Faculty whose expertise includes environmental law, American Indian law, administrative law, corporate and international taxation, natural resources law, and international Indigenous issues joined the University of Colorado Law School this August.
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Michael Pappas
Recognized as a preeminent voice in property, natural resource, and environmental law, Michael Pappas joined the faculty as professor of law from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where he taught since 2012.
Pappas鈥� scholarship draws upon interdisciplinary influences associated with economics and political economy. His work explores the nature of property expectations, governmental responsibilities, and private rights in managing resources such as land, energy, water, wildlife, fisheries, and food. Pappas has also worked extensively to advance interdisciplinary teaching and research collaborations and was voted Maryland Carey Law鈥檚 Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year in 2014.
鈥淚鈥檝e been impressed with Colorado Law for a while. It has long been a leader in the areas of environmental and natural resource law, with so many students interested in those subjects and with professors, past and current, who are icons in the field. It鈥檚 incredibly exciting to be joining a school that is and has been so committed to topics I am passionate about,鈥� he said.
Prior to joining the Francis King Carey School of Law faculty, Pappas was a Forrester Fellow and instructor in legal writing at Tulane University Law School, where he also taught international and domestic fisheries law. In addition, he taught natural resources law as an adjunct professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and served as an instructor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers PROSPECT Training Program, where he taught environmental law and regulation.
Pappas graduated from Stanford University with bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees in English literature, then went on to earn his JD from Stanford Law School, where he was the co-editor-in-chief of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and a member of the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic. After law school, he clerked for the Hon. James L. Dennis, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
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Amanda Parsons
Amanda Parsons has joined the faculty as associate professor of law. Most recently an academic fellow and lecturer in law at Columbia Law School, Parsons focuses her research on corporate and international taxation, with a particular emphasis on the impact of digitalization on tax law.
鈥淐olorado Law offered both a wonderful faculty and student body and a great place for my family to live in Boulder. I was also really excited about the opportunity to teach at a state school and be part of the school's public mission. From a scholarship perspective, I write about the intersection of taxation and the digital economy so Silicon Flatirons and the tech community here in Boulder were also major draws,鈥� Parsons said.
Before arriving at Columbia Law School, Parsons worked as an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. While there, she participated in tax planning and strategy for large multinational corporations; advised on the tax components of a variety of complex transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and capital markets transactions; and advised private clients on individual tax matters in both the domestic and international contexts.
Parsons鈥� scholarship has appeared in publications such as the Yale Law & Policy Review and Duke Law Journal. She holds a JD from Yale Law School, where she served as projects editor on the Yale Law Journal; a master鈥檚 degree in philosophy from the University of Oxford, with a focus on evidence-based social intervention; and a bachelor鈥檚 in history from Columbia University.
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Jonathan Skinner-Thompson
Already a widely respected presence at Colorado Law, Jonathan Skinner-Thompson has transitioned from his role as associate clinical professor and director of the Getches-Green Natural Resources, Energy & Environmental Law Clinic to associate professor of law on the research faculty. He will continue to teach natural resources courses in his new role, including Climate Change Law and Policy and Environmental Law.
Skinner-Thompson also serves as affiliated faculty for the Graduate Certificate in Environmental Justice at CU Boulder and sits on the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment鈥檚 Environmental Justice Advisory Board.
Skinner-Thompson鈥檚 scholarship focuses primarily on administrative and environmental law issues and has appeared or is forthcoming in many publications, including the Washington Law Review; the environmental journals at Duke, Stanford, Vermont, and Virginia law schools; and the ABA鈥檚 Natural Resources & Environment magazine.
His current projects touch on decolonial theory and environmental governance and build on his recent article on procedural environmental justice. He will conduct a national survey of public participation procedures under a specific permitting program tosee what we can learn about practices across the country.
Before joining Colorado Law, Skinner-Thompson was an attorney at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency鈥攆irst in the Office of General Counsel and then with the Office of Regional Counsel in Denver. He also has served in the U.S. Department of Justice's Environmental Defense Section and was an environmental associate with firms in New York and Seattle. For his federal service, he received the Administrator's Award for Excellence, a Special General Counsel's Award, and the Assistant Attorney General's Award for Excellence, among others.
Skinner-Thompson graduated cum laude from Duke University School of Law and with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Christina Stanton '15
Christina Stanton 鈥�15 has joined the faculty as an associate clinical professor and director of the American Indian Law Clinic. Stanton previously served as an adjunct professor at Colorado Law, interim director of the American Indian Law Clinic, and director of operations for First Peoples Worldwide, an organization housed in the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Colorado. There, she led targeted international strategy on behalf of Indigenous partners in parallel with market-based corporate advocacy and directed the student research program, which seeks to develop early-career professionals and Native leaders in the field.
鈥淚t has been wonderful to come back and teach at Colorado Law and contribute to the American Indian Law Program,鈥� Stanton said. 鈥淭he best part about being a student at Colorado Law was studying alongside others who were committed to service and thinking about how they could use their law degree as a tool to better the world. It is incredibly energizing to be back in the halls with another generation of students who are asking the same questions with a new set of facts. Colorado Law continues to attract these students, and it is an honor to teach them, knowing that one day soon I will be working alongside them.鈥�
Stanton is a licensed attorney who previously worked as an associate at Wagenlander & Heisterkamp LLC. She exclusively focused on public housing with tribally designated housing entities and some local public housing authorities. She practiced in both tribal and state court on behalf of Native nations. Stanton also worked as a fellow at Colorado Law鈥檚 Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, focusing on treaty fishing rights for tribes in the Pacific Northwest, violence against Native women, and international Indigenous issues. She is passionate about ending the epidemic of violence against all women, particularly Native women, and has trauma-informed training that has influenced her own research and writing.
Stanton holds a JD with an American Indian Law certificate from the University of Colorado and a Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University.