BlueSky Mediation & Law addresses your environmental and natural resource use disputes at all stages. We focus on natural resource use disputes because they involve long-standing relationships between neighbors, governments, and companies. Clearing conflict helps you move on to make the most of your relationships.

We offer expertise built on practical, real-world experiences as a practicing lawyer in North America and Latin America, and a Fulbright-sponsored research fellow in the South Pacific. These experiences include conflict assessment, designing collaborative meetings, environmental policy analysis, facilitating conversation, and public policy dispute resolution. Here are some examples of our work.

Conflict Assessment

• Interviewed state and federal officials, tourism operators, and environmental organizations to clarify their interests, needs, and positions on the degree to which whale watching impacts Orca behavior in Puget Sound. Analyzed results with federal law to create policy recommendations to reduce noise impacts while still allowing whale watching.
• Interviewed indigenous leaders, energy CEOs, government officials, representatives and planners, environmental representatives, and commercial fishing representatives to clarify their interests, needs, and positions on how New Zealand allocates coastal space for development. Analyzed local and national law as applied to coastal space allocation, Māori rights to coastal resources, conservation of ocean and resources.
• Assessed pre-litigation conflict between indigenous tribe and local, non-indigenous economic co-operative over harvesting freshwater turtles in a UN-designated wetlands. Interviewed tribe’s chief and leaders of co-op to clarify and understand interests, needs, and positions. Analyzed local, national and international law as applied to the wetland and indigenous rights. Drafted report for Ministry. All work done in Spanish.

Collaboration and Facilitation

• Organized and facilitated meetings to bring academics and practitioners together to solicit feedback on addressing whale watch noise impacts on Puget Sound Orcas.
• Organized and facilitated meetings to bring indigenous leaders, company executives, government officials, environmentalists, and commercial fishing representatives together to solicit feedback on approaches to restructuring coastal space allocation regime.
• Facilitated small-group dialogues among conflicting stakeholders in Sierra and Cascade regions to solicit feedback on United States Forest Service’s collaborative efforts to design and implement a forest plan revision.

Public Policy Dispute Resolution

• Formulated transferable licensing program to achieve goals of promoting tourism and scientific research through whale watching while reducing noise impacts on resident Orca pod.
• After thorough analysis, designed and created policy solutions to regulatory barriers confronting ocean renewable energy generation by addressing thirty-year conflict among existing ocean resource users and Māori customary uses in New Zealand.