IVMA Man/SK - Embracing Change

Speaker

Cheri Hasz

Tulane University Law Student

Cherí Hasz is a student at Tulane Law School, where she will earn her Juris Doctor degree in May 2021. Cherí is the winner of an academic tuition scholarship and is currently serving as the Editor in Chief of the Tulane Journal of International and Comparative Law, one of the nation’s leading peer reviewed law journals dedicated to the study of international law. She is also a Moot Court competitor. In addition to these activities at the law school, Cherí has held several leadership positions of increasing responsibility with the Tulane Latinx Law Student Association, and participated in the Transactional Law Bootcamp. She has served as Reviewer of Chinese Maritime Cases and participated in the Business Law Literacy Intercession program.

In 2019, Cherí studied intercultural mediation and negotiation in Berlin, Germany and is now a certified mediator. She has performed maritime law coursework at Tulane’s Summer Abroad Program in Rhodes, Greece. Cherí is also fluent in Mandarin, having studied the language at the National Taiwan Normal University while living abroad in Taipei, Taiwan, where she also earned the Taipei Sister Cities Scholarship and taught English to students at the Joy English School, where she developed a game- and activity-oriented approach to developing professional English language proficiency.

Cherí is also an ivy league college graduate, having received her Bachelor of Arts degree in government and international relations from Cornell University in New York.

Between college and law school, Cherí earned experience in the energy industry, working for Anadarko Petroleum as a project manager for deepwater offshore projects group, for Crowley Solutions as a project manager for offshore energy transportation projects, and for Direct Scaffold Supply as a project manager where in addition to developing a marketing program for a newly patented product, generating millions of dollars in sales, she also assisted the CEO in preparing the company for sale to a private equity firm.

Last summer, Cherí interned for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Honorable Judge Meredith S. Grabill, and she currently also serves as research assistant to Professor Talus of Tulane Law School and its Energy Law Institute.

She was one of only five students selected from Tulane Law School to participate in the AERI-Tulane Law School UVM Law Research Project, and in connection with that work, Cherí has become a member of the Utility Arborist Association, researched the UVM laws relating to the major US energy-producing states. Her upcoming paper will make a business case for the benefits of better UVM regulation in Texas to make the state truly “open for business”.

Additionally, Cherí has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and is also fluent in Spanish.
Corinne Geekie

JD Candidate at Tulane University Law School

Corinne Geekie is a student at Tulane Law School, where she will earn her Juris Doctor degree in May 2022. She is a Moot Court competitor and holds a leadership role with the Tulane Women in Law Society. Corinne is an active member of the Tulane Environmental and Energy Law Society and was selected to serve as a research assistant to the famed head of the Tulane Environmental Law Department, Professor Oliver Houck.

Corinne earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Missouri, where she focused on fisheries and wildlife services science and minored in captive wild animal management. While at University of Missouri, Corinne was an active member of the Wildlife Society and served in numerous leadership positions with Sigma Kappa Epsilon Mu.

Corinne has been very involved with the nationally renowned St. Louis Zoo, having worked for the zoo in numerous capacities and serving as Field Director for the Proposition Z Campaign, a tax campaign to support the zoo that won approval in every single municipality. Corinne has always had an attachment to birds and interned with the World Bird Sanctuary, performing medical examinations and rehabilitation services for birds at the wildlife hospital, performing animal encounter shows, and providing other medical and training services to assist injured animals.

Corinne was one of only five students selected from Tulane Law School to participate in the AERI-Tulane Law School UVM Law Research Project, and in connection with that work, Corinne has become a member of the Utility Arborist Association, and researched the UVM laws relating to the US midwestern and northeastern states as well as the laws of Canada. Her upcoming paper will make a proposal for right tree, right place as a holistic approach to solving UVM-related challenges.

Corinne also volunteers her time for numerous worthy causes, particularly for the elderly.
Lawrence Kahn

Chief Compliance Officer at AERI (Asoneo Environmental Restoration Industry LLC)

Attorney and entrepreneur, Lawrence Kahn was named Chief Compliance Officer of AERI in September 2018 and has served as Secretary and Director of the company since its inception.

Mr. Kahn graduated from Columbia University in 1992 with a B.A. in ancient studies, was a varsity member of the school’s NCAA championship fencing team, president of the Nightline peer counseling hotline, and a member of the Columbia Orchestra. He received his J.D. from Tulane Law School in 1995, where he also received a Certificate of Specialization in Maritime Law, served as the President of the Maritime Law Society, as a Managing Editor of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, as a student attorney with the Environmental Law Clinic, earned The Maritime Law Center’s Distinguished Service Award, developed the Tulane-Center for Seafarers’ Rights Student Internship Program, and coached the Tulane Fencing Club.

Mr. Kahn previously worked for the U.S. Army, where he was certified as a Contracting Officer’s Representative and negotiated and enforced government contracts and had oversight of land management environmental remediation projects for the Division of Land Management.

Following law school, Mr. Kahn served as Staff Attorney for the Seamen’s Church Institute, and continues his involvement as a Founding and Executive Committee Member of the Young Friends of SCI. He entered the private practice of law in 1998 and joined the leading New York maritime law firm Freehill Hogan & Mahar in 1999, achieving partner status in 2007. Mr. Kahn left Freehill’s in 2013 to pursue the foundation of MER Group, a company dedicated to the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships.

Mr. Kahn was named General Counsel of MER Group in 2014 and served as the Company’s Secretary since its inception. He was named a Director in March 2016 and successfully guided the Company through its application to the European Union to become qualified under the EU’s Ship Recycling Regulations [2013], the first non-European company to become so qualified.

In 2018, Mr. Kahn became the Chief Compliance Officer of AERI, and also serves as Secretary and Director, where he was charged with creating a safety program for the removal of hazard trees from powerlines in California for a major investor owned utility. Mr. Kahn drafted the company’s safety manual, developed the company’s training modules, and trained the tree industry professionals in AERI’s safety culture and principles. AERI became the first company to pass PG&E’s safety assessment on the first attempt and has become the model for safe and professional tree work for utilities in California. He helped transition AERI to new areas as well, including pre-inspection, QA/QC and work verification, herbicide application and wood management activities. He now heads up AERI’s program in conjunction with Tulane Law School, the UVM Law Research Project, which is developing a compendium of laws, regulations and rules in the UVM industry and is developing a cadre of legal talent to handle the legal expertise demands of the vegetation management industry.

Mr. Kahn is admitted to practice before the courts of the States of New York and New Jersey and has been admitted before the federal district courts in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, California, South Carolina, and the courts of appeal for the Second, Third and Fourth Circuits. He has practiced law internationally and has testified on U.S. environmental and maritime law in legal proceedings in England, Ireland, France, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Australia, Kuwait, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

Mr. Kahn has advised and represented clients in a variety of contract, transactional and litigation matters involving maritime and environmental law, and has published numerous articles on these and other subjects. He is widely recognized as an international expert on maritime arrest and attachment, riparian law, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards. He is a Proctor Member of The Maritime Law Association of the United States, in which he has held a variety of leadership positions and has presented scholarly articles to the MLA on many occasions. He also serves as a Director of The Maritime Association Foundation, Inc., a charitable organization dedicated to the preservation of the Merchant Marine Memorial in New York City.

Mr. Kahn has appeared as an expert on CNN World News, NBC’s Dateline, and other television news programs, as well as in maritime trade publications, including Tradewinds, Lloyd’s List, and The Journal of Commerce. He was a featured speaker on Ship Recycling in the Americas at the Tradewinds Conference held at Singapore in January 2017, and was a featured speaker on safe and green recycling at Ethical Corporation’s Responsible Business Summit in 2018. He participated as a member of the faculty of the Admiralty Law Institute at its biennial meeting in March 2020, where he was a keynote speaker on safe and green ship recycling, and his paper from the conference has now been published in the Tulane Maritime Law Journal.

Mr. Kahn lives in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey with his wife and three sons, is active in supporting the local Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and Youth Soccer Programs, fundraises for The March of Dimes, oversees a scholarship that encourages reading in a nearby underprivileged public school system, serves as a member of the town’s Woodlands Committee, and attempts to keep up with the seemingly never-ending repair needs of his historic home.
Randall Miller

Director, Vegetation Management

Randall H. Miller is CNUC director of research and development, having joined the company in May 2017. He performs formal utility vegetation management industry surveys studies among other responsibilities for CNUC. Prior to joining CNUC, he worked in PacifiCorp’s vegetation management department for more than 23 years, including 18 running the program, retiring as the director of vegetation management.

 

Miller holds a Bachelor of Science degree in horticulture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s in urban forestry from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He is an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist and an ISA Certified Utility Specialist (IL-0225 BU).  He is a widely published author, with roughly 80 publications, most notably the Integrated Vegetation Management Best Management Practices and as coauthor of Utility Arboriculture: The Utility Specialist Certification Study Guide. He is a past Chair of the TREE Fund Board of Trustees, past President of the Utility Arborist Association and served twice as the Chair of the Edison Electric Institute Vegetation Management Task Force. 
Ryan Anderson

Legal Intern with AERI and J.D. Candidate at Tulane Law School

Ryan Anderson is a student at Tulane Law School, where she will earn her Juris Doctor degree in May 2022. She is a winner of the prestigious Tulane Law Scholarship, and she serves as President of the Tulane Environmental and Energy Law Society. In that role, Ryan was responsible for organizing and running the 26^th Annual Tulane Environmental Law & Policy Summit, a student-run law conference that awards continuing legal education credit for practicing attorneys. The 2021 conference, held on February 26 and 27, was the first virtual conference and drew upon expert practitioners from across the country. Also at the law school, Ryan serves as a member of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, one of the leading peer-reviewed environmental law journals in the country, and has been selected to be a member of the renowned Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, where, despite the fact that she is still a student, she will represent actual clients in real court cases concerning environmental justice matters.

Prior to law school, Ryan attended the University of Alabama, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in philosophy. While at University of Alabama, Ryan was the winner of several merit-based scholarships, including the Presidential Scholarship and the Justice Pelham-Merrill Scholarship. She served as the Opinions Columnist for the student paper, the Crimson White, and organized and served as the Director of the RecycleBama Initiative.

Ryan’s work experience includes work for Southern Company, an investor-owned utility, where she was actively involved in hydroelectric relicensing. Ryan has also worked for the Birmingham, Alabama law firm Balch & Bingham LLP, where her work centered primarily on environmental compliance issues and analyzing matters for utility companies that arose under the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). She has also served as a research assistant to the Tulane Institute on Water and Law Policy, where she has thus far been involved in filing public comments in response to EPA rulings and rulemaking.

Ryan was one of only five students selected from Tulane Law School to participate in the AERI-Tulane Law School UVM Law Research Project, and in connection with that work, Ryan has become a member of the Utility Arborist Association, researched the UVM laws relating to all the states in the Southeastern United States, and has become a member of the American National Standards Institute Task Force dedicated to improving safety for utility arborists through revisions to the 2017 version of ANSI Z133 for a new, improved and revised version to be published in 2022.