• Reported Decisions
• Publications
• Professional Presentations and Other Instruction
• Professional Associations

Chris practices environmental, energy, local government, and Indian law.

Chris is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law where he teaches Water Law and occasionally, Environmental Law.

Chris is also the Mayor of Traverse City.  He has also served on the boards of Traverse City Light and Power, the city's Downtown Development Authority, the Traverse City Transportation and Land Use study group, and the Grand Traverse County Board of Public Works.

Chris received a Bachelor of Science with high honors from the University of Michigan, and is a cum laude graduate of Wayne State University Law School, where he also studied biology and freshwater chemistry at the graduate level.

Chris is a member of the Governing Council of the State Bar of Michigan's Environmental Law Section,  He is a State Bar Foundation of Michigan Fellow, a membership offered to less than 5% of attorneys in Michigan.  He was named a Best Lawyer in Environmental Law for 2010 by Best Lawyers in America, one of 117 lawyers in the country elected in the practice area.  He was named one of Traverse Magazine's "Five Enviros to Watch," in 2008, and has been on the Travese City Business News "40 under 40" list five years in a row.

Chris has published articles in the areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency, environmental protection, water law, coastal resource management, the public trust doctrine, zoning referendums, and regulatory takings. He received the Thomas M. Cooley Law Review Distinguished Brief Award for one of the most scholarly briefs filed in the Michigan Supreme Court in 2009, and writes a blog about Traverse City government at planfortc.com.

E-mail: chris@envlaw.com

Reported Decisions

Chris has appeared as a co-attorney of record in the following reported decisions:

• Kyser v Kasson Twp, 278 Mich App 743 (2008), Michigan Supreme Court decision pending

• Pine Bluffs Area Property Owners Association, Inc v Dewitt Landing and Dock Association, ___ NW2d ___, 2010 WL 1253524 (2010)

• Dextrom v Wexford County, ___ Mich App ___, 2010 WL 785818 (2010)

• Houdek v Centerville Twp, 276 Mich App 568 (2007)

• Campaign for Family Farms v Veneman, 229 F Supp 2d 772 (WD Mich); affirmed 348 F3d 157 (6th Cir 2003), remanded, 125 S Ct 2511 (2005)

• Manistee Saltworks Development Corp v City of Manistee, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians & Manistee Citizens for Responsible Development, 2005 WL 2600428 (WD Mich)

• Glen Lake–Crystal River Watershed Riparians v Glen Lake Ass’n, 264 Mich App 523 (2004), featured as principal case, Sax et al, Legal Control of Water Resources, 4th ed., pp 70-79

• Nemeth v Abonmarche Development Co, 457 Mich 16 (1998)

• K&K Const’n Co v DNR, 456 Mich 570 (1998) (amicus)

• Burt Twp v DNR, 459 Mich 659 (1999) (amicus)

• Friends of the Crystal River v Kuras Properties, 456 Mich 950 (1998); recons’d 459 Mich 899 (1999); appl dism’d 465 Mich 899 (2001)

Publications 

• Natural Resources Chapter, Michigan Environmental Law Desk Book, 2nd edition (in draft) (with James M. Olson)

• The impact of Michigan’s Water Withdrawal Legislation on small streams and small stream riparian owners, ___ Mich Real Property Rev 29 (2010) (with Jeffrey L. Jocks)

• Michigan’s Clean Energy Legislation: Charging Toward a New Energy Future, 88 Mich Bar Journal 26 (October 2009) (with James Clift)

• The Case for Referendum, Planning & Zoning News, March 2009, reprinted in Michigan Public Corporation Law Quarterly (Fall 2009)

• Public rights to fish and hunt on lakes and streams: a primer for Michigan’s Indian Tribes (2008) (with William Rastetter and Michael C. Grant)

• Course Materials, Legal Tools to Protect Coastal Environments, National Sea Grant Law Center and Great Lakes Water Studies Institute (2008) (with Sarah Williams)

• Where will the water go? A snapshot of recent changes in Michigan water law
  33 Mich Real Property Rev 214 (Fall 2007) (with Ross Hammersley)

• Case comment, Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation v Nestle Waters NA
  33 Mich Real Property Rev 56 (2006)

• Environmental Law Chapter, Annual Survey of Michigan Law, 45 Wayne Law Review 843 (Fall 1999)

• "The MEPA Lives: In Northern Michigan and Beyond" Michigan Bar Journal, (May 1999) (with James M. Olson)

• Takings Claims Against Municipalities After Del Monte Dunes
  17 Michigan Defense Quarterly No. 3, p. 4 (2000)

Professional Presentations and Other Instruction

• The Future of Traverse City, Traverse City Rotary Club, February 2010

• Legal Tools to Protect Coastal Environments, Great Lakes Water Studies Institute at Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, MI, June 2008

• The surveyor in the courtroom, Michigan Society of Professional Surveyors, Mt. Pleasant, MI, February 2007

• Environmental citizen suits, Michigan State Bar Association Environmental Law Section’s Environmental Boot Camp Program, March 2007

• Dispute resolution in wetlands cases, Association of State Wetlands Managers Legal Symposium, Traverse City, MI, August 2006

• Anatomy of a citizen suit, University of Florida College of Law Environmental Speakers Series, Gainesville, FL, January 2006

• Protecting the commons - Waters of the Great Lakes, Great Lakes Bioneers Conference, Traverse City, MI, October 2004

• Guest Lecturer, Natural Resources Law & Wetlands Law, Michigan State University - Detroit College of Law, East Lansing, MI, January & September 2000

• Citizen standing after Laidlaw, Michigan State Bar Surface Water Committee, Lansing, MI, June 2000

• Law and the science of ecology, Wayne State University Biological Sciences Department, Detroit, MI, June 2000

• Great Lakes oil drilling and the public trust, panel sponsored by Michigan Land Use Institute, Manistee, MI, September 1998

• Conservation biology in the law, University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI, August 1998

• What is non-point source pollution and why should you care? Metropolitan Detroit Landscapers Association, Novi, MI, March 1997

• The impact of K & K Construction on regulatory takings in Michigan, Michigan Land Use Institute, Benzonia, MI, August 1996

Professional Associations

• Governing Council of Michigan Bar Association Environmental Law Section; Vice-Chair, Membership Committee

• Fellow, Michigan State Bar Foundation (5% of Michigan lawyers eligible for membership)

• Member, Water Law and Land Use Committees, Michigan Bar Association Real Property Section

• Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce