, but also for protecting the environment. There’s no reason we can’t do both."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was recently lauded by "Successful Meetings" magazine as a man whose message supercedes his golden name. His reputation as a resolute defender of the environment stems from a litany of successful legal actions: prosecuting governments and companies for polluting the Hudson River and Long Island sound; winning settlements for the Hudson Riverkeeper; arguing cases to expand citizen access to the shoreline; and suing sewage treatment plants to force compliance with the Clean Water Act.

Kennedy serves as chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, all while serving as the president of the Waterkeeper Alliance. He is also a clinical professor and supervising attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law in New York.

Among Kennedy’s published books are "Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., A Biography" (1977), and his latest book, "The Riverkeepers" (1997), co-written with Hudson Riverkeeper John Cronin.

As Hudson Riverkeeper John Cronin states, "[Kennedy] is a pioneer as an attorney in the area of municipal and government responsibility for environmental problems."