“Who moved my Big Yellow Taxi? Stories from the frontline of environmental law and politics.”

Join us on Thursday 24 November 2022 for this year's annual Garner lecture. We are delighted to have Peter Kellett, former Director of Legal Services at the Environment Agency, as our distinguished speaker. We are very much looking forward to hearing him speak as he heads into retirement. Chairing the lecture will be our Honorary President, Lord Justice Lindblom. 

Peter studied environmental science, qualified as a solicitor (now non-practising) and has a Masters in environmental law.  Peter worked in the City, in Government on the design of environmental law and at the Environment Agency on its implementation where he was its Director of Legal Services for a decade until retirement in October 2022. Peter led the EA’s legal team through interesting times:

- Creating the environmental permitting regime for England and Wales
- Implementing a shift from criminal sanctions to civil sanctions 
- Delivering a vast flood risk construction programme on time and budget
- Incident management (from floods to covid) as the climate crisis deepens 
- Creating Natural Resources Wales 
- Working on regulation, EU Exit and what’s next
- Adopting Organisational Net Zero; and
- Considering ESG for EA Pension Fund assets of £4.5bn 

Peter was a trustee and chair of UKELA 2001- 2011 and then of St Werburghs City Farm in Bristol until September 2018. Peter has been a director of Great Western Credit Union since March 2021.  He has contributed to the debate about environmental law and regulation over many years, for example, in the Journal of Environmental Law “Securing High Levels of Business Compliance with Environmental Laws: What Works and What to Avoid”.  Recently Peter has been part of the Law Society’s Climate Change Working Group which prepared its landmark 2021 Climate Change Resolution and is now drafting guidance for solicitors on climate conscious lawyering under that resolution.

The lecture will be held at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, 100 Bishopsgate, London, EC2P 2SR. Join us in person or, if you aren't able to be there, watch via a livestream or online - venues available to choose from via the drop-down list on the booking form. The lecture will also be recorded. A drinks and canapes reception will take place after the lecture.  

The livestream in Manchester will take place at Irwin Mitchell’s Manchester office (One St Peter's Square, Manchester M2 3AF). The doors will open from 5:30pm. Attendees to the Manchester livestream are welcome to join UKELA’s Northern Committee for a Christmas market social after the Garner Lecture.

The livestream in Bristol will take place at Osborne Clarke's office (2 Temple Back East, Temple Quay, Bristol BS1 6EG). The livestream in Birmingham will take place at Irwin Mitchell's office (20 Colmore Circus, Birmingham, B4 6AH). 

Tickets

• Members - £15
• Non-members - £20
• Students/Unwaged - limited free tickets

To book your place, please log in or create an account, then follow the prompts. Please take care not to create a new account if you are already registered with us. 

We look forward to seeing you there.