Senior Attorneys

Angela Campbell , Professor of Law, joined IPR in February 1988, and is head of IPR's Citizens Communications Center Project. She graduated from UCLA School of Law in 1981 where she was editor-in-chief of the Federal Communications Law Journal. She spent two years as a Graduate Fellow at IPR, where she concentrated in the communications area and argued two cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. After leaving IPR, she worked as an associate at the firm of Fisher, Wayland, Cooper & Leader, and as an attorney at the Communications and Finance Section of the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice. While at the Justice Department, she was involved in enforcing the consent decree in U.S. v. AT&T , filing comments with the FCC, and investigating mergers.

Professor Campbell's work at IPR is in the areas of communications law and policy. She is particularly interested in the regulation of mass media and new technologies, such as the Internet. She has published articles on media self-regulation, advertising on the Internet, U.S. and Australian children's television regulation, telephone company claims to a first amendment right to offer video programming, and teaching advanced legal writing in law school clinics. She also teaches a seminar on comparative media law. Outside the office, she enjoys spending time with her two children.

Hope Babcock , Professor of Law, directs IPR's Environmental Project. She joined IPR in the fall of 1991 after being General Counsel of the National Audubon Society for five years. Professor Babcock graduated from Yale LawSchool in 1966. She was in private practice with LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae, in their Washington, D.C. Office, and a partner at Blum & Nash, also in Washington. Before becoming Audubon’s General Counsel in 1986, Professor Babcock was Deputy Counsel and Director of the Audubon Society's PublicLands and Waters Program. She served two years in the Carter Administration as a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy and Minerals at the Department of Interior, and on the Clinton-Gore Transition Team. In addition to her extensive litigation and government relations experience, Professor Babcock has taught environmental law at Pennsylvania, Yale, Pace, Catholic, and Antioch law schools, and has published articles on environmental and natural resources law, environmental justice, Indian sovereignty, and state sovereign immunity. She also teaches courses in environmental and natural resources law at the Law Center. She has served on the boards of several public interest environmental organizations and has been on various governmental advisory committees. Her outside interests include running, tennis, swimming, and the outdoors. She has two sons, one of whom practices labor law in Washington, D.C., and three grandchildren. Professor Babcock lives with a significant other who is a semi-retired environmental policy analyst and economist , two boundlessly energetic large dogs, and an elderly cat.

David Vladeck, Professor of Law, directs the Institute's civil rights and general public interest project.  Professor Vladeck joined the Law Center faculty in 2002 from Public Citizen Litigation Group, a nationally-prominent public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C. He spent over 25 years with the Litigation Group, becoming its Director in 1992.  He has handled a broad range of litigation, including First Amendment, health and safety, civil rights, class actions and open government cases. He has argued a number of cases before the United States Supreme Court, state courts of last resort, and over 50 cases before the federal courts of appeal.  He often testifies before Congress on regulatory and constitutional issues.  His academic writing concentrates on regulatory issues, First Amendment questions, legal ethics, and matters relating to judicial administration.  He has served on the Council of the Administrative Law Section of the ABA and as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.  Professor Vladeck began his legal career in 1976 as a graduate teaching fellow at the Law Center's Institute for Public Representation, and he joined the adjunct faculty in 1987.  In addition to his work at the Institute, he also teaches civil procedure, federal courts, government processes, and a civil litigation seminar. 

Professor Vladeck's work at the Institute focuses on civil rights, civil liberties, open government and health and safety litigation, mostly in federal courts.  The Project he directs represents individuals in race, gender and disability cases; historians, journalists, and non-profit organizations in open government litigation; and non-profit groups in health and safety litigation.  A summary of the Project's current cases appears on this site.

 

Graduate Fellows

Erik Bluemel is a graduate of the New York University School of Law and the University of California at Berkeley. During law school, Erik served as Editor-in-Chief of the Environmental Law Journal and as a research assistant to Dean Richard Revesz and Professors Vicki Been, Richard Stewart, and Paul Chevigny. Following law school, Erik served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Barefoot Sanders of the Northern District of Texas and the Honorable Kermit E. Bye of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Erik has worked with the United Nations Development Programme, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense, and Sive, Paget, & Riesel, P.C., an environmental litigation boutique in New York City, and served as Vice-Chair of the New York County Lawyers' Association Committee on Environmental Law. Erik currently serves as a member of the IUCN-World Conservation Union Commission on Environmental Law and as an advisor, board member, or consultant to various local, national, and international environmental organizations. He has received numerous accolades for his work in environmental law and has published articles on national and international environmental law, indigenous rights, and global governance.

Melanie Kleiss Boerger graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School with a joint M.S. degree in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy. During law school, Melanie worked as a research assistant for Professors Jim Chen and Jamie Grodsky, served on the Minnesota Law Review, won awards in the National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition, and studied comparative law for a semester in Berlin. Her work experience during law school included positions at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Earthjustice, and Faegre & Benson LLP as a Sierra Club fellow. After law school, Melanie clerked for the Honorable David S. Doty of the District of Minnesota and the Honorable Robert R. Beezer of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She also taught legal writing at the University of Minnesota. Melanie has published articles on the National Environmental Policy Act and salmon hatchery policy.

Jessica Gonzalez graduated from Southwestern Law School in 2007 and was recognized for academic excellence in Legal Research and Writing, Civil Procedure, and Interviewing, Counseling and Negotiation. In 2002 she obtained her undergraduate degree in Communication Studies and Spanish from Loyola Marymount University. While in law school, she researched for a Media and Telecommunications professor, and the director of the Legal Research and Writing program. She served as an editor for the Journal of International Media and Entertainment Law, and a staff member on the Journal of International Law and Trade in the Americas. At Southwestern, she was President of the Media Law Forum, and a member of the Curriculum Committee. In the summer of 2005, she studied International Media Law in London. The following summer she received a Telecommunications Fellowship to work for the Media Access Project. Before attending law school, she taught high school English and Spanish in Los Angeles, California.

Kathryn Sabbeth received her B.A. in Sociology, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Michigan in 1998, and graduated in 2003 from New York University School of Law, where she was an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow, an editor for the Review of Law and Social Change, and the recipient of the Arthur Jarecki Memorial Prize for outstanding work in NYU’s clinical program.  During law school, Kathryn worked at civil rights organizations including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., the New York Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Alabama, and the labor and employment firm of Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, P.C.  After graduation, Kathryn spent two years as a staff attorney at South Brooklyn Legal Services, where she represented low-income tenants in housing litigation.  Prior to joining IPR, Kathryn clerked for the Honorable Warren J. Ferguson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the Honorable James C. Francis IV, United States Magistrate Judge in the Southern District of New York.

Coriell Wright graduated cum laude from the Washington College of Law at American University in 2006 and was awarded particular distinction for her studies in administrative law in 2005.  In 2002 she received her undergraduate degree in political science with honors from the University of Michigan. While at American University, she worked as a student attorney in the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic and as a research fellow for professors prominent in copyright and constitutional law.  She was also the Founder and President of the first Communications Law Society at her law school and was American University’s 2006 nominee for the American Bar Association’s Jan Jancin Award for Intellectual Property.  During law school she clerked for FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein and in the FCC’s Media Bureau. She also worked as an intern for the Media Access Project. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a reporter for a National Public Radio affiliate in Ann Arbor, Michigan.