At the Center
The Conservation Law Center provides legal counsel without charge to conservation organizations, works to improve conservation law and policy, and offers law students clinical experience in the practice of law and the profession's public service tradition.
Featured News
March 22, 2012
CLC Represents Clients in Oral Argument at the Indiana Supreme Court
[Update: on March 22, the Supreme Court, upon consideration of the oral arguments, issued an order reversing its decision to grant transfer, thereby denying IKEC's petition and reinstating the opinion of the Indiana Court of Appeals favorable to CLC's clients.]
The CLC's Jeff Hyman represented three Indiana environmental groups in oral arguments before the Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday, March 15, in a case that will have repercussions for advocacy organizations throughout Indiana. The case came before the Supreme Court after the plaintiff, Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corporation (IKEC), appealed the rulings of the Indiana Court of Appeals and the Marion County Superior Court that IKEC could not relitigate whether environmental groups can initiate administrative proceedings in the Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication on behalf of aggrieved members, an issue that had been decided in 2005. In his oral argument, Jeff defended the finality of the 2005 decision and addressed the Justices' broader questions regarding the proper role of advocacy organizations in vindicating the interests of their members in courts and tribunals. Assisting at oral argument were CLC's Director, Bill Weeks, and Graduate Fellow Andy Williams.
Video of the Supreme Court argument is available online.
CLC Prepared Third Conservation Easement Guide
for the Land Trust Alliance
March 8, 2012
The CLC prepared the third in a series of conservation easement guides for the Land Trust Alliance (LTA). This guide covers the "outdoor recreation" category of qualifying purposes for tax deductible conservation easements. The guide sets out the relevant law and provides examples of private letter rulings on contributions of property or an interest in property that qualify for tax deduction based on recreation, such as canoeing and camping. CLC is continuing to work with LTA (which is the national convener, strategist and representative of more than 1,700 land trusts across America) in developing resources for land trusts.
Completion of Manual for Landowners in Indiana and Illinois
March 8, 2012
In partnership with The Nature Conservancy, CLC has developed a manual for landowners in Indiana and Illinois who are interested in preserving their land by donating conservation easements, but are concerned that lingering mineral interests on their land could complicate or undermine their efforts. In many cases, old or unused mineral interests, including coal leases, oil and gas leases, and subsurface mineral estates, can remain an encumbrance on land long after extraction activities have ceased. This manual is intended to serve as a resource for landowners looking to free their land of such interests, clearing a path for the permanent protection of the land.
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