University of Wisconsin Law School graduating student Brent Denzin has been named a national recipient of an Equal Justice Works Fellowship. The two-year fellowship program, launched in 1992, provides financial support to lawyers working on projects that benefit traditionally under-served populations and causes in the United States.

There are three components to an Equal Justice Works Fellowship: a project, a Fellow and a host organization. Denzin will work with a local host organization, Midwest Environmental Advocates, on a project he and the organization formulated together.The project focuses on the impact that sprawl development has on Wisconsin communities environmentally and economically. Denzin will work on building a coalition of impacted communities, maximizing public participation in development strategies and increasing government accountability for development decisions.

One of the exciting aspects of the project, Denzin says, is that land development is an environmental issue that incorporates many legal areas such as labor and land-use regulation law. ?There are a lot of sub-issues that play into large corporations? impacts on local environments and economies,? Denzin says. He is excited to help bring local Wisconsin environmental groups the information they need to help ?save small towns in Wisconsin.?

During his law school career at UW, Denzin was also a founding member of the Wisconsin Environmental Law Advocates, a non-profit organization that works to protect water and air through citizen lawsuits and free legal research for existing environmental organizations.

Submitted by on April 28, 2005

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