法律与科学的交集

What really motivated me to go into environmental law was having a child,“Yesenia学校 (LAW ' 05/M.S. EM ' 06)说.

在申请法学院之前, Villaseñor was environmentally conscientious to a T: using cloth diapers, 坚持食用有机食品. She had an undergraduate degree in Spanish and Latin American studies and thought fleetingly about environmental anthropology, fascinated by indigenous cultures and their study of the environment and medicine.

“But what I was really interested in was changing the laws. 作为一个母亲，我说, ‘How is it possible we have all these toxic chemicals in our food, 水, 日常用品?’”Villaseñor说. On her 2002 application to Chicago-Kent College of Law, 她写, “I feel that the future is one focused on sustainability, and I want to be an actor in that environment.”

现在, 近二十年后, as Tesla’s associate general counsel for environmental 健康 and safety, Villaseñor still spends a lot of time thinking about chemicals.

“我确实感到有一种增长, expansive universe of laws related to chemicals and the products that we use in our everyday life,她说。. “The raw materials, and how are you going to dispose of it at the end? You need to have a background in understanding how it’s made.”

Villaseñor knew that transforming a Latin American studies major into an attorney with a solid base of technical knowledge would take some doing.

She picked Chicago-Kent because of its dual-degree program with Illinois Institute of Technology’s Stuart School of Business, where she received a master’s degree in environmental management and sustainability.

“It really helped me understand the basics of abating environmental contaminants, so I could better understand environmental regulations,她说。. “I know what a scrubber is, and generally speaking, what a waste水 treatment plant looks like.”

“她是一位伟大的环境律师. She knows how to speak the language of both law and science, which is important in the environmental field,莫雷诺说, a former assistant attorney general for the United States Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division during the Obama administration.

“She confers not only with the technical team but also the operational team,莫雷诺补充道。, who is now in private practice as chief executive officer and principal of the iMoreno Group, PLC和Villaseñor合作过. “她想知道这一切是如何运作的, to have an understanding of how all the pieces go together so she can find creative and effective solutions.”

Her first job out of college was as an environmental associate with the firm that is now Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP), doing everything from environmental due diligence and compliance counseling in the areas of air, 水, and waste to responding to government investigations.

在她职业生涯的早期, Villaseñor took a trip to 加州 and, 在回机场的路上, 经过了特斯拉的弗里蒙特, 加州, 工厂.

“That’s my dream, to work there some day,” she told her friend.

From there she worked for a couple years in environmental, 健康, and safety at Caterpillar Inc. 在伊利诺伊州的皮奥里亚. 然后她回到了芝加哥, 她在爱克斯龙公司工作的地方, 支持环保, 健康, and safety practices of several of its business units, including its renewable energy portfolio.

When a job opened up at Tesla in 2018, she says, “By then my background was perfect. 我在制造业工作过, 对于一家能源公司来说, and for 健康 and safety as well as environmental law in private practice.”

从她进入特斯拉开始, she has had to pay particular attention to the quickly evolving regulations governing the relatively new electric vehicle industry and, 特别是, that of battery regulations across the globe. 像特斯拉这样快速发展的公司, ensuring compliance with a patchwork of local, 状态, 联邦, and foreign jurisdictions requires 10 times the homework.

“有很多R&D进入这个领域. Changes are happening, and they’re happening very fast,” Villaseñor says.

Getting back to her focus on chemicals—and those related to batteries—Villaseñor has seen enforcement and regulatory interest skyrocket in recent years as countries and businesses increase their focus on sustainability and that of extended producer responsibility.

Governments and regulators are looking increasingly at the 1992 Basel Convention, analyzing its ability to monitor how different countries handle batteries, 以及这些材料是如何移动的. 欧盟, 学校的笔记, is already working on a specific framework for the regulation of batteries.

她说, “A lot of environmental laws were written for industries that have been in place for decades, 如果不是几百年. I think we’re going to see a big evolution in environmental laws across the world.

“In the end, that’s how this effort at climate change is going to get solved.”

This story appears in the Chicago-Kent College of Law's Spring 2021 校友 Magazine. 要在线阅读整本杂志， 点击此链接. 它也可以继续阅读 Chicago-Kent的网站.