Gordon Mathis Riley Memorial Lecture Series in Environmental Law

UC Hastings College of the Law is pleased to announce the creation of the Gordon Mathis Riley Memorial Lecture in Environmental Law. The series enables UC Hastings to bring legal luminaries to campus to present lectures on current topics in environmental law. 

Former Governor of Arizona and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt will deliver the inaugural Gordon Mathis Riley Memorial Lecture on January 15, 2014. As Secretary from 1993-2001, Babbitt created the National Landscape Conservation System, a collection of fifteen U.S. National Monuments and fourteen National Conservation Areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management to keep them "healthy, open, and wild." He is currently chief counsel of the environmental litigation department of Latham & Watkins.

The Gordon Mathis Riley Memorial Lecture is funded by a generous gift to UC Hastings from the family of Gordon Mathis Riley, a first-year law student at UC Hastings who died suddenly on December 14, 2012, at the age of 30. Riley, of Park City, Utah, was a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, where he studied philosophy. He previously attended the Peak and Island Schools in Hong Kong, Scotch College in Australia, The Hong Kong International School and Park City High School. Riley loved the study of law, philosophy, big-wave surfing, skiing, yoga, and writing.  He had a passion for preserving the world’s coastal and mountain environments. His favorite times were on the waves in Hong Kong, Australia, Indonesia and California, and he adored the mountains of Utah. He is survived by his parents, Robert, and Shardel, his sister, Meredith, and his brother, Mitchell. 

Gordon’s family established this lecture series “…. as a fitting tribute to the life and interests of our son and brother, Gordon Mathis Riley, and as a legacy for his classmates at UC Hastings. His passion for the environment, his dedication to yoga and to spiritual thinking, and his abiding interest in outdoor activities resonate strongly with the intention of this lecture series.”

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