March 22, 2024

Short welcoming remarks by Executive Symposium Editors Braden T. Meadows and Austin Headrick.

Symposium convened by Associate Dean Andrea Dennis.

Moderator:

• Usha Rodrigues, University Professor & Kilpatrick Chair of Corporate Finance & Securities Law

Panelists:

• Albert Lin, Martin Luther King Jr., Professor of Law, U.C. Davis School of Law
• Mark Nevitt, Associate Professor, Emory University School of Law
• Rob Hoyt, Dudley L. Moore, Jr., Chair of Insurance and Professor, UGA Terry College of Business

The panel’s discussion will center around articles regarding insurance retreat authored by Professors Albert Lin and Mark Nevitt. Professor Lin’s scholarship, Public Insurance as a Lever for Semi-Managed Climate Retreat, discusses (a) “the growing reluctance of private insurers to offer policies in climate-vulnerable areas, the accompanying rise of state-backed insurance, and ongoing managed retreat efforts;” (b) the “objectives of public insurance programs;” and (c) “how governments might try to advance these objectives as climate change worsens.” Similarly, Professor Nevitt’s scholarship, Climate Risk, Insurance Retreat, and State Response, contemplates (a) the “causes and effects of insurance retreat;” (b) “how various government insurance programs can and have responded to insurance retreat;” and (c) comparisons between various government insurance programs. Professor Usha Rodrigues will elicit responses from Professors Lin and Nevitt regarding their respective research and proposals, while drawing upon Professor Hoyt’s applied understanding of the insurance industry. The panel will conclude with approximately ten minutes of audience question and answer.

Moderator:

• Dr. Sonia Hirt, Dean & Hughes Professor in Landscape Architecture & Planning, UGA CE+D

Panelists:

• Blake Hudson, Dean & Professor of Law, Cumberland School of Law
• Shelley Saxer, Laure Sudreau Endowed Professor of Law, Pepperdine Caruso School of Law
• John Travis Marshall, Associate Professor of Law, Georgia State University College of Law
• Mark Nevitt, Associate Professor, Emory University School of Law

This panel’s discussion will involve planning today for tomorrow’s uncertainties in light of an evolving climate and regulatory regime. Dean Blake Hudson will discuss his scholarship, Resilient Forest Management and Climate Change. Specifically, Dean Hudson will argue, among other things, how, in light of climate-induced deforestation, society “must craft law and policy responses to help forests adapt more quickly.” Professor Shelley Saxer’s scholarship, Building Climate Resilience with Local Tools, will argue in favor of “mitigation and adaptation strategies that should inform rebuilding efforts” after disruptive disasters. Professor John Travis Marshall will highlight his scholarship, States in an Era of Climate Change: Hurricane Michael and Opportunities to Advance Rural Resilience to Natural Hazards. In so doing, Professor Marshall will suggest ways that communities “might move quickly following a disaster event to jumpstart long-term transformative housing recovery.” Professor Mark Nevitt will, again, draw upon his insurance retreat scholarship to discuss how insurers and regulators can aid in planning today for tomorrow’s uncertainties. Throughout the discussion, Dean Sonia Hirt, renowned environmental planner and Guggenheim Fellow, will pose questions to maximize the applicability of the conversation to attendees’ respective legal practices. The panel will conclude with approximately ten minutes of audience question and answer.

David B. Fountain, executive vice president and general counsel, serves as the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) chief legal officer for enterprise matters. He also provides counsel to the Board of Directors and, as TVA’s Designated Agency Ethics Official, is responsible for promoting an ethical performance culture across TVA. Before assuming his current role, he was senior vice president and vice general counsel.

Fountain joined TVA in June 2020 after serving in various leadership roles for more than 20 years with Duke Energy and predecessor companies Progress Energy and Carolina Power & Light. His most recent title with Duke Energy, a Fortune 125 investor owned utility that provides electric and gas service to nearly 9.5 million retail customers across seven Southeastern states, was senior vice president-legal, chief ethics and compliance officer, and corporate secretary. Previously, he was Duke Energy’s North Carolina president, responsible for the financial performance of the company’s regulated electric utilities in its largest market—approximately 3.3 million electric retail customers. He was responsible for advancing the company’s rate and regulatory initiatives, managing state and local government relations, and leading its strategy for over 3,000 miles of waterways and shorelines.

Earlier at Duke Energy, Fountain served as senior vice president of enterprise legal support, leading the nuclear, commercial transactions, litigation, and environment, health and safety legal departments. Prior to the merger with Duke Energy, Fountain was vice president of the Progress Energy legal department, responsible for leading the company’s daily legal operations and the corporate secretary’s office.

Fountain earned his J.D., MBA, and undergraduate degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Upon graduation, he practiced with what is now the Charlotte office of McGuireWoods, focusing on environmental, administrative, corporate, and transactional law.

Outside of work, Fountain is involved in various community and statewide organizations. He is a member of the UNC Board of Visitors; the Energy Center Advisory Board at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School; and a member of the boards of the Shepherd’s Table Soup Kitchen, the YMCA of the Triangle and Dix Park Conservancy. Fountain is a former board chair of the North Carolina Chamber; the North Carolina Chamber Legal Institute; the Alexander YMCA; Leadership North Carolina; and Marbles Kids Museum. Fountain is a participant in Leadership Knoxville’s class of 2021.

Moderator:

• Dr. Adam D. Orford, Assistant Professor of Law, UGA School of Law

Panelists:

• Blake Hudson, Dean & Professor of Law, Cumberland School of Law
• Albert Lin, Martin Luther King Jr., Professor of Law, U.C. Davis School of Law
• Dr. James Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor, UGA Franklin College of Arts & Sciences
• Cari Goetcheus, Professor, Founders Memorial Garden Director, & Draper Chair, UGA CE+D

This panel will focus on the effects of law and regulation on the environment in conjunction with the impact of climate change. Dean Hudson will discuss his article on how federal, state, and local government decisions have resulted in less resilient forests and what frameworks will protect against such harms going forward. Professor Lin will provide insight into the effects of climate change in disaster-prone areas. Professor Lin will further provide insight into the perpetuating impact of public insurance on the disaster-rebuild cycle, absent a mechanism to begin moving people out of these at-risk areas. Dr. Shepherd, a highly respected researcher in atmospheric science, will provide expert insight on climate change. Finally, Professor Goetcheus will lend her perspective on how global climate change and regulation interface with cultural resources. Dr. Orford, a professor at the University of Georgia and an expert in environmental law, will provide thought-provoking questions to get to the heart of these issues and direct the discussion throughout this panel.

Moderator:

• Randy Beck, Justice Thomas O. Marshall Chair of Constitutional Law, UGA School of Law

Panelists:

• John Travis Marshall, Associate Professor of Law, Georgia State University College of Law
• Tom Lininger, Orlando John & Marian H. Hollis Professor, University of Oregon School of Law
• David B. Fountain, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Tennessee Valley Authority

This panel will discuss the inevitability and unforeseeability of natural disasters and how to protect and mitigate against them. Professor Marshall will discuss his scholarship and research into the effects of natural disasters on rural communities and the impact of gaps in disaster planning on those communities. Professor Marshall’s research has focused on disaster planning and the effects of recent disasters caused by Hurricane Michael in South Georgia and North Florida. Professor Lininger will further discuss natural disaster planning in the near and long term and advocate for less “drastic” measures in the short term. Professor Lininger will also discuss the socio-economic considerations concerning disaster planning and how decisions may disparately impact low-income individuals and households. Mr. Fountain will provide expert insight into disaster planning from the perspective of one in a government agency. Professor Beck will moderate and pose questions to the panel to guide the discussion of disaster planning in the context of climate change.

Closing remarks by Jake R. Shatzer, Editor in Chief of the Georgia Law Review.