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LaJuana Wilcher, Sarah Jarboe, Joye Beth Spinks contribute to ABA year-end review
by Mandy Hicks
Environmental law attorneys LaJuana Wilcher and Sarah Jarboe along with law clerk Joye Beth Spinks were recently published in the American Bar Association’s 2018 Year in Review in the Section of Energy, Environment, and Resources (SEER).
Specifically, Wilcher and Jarboe authored the Clean Water Act Sections for Criteria and Guidelines, and Performance Standards. Wilcher, Jarboe, and Spinks co-authored the Cannibas Law Update for the Agriculture Management Committee, which includes the Farm Bill hemp provisions, changes to the scheduling of FDA approved products containing CBD, and the outcome of the RICO civil suit in Colorado.
Both Wilcher and Jarboe are partners at English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley, LLP. Joye Beth Spinks currently serves as a law clerk and will be joining the firm as an associate attorney in the fall of 2019.
About LaJuana Wilcher
LaJuana Wilcher is a partner attorney at English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley, LLP. In 1989, she was nominated by the President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Water in Washington, D.C. In that role, she was responsible for EPA’s water policy and regulations, including implementation of the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. She is the only woman in EPA’s history to have been confirmed in this position.
LaJuana worked on environmental law issues in Washington, D.C., for almost 20 years. She was a partner in the DC offices of Winston & Strawn and LeBoeuf, Lamb Greene and MacRae LLP, where she served as legal counsel for NACWA and numerous municipalities in federal Clean Water Act litigation, permitting and enforcement matters. She has also served as a group facilitator, expert witness and legislative counsel on various CWA matters.
Returning to private law practice in her home state of Kentucky in 2002, LaJuana was a partner at ELPO until being tapped by Kentucky’s Governor to be Secretary of Kentucky’s Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet from 2003-2006.
LaJuana has developed and taught environmental law and policy courses at Vermont Law School and Vanderbilt University Law School. She was awarded NACWA’s Special Recognition Award in 1993 and State Public Service Award in 2006. She has been selected as a Lifetime Honorary Member of American Water Works Association and has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America every year since 2009. She speaks frequently throughout the country on environmental law and leadership issues.
LaJuana was a founding Board Member of America’s Clean Water Alliance (now the U.S. Water Alliance) and Friends of Mammoth Cave National Park, and is a Supervisor of the Warren County Conservation District.
About Sarah Jarboe
Sarah P. Jarboe practices environmental law and civil litigation at English Lucas Priest & Owsley, LLP. She has advised clients on various environmental matters, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Underground Injection Control Program under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund), Oil Pollution Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act.
Sarah served as Chair of the Environment, Energy and Resources law section of the Kentucky Bar Association in 2016-2017, served on the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources’ (SEER) 2016 and 2017 Fall Conference Planning Committees, and participated in SEER’s Leadership Development Program in 2014-2015. She also served five years as Newsletter Vice Chair for SEER’s Smart Growth and Green Building Committee.
Sarah is a graduate of Vanderbilt Law School, where she received the Scholastic Excellence Award in Environmental Law in 2010 and served as Managing Editor of the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review Journal. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Louisville. Before joining English Lucas Priest & Owsley, LLP, Sarah worked as a law clerk for Chief Justice Minton of the Kentucky Supreme Court.
About Joye Beth Spinks
Joye Beth Spinks is a Kentucky native who is a graduate of Western Kentucky University and most recently the School of Law at Boston University. She is currently serving as a law clerk for English Lucas Priest & Owsley, LLP and will join the firm as an associate attorney in the fall of 2019 upon successful completion of the Bar Exam.
