2018 AWARDS
Katherine Garvey
Director, Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Clinic, West Virginia University College of Law
I’ ve always had an appreciation for the natural environment and believe it is important to protect those resources for future generations.”
Photo by WVU College of Law.
BY BLAIR DOWLER. Growing up right outside of Kansas City, MO, Katherine Garvey’ s life was shaped by a rural environment surrounded by clean, swimmable water, productive farms and healthy forests.
“ I’ ve always had an appreciation for the natural environment and believe it is important to protect those resources for future generations,” she says.
Today, Garvey is doing her part to protect the Mountain State’ s resources as the director of the Land Use and Sustainable Development( LUSD) Law Clinic at West Virginia University( WVU) College of Law, which provides legal and planning services to conserve land and water, supports local land use planning and offers educational opportunities for both law students and the citizens of West Virginia.
Her journey to the LUSD began at Webster University in St. Louis, MO, where she earned her undergraduate degree in international business. She then went on to earn her Juris Doctor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City( UMKC) in 2004, followed by her Masters of Law degree, or LLM, in environmental law at Vermont Law School in South Royalton, VT, in 2010.
While Garvey enjoyed being involved on campus, including serving as president of UMKC School of Law’ s Environmental Law Society, law school was challenging for her. She knew she did not want to litigate, and she found her evidence and criminal and civil procedure courses to be particularly brutal. It was then that she decided to pair her passion for the
environment with her education to find a career path through which she could affect real, immediate change.
“ During law school, I was really interested in international environmental law and federal environmental law, specifically the Clean Water Act,” she says.“ After attending several international conferences and working for the federal government, I was eager to find work where change had a more immediate impact, which led me to local government work.”
It was during the summers in law school that Garvey began to hone her passion for public interest.
“ The summer after my 1L year, I applied to be an official observer at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa and was awarded a grant to cover travel expenses,” she says.“ The summer after my 2L year, I was awarded a $ 600 public interest fellowship. With the small stipend, I was able to afford a flight to Caracas, Venezuela, where I lived with a host family and worked at a nonprofit conservation agency.”
The environmental enthusiast went on to live out her dream of serving the public interest and making a great impact on many communities. She began her career as a law clerk and an environmental specialist for the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 7 in Kansas City, KS, in the National Agricultural Compliance Assistance Center and with the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics. There, she developed additional skills for which she credits her supervisor, Ruben McCullers.
“ On many occasions, he allowed me the opportunity to present and negotiate in scenarios where he clearly could have done a better job,” Garvey recalls.“ He allowed me the opportunity to fail, gave constructive feedback and encouraged me to try again. In one situation, we were negotiating terms with a major military installation. He allowed me, as a 23 year old, to negotiate with an Army colonel in a room full of military officers. He took the time to grill me on the important points to help me prepare instead of taking the easy way out and just doing the negotiation himself.”
Garvey transitioned her career from federal to local government in 2006 when she began working on environmental permitting and land use issues as the environmental coordinator for the City of Lee’ s Summit, MO. Then, moving on to a fellowship position at Vermont Law School’ s Land Use Clinic, which was one of the only land use clinics in the country, she had the opportunity to work with local governments on environmental and land use issues such as protection of agricultural soils, flood recovery and historic preservation. And then Almost Heaven came calling.“ Moving to West Virginia to help start the WVU Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Clinic was a great fit,” she says.“ My husband and I were considering a move closer to the Midwest but still hoped to find space in a mountainous state. I took the Colorado bar exam, thinking we would head to the Rockies, but then I received a call from West Virginia University. At the time, I knew
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