Professor Michelle Bryan Mudd teaches in the Natural Resources & Environmental Law Program and is Director of the Land Use Clinic, which works on behalf of Montana governments and is among only a few such clinics nationwide. She has been honored to receive the Garlington, Lohn & Robinson Faculty Teaching Award and the Margery Hunter Brown Faculty Merit Award for her professionalism in the classroom, her research, and her public service.
Professor Bryan Mudd was drawn to the fields of natural resources and environmental law because of her background growing up in ranching and farming communities in the West. Before joining the law school faculty, she was in private practice specializing in land use and water law in both the transactional and litigation contexts. She worked with a variety of clients including local governments, private landowners, non-profits, developers, and affected neighbors and community groups. She brings this diversity of perspective to her scholarship, her teaching, and her work with government clients. Her current research interests include the relationship between land and water use, the balancing of environmental and land use rights, and the evolution of prior appropriation law.
Outside of teaching, Professor Bryan Mudd serves as an ex officio member of the Montana Justice Foundation, after having served as a board member and board president. She enjoys poetry and photography, as well as hiking, fly fishing, and exploring Montana with her family. Professor Bryan Mudd graduated from The University of Montana School of Law with high honors and served as an editor of the Montana Law Review. Prior to law school she was a policy specialist for the Water Resources Center in Bozeman, Montana.
SELECTED PUBLIC SERVICE
Montana Justice Foundation (Board Member 2005-2012, President 2010-2012, Ex Officio Member 2013-Present).
Member, Montana Small Business Compliance Assistance Advisory Council (Gubernatorial Appointment 2010-Present).
Technical Advisory Panel Member for the Montana Department of Transportation online website – Montana Transportation and Land Use Resources for Growing Communities (2008-2010).
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Hitching Our Wagon to a Dim Star: Why "Public Interest" Review Cannot Protect the Public Trust in Western Water Law, __ Stanford Env. L. J. __ (forthcoming Spring 2013).
Land Use, Water Supply, and Climate: The New Planning Trilogy, __ Wash. J. Envtl. L. & Pol’y __ (peer reviewed, forthcoming Spring 2013).
Montana v. Wyoming: An Opportunity to Right the Course for Coalbed Methane Development and Prior Appropriation (solicited piece in 5 Golden Gate U. Envtl. L.J. 297 (2012)).
A “Constant and Difficult Task”: Making Local Land Use Decisions in States with a Constitutional Right to a Healthful Environment, Ecology L.Q. (Vol. 38:1, 2011).
The Role of Fish and Wildlife Evidence in Local Land Use Regulation, 30 Pub. Land & Res. L. Rev. 107 (2009) (with DarAnne Dunning and Melissa Hayes).
Montana Chapter, The Law of Eminent Domain (ABA Publishing 2012), also maintained at www.abanet.org/litigation/committees/condemnation/compendium.html.
Was the Big Sky Really Falling? Examining Montana’s Response to Kelo v. City of New London, 69 Mont. L. Rev. 79 (2008).
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
Land: Updated Regulatory Approaches to Energy Development on Public Lands, Moderator, 35th Public Land Law Symposium and 41st ABA-SEER Conference on the “Environment: Balancing Act & Paradigm Shift: The Role of Public Lands in America’s Energy Future,” University of Montana (April 2013).
Clean Water Act on Trial, Moderator, Annual Plum Creek Conference, University of Montana School of Forestry & Conservation (February 2013) (discussing Northwest Environmental Defense Center v. Brown).
New Voices in Environmental Law, Paper Presentation, Environmental and Natural Resources Sections, AALS Annual Meeting (2011) (discussing constitutional rights to a healthful environment) .
The Laws that Govern Land, Water, Rocks and Trees , Panelist, Society of Environmental Journalists Conference (2010).
A Water Primer: Pollution, Rights, Species and Utilities, Panelist, Society of Environmental Journalists Conference (2010).
The Montana Constitution’s Clean & Healthful Environment Provisions, Panelist, The Honorable James R. Browning Symposium on the Montana Constitution (2010).
Land Use & Water: Focusing on Exempt Wells, Panelist, Montana Watershed Symposium (2010).
Crossing the Bridge: How Students Move From Novice to Professional By Leading Community Workshops, Poster Presentation, AALS National Conference on Clinical Legal Education (2010).
Preparing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, Montana Local Government Workshop Series (2009-2010).
Basics of Montana Water Law, Water Policy Interim Committee, Montana Legislature (2009).
Stream Access Panel, Moderator, The Honorable James R. Browning Symposium on Rural Law (2009).
Using Model Legislation to Integrate Land Use and Water Use Planning at the Community Level, Water Policy Interim Committee, Montana Legislature (2008).
An Immodest Proposal: Tying Land Use and Water Use Planning, Annual New West Conference on Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies (2007).
