Loyola University New Orleans Law Professor Rob Verchick will discuss his book "The Octopus in the Parking Garage: A Call for Climate Resilience" with the Miami Herald's lead climate change reporter, Alex Harris, on March 25 at the University of Miami School of Law.
The book, winner of the 2023 Choice of Outstanding Academic Title, is part of a speaker series by the Environmental Law Program and the UM Climate Resilience Institute's Books and Beverages Series and will feature key themes in the bestselling book, including risk management, adaptation, and climate resilience as climate justice.
Verchick is one of the nation's leading scholars in disaster and climate change law and a former Environmental Protection Agency official in the Obama administration. He holds the Gauthier-St. Martin Eminent Scholar Chair in Environmental Law and directs Loyola's Center on Environment, Land, and Law.
"We’re bringing Rob back to Miami, the site of inspiration for the title of his book, and in conversation with the reporter who broke the story for the Miami Herald," said Professor Jessica Owley. "Miami is ground zero for climate change and we are preparing our students to be resilient leading lawyers in their community."
Miami Law's Environmental Law Program, under Owley's direction, is unique due to its South Florida location, enabling the focus on the prism of issues affecting the environment—from maritime to real estate to land use to the cruise industry to environmental law to law of the sea. The program also uniquely intersects with other University of Miami graduate programs in marine affairs, land use, architecture, and business. With a Concentration in Environmental Law and an Environmental Justice Clinic, the program trains students to become future attorneys, policymakers, and scholars in environmental law locally, nationally, and internationally.
The event is part of Resilience 365, a two-day conference during Miami Climate Week organized by the UM Climate Resilience Institute. It is co-sponsored by the Environmental Law Society, Office of Sustainability, Abbess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, Rosenstiel School Department of Environmental Science and Policy, School of Communication Department of Journalism and Media Management, HOPE Public Interest Resource Center, and Office of Intellectual Life.
The Tuesday, March 25, 2025, event is free and open to the public with advance registration. It will be held on the Coral Gables campus in the law library at the School of Law in the Gail Serota Reading Room from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30, with a reception to follow.
Read more about Miami Law’s environmental law area of study.
