Professor Kenneth Manaster

Environmental law was a virtually unknown field when Kenneth Manaster graduated from Harvard Law School in 1966. After studying in Peru on a Fulbright Fellowship and clerking at the U.S. District Court in Chicago, he worked at the firm now known as Sidley Austin. He then became an assistant attorney general of Illinois and headed the Chicago offi ce of the Environmental Control Division.

"At that time, it was pretty early in the game," he says, "so I was very fortunate that we were trying some of the big early lawsuits against air and water pollution, waste disposal on land, nuclear power plants, noise issues. We had a field day. We got to look at all kinds of environmental problems, and we filed a ton of lawsuits to try to change behavior."

Since then, according to Manaster, many things have changed but the fundamental issue of "how we relate to this planet we are living on and how we are going to treat it" is still the same.

"The manifestations of this issue are constantly changing," he explains. "We’re always finding new risks and problems we didn’t know about 10 or 20 years ago."

For example, when Manaster first started practicing, phosphates in detergents were a big concern, as were proposed supersonic aircraft. We’ve made progress, he says, and those things are not significant issues anymore. The biggest issues facing us now are climate change and hazardous substances.

"We weren’t talking as much about those things at the beginning," he says. "Certain issues are always with us. As mundane as it sounds, an issue like sewage treatment is and always will be very important. What does change is our increasing knowledge and understanding of the tremendous complexities of the environment and the impact we have. The goal, and the job, of the law is trying to adapt to help society deal with what’s next on the agenda."

Manaster has been pursuing this work in different ways for several decades. He was a member of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Hearing Board from 1973 to 1990 and chaired the board from 1978 to 1989. He was also chair of the Public Advisory Committee to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s study of toxic pollutants in the Santa Clara Valley. He began teaching at Santa Clara in 1972.

"Santa Clara has always been a very personal place to study law," Manaster says. "We have a very strong commitment to our students in the classroom. If I have a student who is really interested in the field, I’ll do everything I can to help that student find good placements and internships and assist along the way. The people who teach in this area are energetically committed to helping students stick with it and find a productive niche."

Kenneth Manaster's faculty webpage